A LETTER FROM HUMAN EXPERIENCE

“Dear Nominees,

It is that time of year. The event of the year for the hospitality and hotel industry, the AHA (Vic) 2025 State Awards for Excellence.

As the Founder and CEO of Human Experience, I am excited to share some tips as you head into the judging period for the AHA (Vic) 2025 State Awards for Excellence. Look at what you do well, and where to improve. If you entered last year, you would have received your report and feedback from our mystery shoppers. You may have already implemented some changes since you received that report, however if you haven’t, use this time before judging begins to create those changes in your venue.

Create simple and measurable targets for your team. This could be that within the first 30 seconds of a customer walking up to the bar, a team member will make eye contact and acknowledge that they will be with them shortly. Small changes and actions can have bigger impacts on the customer service experience.

Finally, the best piece of advice I can give to you is to go through the criteria for the awards you have nominated in. Read through it all, print it out and share it with your staff. Let them see the criteria of what the mystery shoppers will be assessing. Create a discussion on the criteria areas you know you have covered, and the areas that you need to focus on. The sample reports are available on the AHA (Vic) 2025 State Awards for Excellence website. Use these resources that you have available to you.