Just thinking how difficult it is now, to work with my current boss. I guess the longer you stay with someone, the more you see their flaws and as they say, familiarity breeds contempt.
As an event planner, I believe in mutual respect with the clients. Yes, they are the customers, but we should also set boundaries on how far we can go. I make myself clear from the upfront that whatever I can do for you, I will do my best. But don’t expect the impossible from me. I think that is a reasonable boundary, and as much as I am flawed, I try to find the balance between pleasing the clients and not burning out my operations team. I’m not always successful but that is my intention and that is how I work.
Now I realize why doing groups confirmed by my boss is sooooooo difficult. She comes in the messes up my system. Whatever I hold back from the client because of costs issues or because my poor staff are overworked, she gives it to them, they asks and she says yes. The clients are not stupid, once they see that someone in the hotel can be “used” they will go to that person for good. So I lose control of the situation and I cannot control the clients anymore. In the end they don’t come to me to ask for things, they just go to my boss, and the wonderful news is, who does my boss turn to to make things happen? Me.
Seriously, if you want to do events, then come and do it fully. Don’t just close the deal, say you hand it over, and come and mess my work up because you want to “curry-favour” the clients. I know you are Sales, your job is to do that, but once the deal is closed, hand it over properly. And then you make it seem like it’s my fault the client keeps bothering you when they are on-site. If you had handed over the group to me to control, they wouldn’t need to bother you at all. And I refuse to bow down to every whims of the clients. I am in operations too, I need to consider costs and do-ability. Don’t go promise things that we don’t have and then expect me to work miracles. Whatever I can do, I will do my best, I reiterate.
So if this is how you want to work, I step aside then, let you take control. Let them call you for everything. After all, they already know that you will say yes to everything. That is not how mutual respect work. I need the clients to understand my point of view too, we are all humans. Do you know because of you, the staff has to go back after midnight everyday and come to work at 6 am? Do you know because of you, my staff has to change a meeting room 3 times in 1 day? And what do we get in return, a pissed-off look from the clients because we couldn’t turn the room fast enough. Try moving a room for 60 people within half an hour and have everything setup – mints, water, writing pen and paper. Just try.
I don’t have any issues with groups confirmed by my 2 sales people off-site. And not to say that the groups I did in its entirety leave pissed off. In fact, they are the ones asking to return and making enquiries for future events. But those for whom I got the poorest reviews are those you came in to meddle with. They get pissed that I cannot deliver the stars that you promised. Is this my fault?
And most of all, I don’t understand your sales tactics. Your version of closing a deal is to drop the rates and throw in all the freebies. The other sales people’s tactic is to sell the product – raise awareness, state the advantages of the hotel, basically sell the idea instead of dropping the rates only. That is what I thought sales is. To make the product so WOW that clients want a piece of it, not to cheapen the product so that clients think it’s not a big deal if they bought it or not.
Which is why everyone is so pissed off with this group now, cos they knew they had a better group for less work and at twice the revenue. But you wanted this to make your own production budget. You undercut the Asst Director because you are director and made the decision that your group gets priority even though it meant lower revenue and more work. So this is how it works.
And I have decided, that the next group you meddle with, you can handle it all on your own.
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