🚀Cassidy Hospitality Group Case Study
The Journey in Transforming Customer Experience through Leadership and Performance
Background:
Cassidy Hospitality Group, a dynamic and fast-paced organisation, has been a pioneering force in the Fermanagh hospitality scene for many years. Rooted in entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, the company has experienced significant growth and transformation since its inception. Guided by the visionary leadership of directors Nicky and Gavin Cassidy, along with Commercial Director Regina Jones and Director of Hospitality Martin Daly, the dedicated teams across the three businesses—Westville Hotel, Firehouse Restaurant, and Crowes Nest—consistently strive for excellence.
In 2023, despite strong revenue performance, Cassidy Hospitality Group identified several ongoing challenges, including:
Employee recruitment and retention
Cost management in the face of rising expenses
Customer experience issues
Limited management accountability for opertional improvements
Innovate and Inspire Hospitality Managers Training Programme:
To support their journey of change, Cassidy Hospitality Group engaged Nora Douds of Podd Consulting to develop and deliver the "Innovate and Inspire Hospitality Manager's Training Programme."
Key Goals:
Leadership Development: Upskill management teams to inspire employees toward excellence
Profitability: Achieve improved business performance through focused financial management
Service Standards: Enhance service and hospitality by always prioritising the customer
Communication: Develop a group-wide culture of feedback and accountability to ensure business success
Innovation: Create a culture of continual improvement through new ways of working
Employer of Choice: Enhance the employee experience to attract and retain talent, ensuring strong succession planning
Learning and Talent Development: Upskill new and current employees to boost engagement, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and improve overall business performance
Digital Innovation: Implement new software to streamline recruitment and use online resources to enhance learning and development
Our Strategic Approach:
Employee Insight Drive: We started with an employee survey to understand engagement levels and identify talent development needs across the group. Understanding the team's aspirations was the first step towards creating a thriving work environment.
Customer-Focus Analysis: We analysed customer online reviews from the past twelve months. This deep dive into guest feedback helped to guide the strategy for improving the customer experiences across the group.
Key People Conversations: Connecting with key stakeholders allowed us to gain invaluable insights into the challenges faced by the group, at every level.
Leadership and Self-Awareness Workshop: The first workshop focused on understanding leadership and developing self-awareness. Strong leadership begins with a deep understanding of oneself.
High-Performance Team Development: A second workshop honed in on developing high-performance teams and effective team leadership. Because exceptional leaders build exceptional teams.
Financial Acumen Training: Recognising the importance of financial management, we conducted a third workshop to impart basic financial understanding, emphasising good cost controls and business leadership.
Project Group Initiatives: To empower the management teams further, we established project groups to develop four key internal training interventions. These initiatives focused on Setting Standards: Reviewing Standard Operating Procedures; The CX: Customer Service Training; Turnaround Moments: Complaint Handling Training; Upselling for Success: Empowering the Team to Sell
Road Map to Success: Together, we developed a robust action plan with key targets, including financial goals, employee engagement benchmarks, and customer satisfaction ratings. This plan serves as a road map to success, supporting the teams to achieve their goals.
Throughout the programme, managers were encouraged to set their own priorities, such as developing a stable and engaged workforce through on-the-job training and ensuring good succession planning. The focus was on enhancing team satisfaction, maintaining consistent standards, and using online review scores to track customer satisfaction. Managers were also encouraged to take pride in themselves and their abilities, as well as in the company, while contributing to its success through their own ideas for business development and performance improvements.
The Results:
The results were impressive:
📈 With a sharper focus on financial understanding and good business leadership, overall profitability increased by 10-12% year on year, thanks to improved cost management
📈 Customer satisfaction scores rose by 3.3% across all three hospitality businesses within an eight month period
🖥️ Four new internal training workshops were developed, presented to directors, and rolled out across the group
👩💼More future focused leadership with the introduction of monthly management meetings, where managers present business results and ideas for development to the Board of Directors demonstrating increased accountability and more proactive problem-solving
💡 Streamlined onboarding and training processes led to reduced staff turnover, resulting in a more engaged and motivated workforce, helping to establish the company’s reputation as a top hospitality employer
🌟 Increased confidence and communication within both management and teams which has lead to more streamlined operations and better customer experiences
🎯 Management teams can now measure their own team success with a stronger focus on achieving business KPIs, including sales revenue and cost budgets aligned to company targets
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