Insight #31 - IPOT & ISPT - 2 Perspectives To Empathy Explained With Real-World Service Examples
A perspective is a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view.
One approach observes and infers how someone feels. This is imagine-other perspective-taking (IOPT). The other way to empathise is to put yourself into someone else's situation, this is imagine-self perspective-taking (ISPT).
IOPT - Imagine-other perspective-taking
is thinking about someone else's feelings, without taking those feelings upon yourself.
translates into imagining the thoughts and emotions of the other person
ISPT - imagine-self perspective-taking
is the traditional 'walking in a mile in someone else's shoes'.
means imagining what one’s own thoughts and emotions would be if one were in the situation of the other person
Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?
At the very heart of a service is the act of creating, crafting and providing solutions. Solutions that are a response to stated or unstated needs. A guest's stated need might be a room to sleep in for the night, but the unstated needs are safety, no disturbance (peace), a comfortable bed, working appliances, water and maybe breakfast in the morning. Every time a guest books a hotel room, she does not need to state these.
If all service is a response to needs, wants or desires, then the ability to read, deduce and understand the needs can be a big differentiator for your business.
Learning to respond to these needs can be innovative and may create whole new categories(think AirBnB, All Day Dining, All Day Breakfast, plunge pools in rooms etc).
Using perspective, both types, you can make this into practice.
Actionable Insights with Real-World Examples
eg 1 - General Manager For A Day Concept or HOD For A Day
One employee / Team Member gets to be the Hotel General Manager or HOD for a day (shadowing)
IOPT - Imagine-other perspective
For the GM/HOD - be open to what the team member feels, pays attention to, asks, spends time on, is enamoured by or in awe of.
For the Team Member who is shadowing - ask questions, watch what the GM/HOD pays attention to, try to understand the rationale behind the decisions.
ISPT - imagine-self perspective
For the GM/HOD - appreciate that your team member may be anxious about the day. Let them know what to expect. Make them comfortable. Listen to their ideas. Let them make an actual decision. Put yourself in their shoes by remembering your early career days.
For the Team Member who is shadowing - appreciate this is a big opportunity, let the GM/HOD know you value it, ask what you can or should not do. Attend a meeting pretending to be the GM or the HOD. Fully immerse yourself into that reality.
See a real-world example of this from Hyatt
eg 2 - Let Reservation/ Sales/ Front Desk team members sleep in the hotel rooms.
They will get first-hand exposure to what a guest feels.
Make sure you give them the following:
A checklist for a proper room check. This becomes feedback for Housekeeping
A list of activities /tasks that guests usually undertake. e.g. charging phones, watching tv, using the shower, ordering food & eating it in the room, switching on / off lights, of course, sleeping in the bed.
If you do this, you will find the following:
Your team now understands why the guests are so angry when they call from the room
Your team will want you to change things in the room. If that cannot be done, they will want you to put better signage.
Your team will give much better room orientations. they will point out things that they assumed were obvious before this experience.
If as a leader you are willing to do this, I would invite you to also let the In-Room Dining / Room Service crew eat in a hotel room. Do this and you will find at least 10 things that need to be changed in your current SOPs and you will find your guest feedback from these services suddenly improving.
When we got a team to sleep in the hotel rooms, immediately, there was a change in the bed making process (the duvet was no longer tucked under the mattress as the team realised one had to wrestle it free at bedtime), water was now kept at the bedside, not on the minibar, a new master switch was added for all lights in the room (the rooms had 7 light switches), extra crockery & cutlery was added for meals. The changes continued for some time.
How To Make This Wow
Not every process needs you or your team to be ISPT (walking in someone else shoes). Most innovation, guest centricity can come from IOPT (thinking about what other's feel).
However, some solutions will only emerge if you truly immerse yourself in your guest's perspective. Wheelchair friendly facilities, allergy concerns, safety & security are among these.
If you truly want to create those amazing solutions, pick one, for example - wheelchair friendly facilities, and live your hotel, restaurant as a wheelchair-bound person. Log your experience, take videos from that POV. The perspective you gain will invaluable. Check out - https://gowheeltheworld.com/ to see how when you get it, you get it.