JW Marriott Hotels and Resorts is turning to an unexpected dance partner to help improve its employee training, and, by extension, its customer service: the Joffrey Ballet.
Starting Saturday, employees throughout the luxury hotel chain’s properties will get tips from Joffrey dancers as well as its artistic director on the importance of warming up, proper breathing, flow of movement and connecting with the audience, delivered through a series of four short videos. The aim is to improve guests’ experience.
“Proper breathing; working through tight spaces; how you connect with an audience are the items we really capture in the videos that can apply to associates from servers to housekeepers to a bellman,” said Mitzi Gaskins, vice president and global brand manager for JW Marriott Hotels and Resorts at Marriott International.
The program, dubbed Poise & Grace, is an outgrowth of a 2-year-old partnership that began when the JW Marriott’s Loop location began working with the dance company on events. A “Nutcracker”-themed hot chocolate serving, for example, featured several ballet dancers to heighten the guest experience.
Both sides reap benefits, the partners said.
“It extends the Joffrey’s brand and provides important visibility nationally and internationally,” the ballet company said in a statement. JW Marriott Chicago, which provides complimentary rooms for visiting dancers and choreographers, also can promote a relationship that appeals to customers for whom culture is a big selling point.
The videos, which feature Joffrey Artistic Director Ashley Wheater, will be played during daily shift briefings, and they can be viewed through a smartphone and tablet app for employees.
Some segments were filmed at the JW Marriott Chicago and feature several dozen employees, recognizing the hotel’s consistently high scores in customer satisfaction.
Laura Burmeister, guest experience supervisor at the Chicago hotel, at 151 W. Adams St., said she already sees a difference in the way employees navigate the crowded lobby lounge bar.
In other changes, housekeepers at the hotel now use two hands to present towels to guests, and front desk staffers come from behind the counter to place room keys in the hands of guests rather than passing them over the counter, she said.
“It definitely has made me much more aware of my posture and the way you carry yourself in busier times,” Burmeister said. “In the face, there’s more calmness, even though your mind might be racing. It’s exhibiting that grace.”
Marriott guests, she said, like to see a certain level of luxury and attention to detail from employees who also might be working under some “potentially hectic circumstances.”
