The KL Hilton: Building the Brand Experience

by George Aveling
The Hilton Hotel chain is a big brand by anyone’s measure. And among the 500 plus hotels around the globe, the KL Hilton is proving to be one of the jewels in the Hilton global crown. After just four years, the hotel has bagged many awards and has firmly established a strong foothold in Kuala Lumpur. All achieved in a location that many thought would not work. So what’s the secret?

To find out the answer, I met with Paul Hutton, General Manager of the KL Hilton. I have known Paul for some time now. I have come to admire and respect his ability to do what most General Managers are not able to do – to neatly put together the pieces in the jigsaw puzzle to build a strong brand that delivers an engaging brand experience. Within minutes of meeting Paul, he was enthusiastically taking me to the back-of-house, where he proudly showed the staff amenities.

There is real energy when you go where no customer goes at the Hilton – the staff area. The first thing that strikes you is the walls. They are not plain-coloured like most staff areas. Rather, they are adorned with colourful, flamboyant messages and pictures proudly painted by departments (each department has its own wall area along the staff corridor). “There is a huge amount of talent on the team,” said Paul, as we walked past walls painted with team values and colourful notice boards. Performance on the hotel’s brand service standards is painted on the walls.

Even job opportunities in the Hilton global chain are illustrated in graphic terms. The world of Hilton, in any location around the globe, is available to all employees from the KL Hilton. All of this is done with a reason. Paul told me that research shows that 75% of people get their information from notice boards. The Hilton has regular awards for the best notice board, around certain criteria including fun, having photos, information on training and best practices. So, you can mix fun and business sense after all! Then there are the staff amenities. How would you like to work for a company that provides free restaurant quality food, open 24 hours a day, with a free hair salon and aromatherapy, where you are encouraged to study on-line from a selection of over 900 courses, and where, if you feel like some quiet time, you can go to relax in the “chill-out room” where you sit quietly and read, or have a massage in one of the massage chairs? I noticed that whenever Paul passed by a staff member, there was a warm acknowledgement.

“The Hilton is a first-name hotel,” Paul later explained to me. “I am not Mr Hutton to staff. I am Paul. Calling a boss by first name would be a ground for disciplinary action in some companies. We are all equal in the eyes of the Hilton.” The company aims to break down the barriers between management and employees in other ways. Managers and staff eat at the same restaurant. “I eat in the canteen with my children. They like it here,” he said. And management is very visible. “Management by walking around never failed anyone,” he told me. “A manager who is trapped in his office is inefficient. You can go to many businesses and you will never see a manager walking among the employees.” Staff at the Hilton are heavily incentivised. Salary increments are based on merit. Bonuses are paid monthly, based on a transparent points system, from guest tips. So, staff experience a direct connection between how well they perform and their pay packets.

The Hilton also has a very visible weekly form of recognition called the Starbonds awards. Just imagine, every week, a group of people go around the hotel, personally handing out “Starbond” vouchers for RM20 to employees who, in the customer’s eyes, have gone beyond the call of duty. As Paul says, there is nothing more powerful than personal recognition. People like to work at the Hilton. They are given incentives. They are given a career. They have free meals, a nice environment and are treated well. This is reflected in the company’s employee engagement scores, which are at the world’s best practice levels. It’s serious fun at the Hilton. There are high expectations on the quality of the experience provided to guests.

The Hilton asks their people to go beyond. Very satisfied is not good enough. In fact, the Hilton wants to achieve a rating of “5 out of 5” on 90% of each guest’s scorecard. “We measure to the highest standards. The target is to get a 90% rating on satisfaction ratings. If it’s less than 90, then it’s considered a ‘no score’, and not good enough,” Paul explained. The aim at present is to have 55% of guests to give the Hilton this high rating. In addition, mystery shoppers – Hilton employees – fly in from other parts of the world to test for the Hilton experience and adherence to the Hilton brand service standards. “They might ask for a dozen blue roses, or ask for a Croatian interpreter. The aim is not to find our people doing something wrong, but to create Hilton moments where people do the extraordinary for the customer.”

Okay, I’m starting to get the picture. Offer a great place to work, provide great incentives, make people feel valued, expect a lot, measure performance and reward great performance. The Hilton has put a lot of thinking into its brand. It has Brand Pillar, which provides the framework for the Hilton experience – to have a consistently warm, personalised, and hassle-free stay from the time that guests arrive to the time that they leave. Hilton’s Esprit – the “spirit of the Hilton” defines the team culture so that people feel good about themselves and feel comfortable to go the extra mile. Esprit revolves around recruitment and induction, recognition, learning and development, adherence to the company’s strict brand standards and communication, working conditions. There are well-established strategies and indicators around each of these elements. At the front of house, the aim is to deliver Equilibrium to guests – find the balance between being away from home on business or pleasure, and feeling that the guest is still at home, in a warm, personalised atmosphere. Staff are empowered to deliver “Hilton moments” – those moments when the customer may be in dire need, or where a service recovery is required. “We are in the people business. Errors happen every day. The key is how we recover.

Staff are given high levels of empowerment for when ‘the meteorite strikes.’ We had a guest who was running late for a meeting in the city, so one of our team members put him on the back of his motorcycle to get him there on time. If it is going to cost money, even a helicopter ride in extreme circumstances, we will do it. When the meteorite strikes, we have to be ready,” he said. There are many other factors that I don’t have time in this short article to mention – the high attention to recruiting the right people, fortnightly meetings with 60 to 80 managers and supervisors to review customer ratings and seek opportunities to improve and many more. However, it would be remiss of me not to zoom out to the big picture – the Hilton experience. You feel the Hilton experience throughout the hotel, whether it is at one of the nine restaurants, the brilliant function rooms, or at one of the musicals or theatrical events that are regularly put on at the hotel.

And, at all times, amid the luxury, you feel the warmth of the Hilton experience; the attention to detail that is consistently delivered by Hilton staff. We create powerful brands when we create powerful emotional connections between our organisation and our customers. In doing so, we create strong reputations which go well beyond physical amenities and visual branding. The KL Hilton is a great example of how this can be achieved. Paul Hutton heads to Sydney for his next posting in early December. Paul, we thank you for shaping our Hilton experience in KL and look forward to the hearing of the next chapter in your brand journey.