Background

Centrally located in Sedona Arizona with awesome red rock views, one can find the Best Western Inn of Sedona. All 110 rooms are available throughout the year for guests to enjoy close proximity to Red Rock State Park, Slide Rock and area shopping. 

The Challenge

Best Western Inn of Sedona�s General Manager, John Tolliver was faced with successfully operating a hotel in a sluggish economy. Not only was the economy suffering but high unemployment and reduced corporate and meeting travel were also factors. 

The Solution

In October of 2002, Best Western International secured an arrangement with Signature, North America�s largest hospitality training company, to deliver reservations and service training to every Best Western hotel in North America and Canada. This arrangement was music to John�s ears for he was ONE of those Best Westerns and this was certainly a Best Western member benefit he planned on taking advantage of. Early in November of 2002, the Best Western Inn of Sedona received on-site training conducted by a Signature Regional Trainer. 

The BestREVTM program was delivered to John and his employees that handled phone calls or walk-ins inquiring about making a reservation. Mr. Tolliver doesn�t believe there is such a thing as a "silver bullet" so he committed to a follow up training program to protect the investment he and his staff had made in the initial day long on-site training. The follow-up training program consists of their Signature Regional Trainer coming back to the Best Western Inn of Sedona three times annually to train new employees and introduce new skills to existing employees. It also includes ten mystery-shopping phone calls per month covering all shifts to measure performance of staff members and unlimited access to Signature coaches to provide personal one-on-one training. Each of the mystery-shopping calls is evaluated on a set of skills taught at the training. Participants in the training can view their shopping evaluations 24 hours a day via the Internet and also have access to hear live recordings of their conversations. 

The Results

Since, November of 2002, the Best Western Inn of Sedona has been receiving monthly training support from Signature. John Tolliver, General Manager feels Signature is a significant contributor to the following results of his hotel�s operations. 
,

,
"Staff morale is excellent. The employees are much more aware of the impact they can have on hotel performance and are much more involved and informed as to how the hotel performs, says John Tolliver, General Manager. Our hotel is out-performing the market. The Sedona market is up 3.3% in room revenue and we are up 14.6%." Hotel room revenue for the Best Western Inn of Sedona was also up by 21%.

An incentive program is tied directly to hotel profit performance for employees of the Best Western Inn of Sedona. Yield management meetings are held weekly with the General Manager, Front Office Manager and Director of Sales attending and contributing to the strategies and tactics. They use a simple format addressing the basic questions of "where are they?, what�s working?, can they do anything better?" John stated, "Incentives paid YTD are also up 61%."

About Signature
Signature is a recognized leader in providing business-building and training solutions that maximize revenue for clients.  It currently serves over 5000 clients worldwide and offers one-of-a-kind reinforcement programs that guarantee success.  The company has a field-based training network expanding throughout the world with a centralized call center.  Signature was established in 1986, is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, employs more than 250 and has licensees in Brazil, Uruguay, and Greece.  For more information visit the web site at www.legendary.net or call 1-800-398-0518.

More About Signature, Inc.