April 10, 2025 • 20 mins
In this episode, my guest is Edwin Frizzell, Regional Vice President and General Manager at the legendary Fairmont Royal York, and we’re talking about what it really takes to create unforgettable guest experiences, build strong internal culture, and lead with purpose in fast-paced, high-expectation environments.
Edwin shared a real-world example of how a single gesture at a car dealership completely changed his perception—and potentially his buying decision.
“I’m actually considering buying a car from a dealership out of town—not because of the brand, but because one entry-level employee made me feel seen and valued. That one moment of connection changed everything.”
Let that sink in. A single moment. A small gesture. Not the fancy showroom, not the logo on the building—but a human interaction.
And that’s exactly what we unpack in this episode, we dig into:
- How to turn everyday interactions into powerful emotional connections
- Why Mary in the laundry room is just as important as any executive (and why Edwin knows her by name)
- The importance of brand promises—and how to activate them through your people
- What automotive dealers can learn from hospitality pros when it comes to service that sticks
If you're in the auto industry and you want to know what today's customer really values, this is something you can't afford to miss.
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FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
I'm sitting down with theregional vice president and
(00:22):
general manager at the FairmontRoyal York, edwin Frizzell.
Thanks so much for joining meon the podcast.
Edwin (00:28):
Oh my gosh, it's so excited to be here and we're
thrilled to have you here at theiconic Fairmont Royal York.
MC (00:32):
It is iconic.
We walked in, we went ooh ahthe other night and that's not
something you get at a qualityinn.
Edwin (00:39):
Well, I'm not going to disparage any other brands,
because we love all of ourfriends equally.
But I will tell you that ispart of the Fairmont essence,
that idea of walking into aplace that does have that
special feel and really we workfor that.
You walk in for the first time.
You should take that breath,take that pause and go.
MC (00:57):
Wow, let me just pause for a moment because this is
someplace special and I want toremember this moment as part of
my journey.
It's that feeling of you get aglimpse of oh, this must be what
royalty feels like, and thenconveniently- we have the Queen,
and then you look at the walland there they are, and what is
the significance of them on thewall now that we have King?
Edwin (01:13):
Charles.
Well, so King Charles has notyet made an official visit to
Canada or to Toronto and has notbeen in residence at the Royal
York as yet.
So we are anxiously awaitingthat first visit and we'll be
doing some updates, obviously,to our presentation.
But of course, queen Elizabethand Philip, his Royal Highness
Prince Philip, did visit us manytimes and that particular photo
(01:35):
and their signature in the bookwas their last visit to Toronto
.
MC (01:39):
This was.
This is not scripted, but I'mcurious.
Then there must be be aprotocol, like a playbook for
you when royalty comes to visitrather lengthy, yes.
Edwin (01:50):
And it's part of our journey.
I mean, Fairmont hostsdiplomats and dignitaries and
members of many royal familiesnot just the British royal
family across our portfolio andyes, there's a very lengthy SOP,
if you will, about how wemanage that, but we're very
fortunate.
We have a great relationshipwith, particularly, the Royal
Office in London and they workvery closely with our team.
They're good friends and greatpartners and we look forward to
(02:11):
welcoming King Charles very soon, I'm sure.
MC (02:13):
I wish I was here for that.
Can I just say, I wish I washere for that.
Edwin (02:17):
Well, it can be a little bit of a to-do.
I remember when I had theopportunity to welcome Prince
Harry when he was here for theInvictus Games just a couple of
years ago, and you know we're abusy hotel and there's a lot of
things going on on a generalbasis but you really do kind of
take that moment and pause andbe like, wow, look what's
happening, because there was agreat deal of interest, of
course, in his visit at the time.
MC (02:36):
I find that so fascinating.
You know, I grew up in BritishColumbia.
Now I live in Texas and findmyself quite a monarchist.
