“It doesn’t matter with which industry you are involved, if I tested your staff right now, to see if they could each properly handle a complaint or negative client, less than 30% will succeed. After our training, more than 90% will be adept at turning negatively-charged people into positively-charged repeat customers. The result in revenue increase over time is dramatic.”
Benefits of Effective Communication Training in Hospitality
Business communication training companies across the globe are failing to make a significant and lasting change because they are still using antiquated methods. Most use soft terms such as, “Care more…”, or “Have a good attitude…”, Some discuss the exact attributes of successful business folk. However, we are unique and our effect is much more sustainable due to our exact techniques and methodology.
We teach every staff member the exact steps to take in order to succeed in each situation. We have them all rehearse these steps simultaneously, switching partners and repeating techniques until everyone in the class proves they have not just learned but have actively mastered each method. Organizations cannot afford to continue to operate with a known lack of their staff’s ability to handle the most important and delicate situations which make or break business minute by minute.
When there is a Lack of Communication Skills:
- Low Staff Morale
- Lack of Trust in Leadership
- Diminished Productivity
- Client/Customer Attrition
- Customer Experience Suffers
- Employee Turnover
- Damaged Brand Reputation
- Loss of Revenue
- Communication Breakdowns
Program Outcomes:
- Improved guest experience
- Delegating and Empowering Team Members
- Staff wide communication agreements
- Improved Workplace Culture
- Establish uniform formality in staff behavior
- Empower each staff member with a proven method for “Flipping” complaining guests, co-workers or supervisors from negative to positive; from complaining to happy
- Engaging veteran and union team members by sharing a simple concept that make their lives easier and more fulfilling
- More inclusive culture
- Enhanced Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
Program Overview
- Sessions are experiential. Participants engage in a series of exercises that encourage them to interact and learn from the experience.
- Sessions will be designed to specifically address skills that help staff and leaders get the most out of their time & abilities, and to maximize the productivity and results of their interactions with customers and each other..
- They’ll be equipped to communicate on higher levels, be more agile, and connect human terms, with the end g oal of making every conversation count.
- After each exercise, facilitators draw out discoveries, challenges and real-world applications specific to the participants and their work.
- These sessions are designed for small or large groups, and can be scaled between 2.5 hours and 2 days. If training a large staff, we can scales to train all members over a period of time and cadence based on your needs.
Our typical programs run from a half day to a full day or even multiple days depending on the size of your staff. We take participants through improv and experiential based exercises in pairs or small groups highlighting the common pitfalls of bad communication creating awareness around what “not to do”. When people can experience in real time using a learn by doing model, they can understand why interpersonal skills are so vital in today’s hospitality environment. In this session, we will take participants through scenarios that align with their true day t o day and apply improvisational techniques allowing them to practice and learn alternative ways to interact with each other and customers. Relevant concepts covered include:
- Critical Thinking
- First Impressions
- Civility and Respect
- Giving/Receiving Feedback
- Stress and Time Management
- Active Listening
- Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication
- Empathy
- Adaptability and Resilience
- Interpersonal Skills
- Problem Solving
Proven Methodology (What’s makes us different?)
David Webster and Kristy West bring decades of experience not only performing and teaching improvisation but also applying the methodology to help corporate clients solve big business problems. The skill of improvisation is unique to training and business environments. If there was ever a time for people in business to learn the skill of improvisation, it is now. Soft skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills and human skills are critical in today’s ever-evolving, tech driven business climate. Creating a brave space where people learn how to respond & interact in the moments you cannot prepare for, are basically our superpowers, and no other training can execute this kind of person to person experience. We have exact methods, not rhetorical information.
Keynote or Interactive Keynote - Our keynotes are much like our workshops, only executed for larger audiences and usually from a stage. We take your preferred themes and objectives and design a customized program whereby participants are fully engaged in doing exercises in pairs or in small groups from their seats. We involve the audience in discussions and debriefs to unpack valuable takeaways they can apply to their work immediately. Our Facilitators are seasoned improv actors providing live demos and custom scenes to engage, entertain and highlight the learning. Think of this option as learning meets performance. We can skip the interaction/improv piece and design as a traditional keynote as well.
Staff Training Sessions - This is where the real fun begins as we teach the entire staff with a facilitator led live learning. By leading highly-participatory “Mastering Hospitality Communication” workshops with mixed department groups we are able to effectively train every staff member on the concepts most vital to your needs. These trainings are customized, based on client input and objectives. See list of workshop themes*
Live Hospitality -Themed Improv Show - Our veteran improv actors perform on stages all over the US and Globally. We take your event themes, objectives, team dynamic, and culture to create a customized improv comedy show. Our team gathers all the applicable content and creates a script and scene set-ups using what is true for you and your company. It is highly interactive and can feature audience involvement if you wish. Shows typically last 30-60 minutes and feature 4-6 Actors with musical accompaniment by request.
