A Day in the
Life of a SMERFE Sales Manager
by Amber
Lee
I stayed late as I promised the coordinators of my military
convention. Tonight was their meet & greet. I enjoy
stopping at the tables during their banquet to give them a
personal welcome. I've learned to take a pad and paper with me
so I can write down what they may need....more hand towels, my
remote doesn't work, my key card won't work, etc........ Oh my,
dare I ask.
They were the loudest military group and liveliest. Most of
the males headed right for the bar after check-in. Not even the
coordinator expected that. Navy fellows, they like their
beverages. Overall they are very happy and I saw a lot of
smiling faces - some red from too much alcohol....lol.
After I finished my notes, I went to the desk and contacted
everyone who could correct their problem and asked them to do
it. I can't leave until I know that everyone has been taken
care of. When I finally left, a group of men were hanging out
in front of the hotel and for some reason they decided to show
me all of their tattoo's....oh, thank you, just want I wanted
to see after a 12 hour day.
I heard the Opera System was awesome but I'm not seeing
that. I'm not sure what happened....with the software, training
- is it our fault, is it there's. Something isn't right and I
have seen nothing but problems everyday, wasting every one's
time. Rate codes missing, groups missing or being coded
incorrectly, incorrect preferred rates. So many rate issues and
I hear people complaining about their rate everyday at the
desk. Our staff doesn't even seem sincere about it either.
If you booked your hotel room at $100 and have PRINTED
confirmation, then you check out and the room rate was $150 -
you would be pretty angry. You would be angry as a guest
because my front desk would do nothing about it but stand there
and look stupid and argue that they will adjust nothing off.
Boy, I'm Italian and Irish and if you get me going, good luck!
By the time I'm done I would have paid nothing.
Let's apologize and correct the problem. We are turning off
people everyday who can drive 2 seconds away and stay at
another hotel. Why would they come back? Not to mention that
complaints that are coming through from our Franchiser and
additional charges we get from having too many complaints. Our
franchise scores have dropped and we just made an "A". Not
anymore. Someone has to fix this.
Next week we are in training all week for the Opera PMS
Catering and Sales Program. Oh goody.
Good luck selling tomorrow!
Amber Lee is currently working as a SMERFE Sales Manager at
a big city airport hotel. See more of Ambers Hotel Sales
Managers Tips and Helpful Hints on her website at The Hotel Sales Managers Network
Alliance
http://www.hotelsalesmanager.com
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