Boeing's top meeting planner laughs at attempts by hotels to win her loyalty with free Krispy Kremes. Another veteran planner describes being dumped by her household-name company after 13 years. And a dot-com insider disses 18-year-olds for disloyalty.
Loyalty has many facets - personal, economic, altruistic, self-serving. Recently Successful Meetings' exclusive roundtable examined loyal feelings in a softening economy, and debated whether - with all the downsizings taking place - loyalty even matters anymore. Let's listen in . . .
SM: What is loyalty?
Robert Cima (regional vice president & general manager, Four Seasons, Philadelphia): It's trustworthiness. All sound business decisions are based on loyalty.
Penny Chen Lawless (manager, group and meeting travel, US Airways): I think the definition of loyalty is stability, longevity, consistency with relationships.
Pat Stemple (president, Society of Corporate Meeting Professionals): Just recently I've had to think about it a lot. And I've kind of adjusted my thoughts. In the future, my loyalty will come more from inside of me. It will be demonstrated in my own work, not thinking about "I have to be with this company until I retire."
Steven Koltai (founder, chairman, and CEO, Event411): To me, loyalty is something you feel to people, not to institutions. It's a very personal thing. It's about the specific people.
SM: Let's look at loyalty first from the perspective of the employer/employee relationship. Pat, could you talk about your recent layoff at the Kellogg Company?
Stemple: You hear horror stories about layoffs and this was a textbook case - it took me totally by surprise. I had been with them 13 years, and had just come back from 19 days in the hospital. I came back to work and got called into the boss' office . . . I had an opportunity to stay, I took that opportunity, [but] two days later they changed their minds. Human Resources escorted me everywhere after that . . . It's business that drives these decisions now. It's unemotional. It's cutthroat. It's driven by the dollar, and people tend to get pushed aside.
Sheryl Sookman (president, The MeetingConnection): If a company handles the decision of the layoff in a way that's sensitive to the employees, I think [workers] understand the business decision involved . . . The layoff is going to happen, but you can leave feeling somewhat decent about the company based on how they handled [it].
SM: We've got some information about the generational split on loyalty - 25- to 34-year-olds stay with the same company for 2.6 years, while 45- to 54-year-olds stick around for 8.2 years.
Koltai: Working in an industry where I'm at least twice as old as my average employee, I really think older people are more loyal. It's one of those life lessons that what goes around comes around. I don't think young people really understand [that].
Cristyne Lategano-Nicholas (president, NYC & Company): We have several young people working for us, and I understand where they're coming from. They'll come to me for a new position and there might not be one available . . . so they'll go into the private sector and get a $10,000 raise by switching jobs. But then they may come back because they believe in what we stand for. I'm not too concerned with young people jumping around. It's just how it is in today's climate.
SM: Planners, imagine you have a long-term relationship with a hotel salesperson. One day, your boss insists you book with his buddy at another hotel. Is this an ethical dilemma?
Arlene Sheff (senior meeting and event planner, Boeing): In our company it would definitely be. We have signs all over the walls: "There are no gray issues. They're all white or black." Salespeople sometimes go over the planner's head and that's one of my big pet peeves.
Sookman: I think it's the responsibility of the planner to ask, in as sensitive a way as you can, given that it's your boss, does this really make sense for the needs of that program? Hopefully, it's the better perspective that will be taken, [and he'll see] that the property you would have chosen is the right one. There are emotional factors that come into play, but you really need to ask, whatever the property is, is it the best for the program?
SM: Is it inevitable that a buyer-seller relationship based on loyalty will run its course? If an event outgrows its long-time venue and has to look elsewhere, is that the end of loyalty?
Cima: I don't think so. If we can't service the group today, there's a good possibility the board of directors may come back at a later point.
Richard Yaeger (director of sales & marketing, Holiday Inn Wall Street): There is great respect gained by being able to help a group when you've agreed that your venue isn't big enough anymore. It shows great integrity, and it will always come back to you.
Sookman: From a planner's perspective, we know that there are points where our programs are going to change . . . [But] if the property has really treated you well, something - another, smaller meeting - will cycle through at a later date that you can bring back to the hotel.
SM: When it comes down to price versus a longtime relationship, which wins?
Cima: The relationship. You do business with people you like to do business with. How many people go back to the same person who cuts their hair every time? If they do a good job, you feel good about it, and price is probably secondary.
Stemple: My preference in doing business is to be very casual and honest. If the planner has a budget, the first thing out of their mouth to the sales side should be, "Here's the money I've got to work with. Now let's make the meeting a creative piece of work." Sometimes you get the sense from the salesperson that they're dancing around the issues, instead of saying, "I can't do this, but I can do this."
Larry Lynch (director of business development, Disney Institute): Loyalty doesn't mean 100 percent of the business 100 percent of the time. You hope that because of your relationship with someone, the strength of the brand, their first phone call is going to be to you.
Lawless: The meetings industry is unique in that it is built upon relationships and loyalty - more so than in other segments of the marketplace. Certainly, we do take into consideration the competitive nature of the marketplace in working with meeting planners, and we evaluate the relationship as well. Our decisions are based on a combination of marketplace dynamics and customer relationships.
SM: What happens to buyer/seller loyalty when the economy softens?
Reint Reinders (president, San Diego CVB): Loyalty always has its place. If you understand your customers and have a strong relationship, you can overcome these short-term economic problems. And from a CVB's point of view, it's an advantage, 'cause we represent the whole spectrum of hotels and budgets. Our customers are looking to bureaus to help them during this period.
Lategano-Nicholas: In New York last year, the hotels wouldn't give us the room blocks we needed to attract meetings and conventions. Now they're saying, "We know we weren't there for you in 2000, but now we need you to find us meetings." This stuff all goes in cycles and I know, when it turns around again, they'll go to the individual able to spend $500 a night for a hotel room. But right now, [the softer economy] is a benefit to us. It's also a wake-up call for everybody to work a little more closely together.
Stemple: Your relationship with people has to kick in . . . For example, I had a salesperson in Orlando I dealt with a lot, who left Orlando and went to a hotel in Chicago we do a lot of business with. I thought, "This is a win-win," but suddenly, we were having to renegotiate everything with this property that we'd been doing business with for years. It made no sense. So I took my little body over to Chicago and said, "You'd better tell me what's going on." Finally, he came out with the new mandate he had when he took this job. Once I knew the rules, I could play the game.
Michael Hudson (president, Greater New York chapter, Meeting Professionals International; president, Site Search & Select): I think there's a way of taking the soft economy and making the best out of it. Several months ago we were all maniacs, trying to get it all done. At Site Search & Select, we're taking this opportunity to really work with the meeting planners and build brand loyalty, so [that] when the economy does spring back and we get back into the crazy mode, they'll come to us first.
Sheff: For experienced meeting professionals who understand yield management, I think loyalties will remain the same. With the changing market, I'm getting more phone calls - so far this month, [hotels] want to bring in Krispy Kreme doughnuts, ice cream, and all the chains want to come in [to our office]. Of course, we're more than willing to see them (laughs) . . .
Sookman: It's a long-term relationship. Planners remember the responsiveness, or lack of responsiveness . . . Now, if [hotels] are suddenly knocking on the door and wanting to bring Krispy Kremes, is that going to make a difference [if] they weren't there [for us] when times were really great?
SM: Does loyalty still exist in the workplace?
Stemple: I think loyalty does exist. It's being redefined and it's coming from a different place, but it's the human element of what we do for a living, and it has to stay in the business, or I'll get out.