Paul Westbrook believes that “Life should be about finding the intersection of the world’s greatest need and your greatest passion.”
As that’s not too far from our own views here at Wolff Olins, we were excited to have him join us at last week’s Share to talk about his new business offer, Westbrook Consulting.
After spending 27 years working for The Ritz-Carlton, Westbrook recently “retired” to start his own consulting business focused on customer service development and delivery. In this new venture, Westbrook draws from his experience at The Ritz-Carlton to help brands outside of the hospitality industry deliver top-of-the-line service to their customers.
Westbrook’s goal is to work with companies that want to differentiate themselves based on service. After determining that a company is interested in creating this meaningful service experience, he helps them evaluate their strategic plan, gives advice on how to tweak it to fulfill their mission, assists in training and development of the plan, and finally provides metrics to measure the success.
We wish him best of luck with his latest project and look forward to working together in the future!
I recently received a text message from my unnamed Middle Eastern mobile phone provider. There wasn’t anything particularly strange in this, even though when I signed up I ticked the box that said ‘no’ to the question; ‘can we solicit you with SMS messages from our partners or ourselves from time to time’. They still find it ok to send me unannounced text messages at all hours of the day and night.
If not listening to my preferences wasn’t bad enough, this particular brand has decided that it now wants to behave as my friend, only in a way that screams ‘trying too hard’. Firstly I don’t want brands to talk to me as a friend, I want them to be useful and relevant. Yes, I want them to understand me but I don’t want them to speak as if we had just shared an intimate Shawarma under the bustling glow of Dubai at night.
Brands in the Middle East need to work at better understanding customers, rather than pushing services and speaking to them in a way which is not creating relevance. Open better dialogue with customers, get under the skin of what makes them tick and grow a relationship on a level that is acceptable for both parties. Then those very brands can think about how innovation will make that relationship more prosperous rather than inundating them with old, tired and non-relevant product and messaging.
‘Useful’ and not ‘my friend’ would be a great anchor point for Middle Eastern brands to start focusing on how better to fit into customer’s lives.
Sometimes little attentions make a huge difference.
I had dinner at Fig & Olive in NYC last night and the restaurant was hosting a get together for professionals. Fig & Olive is usually a pretty quiet place, but last night it was crowded with people chatting and mingling. My friend and I could barely hear each other.
The restaurant general manager called me personally the day after to apologize for the noise. A nice gesture, symbol of great service and care for guests. I believe the time the restaurant general manager spent on calling guests made up for any advertising campaign he could have invested in.
Fig & Olive is a great example of a brand that delivers on a better reality for their guests, in a simple way.
