FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
PEOPLE-CENTRIC
Although the use of tech is integral to the guest services mix, this kind of offering relies heavily on having the human touch to meet, greet and look after employees and guests alike. For this reason, Angelico is intent on recruiting and training the right people to help meet demand.
She says: “It’s around understanding what your clients need and finding the right people to match that culture – love what they do and be their true selves. We’re currently getting some incredible people through from the Arts world, and as they’re used to being on stage and using impro they’re ideally placed to cope with different situations.
“But it’s our approach to training that really makes us stand out; in fact, it’s the most people-centric and collaborative programme in the guest services industry. With it we have created an online platform which is basically a community with training. One of the bugbears of my previous teams was feeling you were limited to the site on which you were based, so instead, here, we’ve created a community online, where we can host videos, ask questions, and especially for those on site by themselves, come together and talk.
“Our training programme uses a learning platform that fuels teamwork by combining collaborative tools with effective features such as feedback loops, peer-based learning and gamification, and because it is all bite size, employees can digest and absorb it fully.”
Guest services is arguably still an evolving part of the FM mix, but according to Angelico, alongside other services such as catering, cleaning and even hard FM, it should take centre stage in FM.
She explains: “We’re predominantly managing the scheduling, the food required for a meeting, the AV required and to ensure the environment is just right, how hot or cold the air con is running.
“We’re often working with hospitality and with security, while allowing for the fact that each client has different requirements around entry. I see guest services as at the very middle – gathering everything together, because most of the time if something goes wrong people go straight to us.”
Looking at the development of the guest services market and for On Verve, the first new front of house brand to be launched for over five years, Angelico predicts the guest services market is growing with a lot of first-generation contracts coming in.
“I’m delighted to be able to create and design something for both now and the future as I don’t have to wipe or change anything from previously, and when clients have issues I am there to fix it.”
She also believes that the idea of reception being the brand ambassador of the client needs to go further: “I think it’s the heartbeat of the organisation, as guest services are the ones gathering the data, understanding what’s going on and feeding that back. It’s an integral part of FM and those who persist in seeing it as a ‘nice to have’ will lose out if they ever want to make their workplace a destination.”