Program Options
Secret Shopper/Undercover Boss - The secret shopping element is recommended to illuminate the reality of guest experience beyond what your team thinks it is. Training can be designed to resolve the exact and specific issues discovered in secret shopping by meeting with leadership. By spending time on the property engaging with many services and departments to see and feel what the experience is truly like for the guest, we can design a program addressing challenges and skill building opportunities. By going in “undercover”, we unearth many real-work culture truths that might otherwise go unaddressed.
Modern Leadership Techniques - We want to empower leaders to be the positive coaches of the staff’s newly learned skills after the training is complete, and this means we spend extra time training the leaders. Research shows that when leaders support training and lead by example, employees are quicker to adapt new behaviors and feel supported. We want to equip leaders with the tools they need to enforce new skills and shifts in culture.
Concept without Conflict-Productive Brainstorming - Whether you are brainstorming a new concept or planning for the future, when teams need to generate a lot of ideas and land on the best ones, improvisation is an excellent tool for any creative concepting or brainstorming session. We help set the tone through collaboration techniques priming the team for creativity and innovation to flow with no restraints. When ideas resonate, we can use improvisation to expand and act out these ideas on stage giving them legs so you can see what works best. We can help run the process from start to finish!
● Creating a Collaborative Culture
● Lead a Meeting Like a Pro
● Diversity and Inclusion
● Flipping a Negative Customer to a Repeat Guest
● Leading a Multi-Generational Workforce
Keynote & Workshop Themes
● Mastering Communication Skills for Hospitality
● Leadership Agility
● Guest Service in the Age of The Customer
● Empathy, Adaptability and Resilience
● Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
● Active Listening for Hospitality
Our Clients
Coaching - We offer post-training sustainability through one on one coaching calls post training based on client’s request.
Peer Accountability Program - We can create peer accountability by pairing up participants or assigning groups who have are assigned milestones or task to complete by a due date when they meet with their assigned partners. We draft the deliverables based on the training concepts covered.
Webster’s 100 Day Challenge - This is fun, trust us!
Sustain It
Follow Up - Our training is not a one off. Once you engage with us, we will continue to connect and return within 3-6 month for a follow up and conduct an annual maintenance evaluation/program.
Internal Incentive Program - We work with you to create post training incentivized activities where staff hits designated milestones and reports back via short videos that can be posted on your internal systems for communicating across the team. We draft the assignments based on training concepts covered.
“Our Ladies and Gentlemen truly enjoyed the sessions! They were well energized and excited to test out their new “tricks.” We are anxiously awaiting our next set of scores to see the payoff of the training manifest in the experiences of our guest. Again, thank you for the follow up and I promise to keep you posted on the next set of results.”
“David, thanks for a great “event” Tuesday, everyone was impressed. I am “getting dressed twice” now everyday. Thanks again, and great to see you again!”
“Hi David, I thoroughly enjoyed your program. I am energized and inspired! I did debrief with our Executive Team regarding my experience, and will commence walking the talk so to speak. I recognize that happy employees, make happy guests, and more money for the property. So at every opportunity I will try to share what I have learned.”
David Webster
Emmy award-winning film and television director and VHTA award-winning motivational speaker/communication instructor has been proud to present his game-changing programs for many large corporations and high-end hospitality enterprises.
Mr. Webster is the author of “How to change someone’s mind.” His thirty-year study of person-to-person communication patterns has allowed him to recognize what we must do in order to positively guide another person’s energy and thoughts in conversation.
From owners to upper management, supervisors to staff, or staff to clients, David Webster can teach the steps of “Positive Persuasion” to anyone who is willing to listen to his very powerful and entertaining speeches or take his hilariously fun communication workshops.
He can improve the behavior patterns of an entire staff. The glue that holds a team together is the feeling between them and no one can show you, like Mr. Webster can, that this is a manageable element of business.
David’s Work in Action
Kristy West
Kristy West is a Certified Applied Improv Practitioner, Speaker, and Founder of BraveSpace. She has been studying, performing and teaching improv for almost two decades. Along with her improv experience, Kristy spent over 15 years in B2B Sales and Corporate Training. She blends her unique experience in improvisational comedy and business to help teams and individuals practice critical skills needed in today’s ever-evolving, tech-driven, and often chaotic business climate.