Page 79 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

are basic, are easy to clean, and require minimal checking: in most
Etaps there are no free soaps, just a soap dispenser in the shower.
The TV remote is bolted to the bed, and there is usually no check on
how many people use the room: there is one chair, one deep shelf
that doubles as a desk, one electrical socket, one fluorescent light,
and fixed coathangers. In other words, there is nothing to steal and
not much to break. It is perfectly possible to stay at an Etap hotel
without seeing another human being, except possibly other guests.
Customer satisfaction is very high—the convenience of being able
to book online or just turn up more than makes up for the lack
of service, and the consistency of cleanliness, room facilities, and
locations (just outside major cities) makes a sharp contrast with
independent hotels that are by their nature variable.

In practice

• Pass as much as possible of the booking system to the consumer

using the internet or automated systems.

• Remove direct human contact—this is where the variability

usually happens.

• Standardize as much as possible in terms of pricing, systems,

and routines.

• Deskill the service so that variability due to skill levels is

removed.

• Standardize the service offering by only having a short “menu.”

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