NACCM 2010: Customer-Centric Leadership: Sun International Hotels Gears Up for the World Cup

Presented by: Ica van Eeden, SUN INTERNATIONAL (PTY) LTD HOTEL GROUP

What does customer management mean? Identify and undsteradn what they really want and look at what your business really is. They need to have a good business strategy with balance.

Manage five things for their customers:
1) Perceptions
2) Interactions
3) Experiences
4) Relationships

They had to unite their brands under across many different cultures. They chose to use CHarleze Theron as a brand ambassador, as she represented many of the ideals of South Africa. They then created a strategy to communicate their new vision across their properties world wide. How did they implement this? They started in one hotel then moved to many others. Their projects just continued into the World Cup.

How do you deliver an experience? Map out all customer touch points. The Middle Manager became the coach. They coached the employees as to their new goals and initiatives. They created videos that showcased the bad experience then the good experience and discussed the attitudes between the two.

She challenged all Middle Managers, and explained that they were the customer service and they had to lead by action.