Case StudiesGive 'em the Pickle  

Hotel Chain Relishes Greater Customer Satisfaction as Pickle Mania Spreads

MEDIA PARTNERS' GIVE 'EM THE PICKLE TRAINING LAUNCHES NEW SERVICE-FOCUSED CULTURE

By Michelle Eby

Employees at the Westmark Hotels, owned by Holland America Line, have given new meaning to “customer service,” in fact, they’ve given it a whole new name: “Pickle Service.”

Forget your stroller? No problem. An employee loans you hers. That’s an example of Pickle Service at the Anchorage Westmark.

Are you without clean clothes for your evening outing? No problem. An employee takes your laundry and does it for you. That’s Pickle Service at the Juneau property.

Are you a military veteran? Dining room employees offer their sincere appreciation and thanks for your service. That’s Pickle Service at the Tok property.

Pickle Service is all about exceeding the customer’s expectations.  Taken from the Media Partners training program called Give 'Em the Pickle, the pickle philosophy has changed the way Westmark employees think about their jobs and each other.  

According to Cheryl Waale, manager of Leadership Development at Holland America Line who introduced Give ‘em the Pickle to the staff, the fun and simple customer service message outlined in Give ‘Em the Pickle has become the company’s service philosophy.  “It’s been fun watching it happen,” she said. “It started with the video. Now, there’s a whole pickle vocabulary,” said Waale, also known as the Pickle Lady. “It’s become the culture at Westmark. I just planted the seeds and it grew.”

TRAINING PROGRAM LAUNCHES NEW SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

Waale credits the training program for getting things started. “One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Media Partners is that their videos are entertaining and educational. They’re fun.” And, Give ‘Em the Pickle is no exception. Waale explained that she has seen the video dozens of times during training meetings. “I never walk out of the room during the video because I like to watch the employees’ reactions. They love it,” she said.

The video features Bob Farrell, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, who talks about a letter he received from one of his restaurant patrons complaining that a server wanted to charge him for a side order when he asked for an extra pickle. “Give ‘em the pickle” became his customer service mantra for more than 30 years in business. According to Farrell, every business has pickles to give and the Westmark employees have made it their business to give and receive pickles on a daily basis.

RECOGNITION PROGRAM REINFORCES TRAINING MESSAGE

But, how does a 1-hour training program about giving away pickles turn into pickle mania? At the Westmark hotels, pickle mania began with an employee recognition program that supports the training message. Like the video, the recognition program is simple and fun. In fact, according to Waale, there are only two rules: employees must go through Give ‘Em the Pickle training and property managers must follow the requirements for awarding the company’s coveted golden pickle pin.

“The executive team in Seattle wanted to create an employee recognition program that could be driven by the Westmark employees. Corporate doesn’t run the program; the pickle teams do,” Waale said. Every property has a Pickle team to review the validity of the pickle recognition cards (five of which earn the employee a golden pickle pin from corporate) and to determine whether the customer service behavior being recognized is truly a pickle.

EXECS CREDIT PICKLE SERVICE FOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SCORES

At the pre-season meeting in April,  Waale said property managers were “grousing about the company’s goal to increase overall customer satisfaction by .02 percent.”  Waale added that managers already believed the service goals were too high and too difficult to achieve.

At that time, Steve Leonard, vice president, Westmark Hotels (aka the Grand Gherkin), talked about the customer and the employee, said Waale. “He supported a culture of doing the right thing for the guest.  He supported the Pickle message. And he wanted us to start having fun,“ she added. “That’s when we implemented Give ‘Em the Pickle and created the recognition program.

According to Leonard, a Westmark property in Tok, Alaska, exemplifies the power of the company’s pickle philosophy. Although forest fires ravaged the area, the number of customer satisfaction comments on the cruise comment cards for Tok guests was unusually high. “The manager there is fantastic,” said Leonard. “He embraced the idea of giving the customer the pickle and his staff did too.”   The hotel staff recognizes military veterans, awards t-shirts to the chosen pickle guest of the day, and often passes around clown noses, hats, and wigs for a day of clowning around. “The whole idea is to make the job fun for the employees and the stay fun for the guests,” said Leonard. “If the staff has fun, the guests will have fun too.”  If it weren’t for the fires, the property would probably have experienced an overall customer satisfaction increase of .03 to .04, which is highly significant,” he said.   Even with the fires, all but two properties maintained or increased their service scores.

GIVE 'EM THE PICKLE FOSTERS TEAMWORK AND INCREASED MORALE

But, the Tok property isn’t the only one to embrace pickling as a way of doing business.

According to Waale, a couple of years ago the front-of-the-house employees – those who interact directly with guest – and the back-of-the-house employees – those who support the guest experience, like housekeeping and catering, for example, felt divided. Give ‘Em the Pickle changed all that, she said, adding that employees now recognize that all their efforts affect the guest experience and employees recognize one another for pickle behaviors toward co-workers as well.

Since the training and employee recognition program began almost 2 years ago, Leonard estimates that almost 400 employees have received golden pickle pins, that’s equivalent to over 2,000 examples of Pickle Service!  Leonard’s manager of hotel planning, King Jones (aka The Planning Pickle), and manager of central reservations, Sharon Lloyd (aka Sweet Pickle of Central Reservations), believe the pickle culture works because it is simple and fun. “The video caught everyone’s attention, starting with the name. It’s just fun,” said Jones. “It’s fun but the training works because it seems to give employees a chance to go out of their way for their guests and for each other,” Lloyd said.

Although the company only measures cruise guest satisfaction, Leonard said he is confident the program has also brought together the front-of-the-house and the back-of-the-house employees and improved employee morale.  “I know turnover was significantly lower last summer,” said Leonard.  “Give ‘Em the Pickle works. We will continue to use the training program and we will continue to recognize employees for going out of their way for the guest and each other,” said Leonard.

Leonard also explained that property managers would continue to have the autonomy to do the right thing for the guest and the employee. Managers can set up their own rewards and programs as long as they follow the company’s two rules, explained Leonard. “If it’s their idea they’ll kill themselves to make it work,” he said. “If it’s a corporate program, they’ll kill themselves to make sure it doesn’t work. This works because we support the managers,” he said.

Managers receive money from corporate each month to put toward the recognition program and to reward employees.  And, at the end of the season, general managers can nominate three employees who have received a golden pickle to be part of a drawing to win a Holland America Line cruise. Last season’s winner is looking forward to a Caribbean cruise. Leonard said he’s already thinking about this season, wondering what examples of Pickle Service he’ll learn about and who might win the next cruise.

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