Now that I'm in a countrywithout a monarch and there's
almost like an undertone ofpride that comes along with
having a sovereign, I can'tquite explain it.
Edwin (02:50):
Well, she is on our money still, so we see her quite
regularly if you know what cashis, but you know and maybe not
on your credit card or yourdebit card.
But, yes, no, it is all part,it's part of the charm of our
country and it's something thatCanadians are very proud of.
Our partnership.
MC (03:03):
I want to talk to you a little bit about the hospitality
side of the business.
I find that people in who areoften in a similar position as
yours, where you are overseeingthe operation, have something
inside of them that loves tocare or have concern for others,
and it's something we look atin the auto industry because
(03:24):
it's a very, dare I say,transactional business.
While we know an organizationlike the Fairmont is not a
charitable organization althoughit may have some charities, it
is a for-profit organization.
How do you balance being ableto show that experience that
every guest deserves whenthey're on your property, or
what you want them to experience, while also balancing the
(03:46):
day-to-day of?
You know you have individualsat your front desk who are there
to collect money, who are thereto, you know, make sure that
the business is profitable.
Edwin (03:54):
Absolutely, I mean, and you're absolutely right.
I mean we are not.
Contrary to what some peopleoccasionally ask me, we're not a
not-for-profit organization.
And so yes, we are very muchsupporting our community and we
do a great deal of work in thatspace.
There's a lot of questions inthere, but I'm going to start
with the reality of a brandpromise.
So our Fairmont brand promise,which is the promise we make to
our customers, is not about ahot shower or a quick breakfast
(04:17):
or a comfortable bed.
Our brand promise at Fairmontis about turning moments into
special memories, and so whenthat is your brand promise, you
need to have clarity for yourcolleagues to understand their
role in what that means, and sowe absolutely talk a lot about
this idea of not having atransactional experience, and
while we serve over a millioncustomers a year here at the
(04:38):
Royal York, for every single oneof those on an individual basis
, our goal is to create a memoryfor them that is special for
them at that moment, and you canonly do that with great
colleagues who feel empoweredand engaged around that promise,
and so we do quite a lot ofwork with our teams around
identifying what that looks like.
Now for the front desk agent,it's a little more clear.
(05:02):
Their role is welcoming.
It's all about making sure youreceive the right room that
you've reserved and orientingyou to the hotel.
But let's think about somebodylike Mary down in our laundry
department who right now ispressing the pillowcases that
are going to go on the bedsheetstonight.
You know, mary's role ofturning moments into memories is
making sure that thosepillowcases are clean, without
tears, without stains, and areperfectly pressed so that when
the room attendants place themon the bed and perhaps Queen
Elizabeth puts her head down atthe end of the night, that that
(05:23):
pillow creates that memory inthe right way.
And so her role is no less ormore important than the front
desk agent or the sales manageror, frankly, mine.
All of us have a role to playin making those personal
connections with our guests andeach other, because it takes a
team.
There's over 1,200 people whobring this hotel to life every
single day, every single day,and our journey is about making
(05:48):
sure that their journey atFairmont is equally as memorable
and special and fuels theirpassion for that brand promise
that we make every single day.
It's about there's a culture,that there's a lifeblood.
It's not like a culture, it isa culture.
There's a Fairmont, there's aculture at Fairmont.
When I interview people who,you know, aspire to come and
join our team there, I'm likewhy would you like to work for
Fairmont?
And we hear a million storiesabout why that is, and, of
(06:09):
course, it's a great location,it's a beautiful hotel.
I want to advance my career,whatever those items are, but at
the end of the day, you'rejoining our family and our
culture at Fairmont is very muchabout you know, we look at our
people first.
People are at the heart ofeverything we do, both to
execute our brand promise andalso they're our customer.
We're not making widgets, we'recreating memories every day,
(06:30):
and so the idea of creating thatculture starts with our people,
and we spend as much timefocusing on our engagement,
empowerment and training andensuring that that culture is in
the right space, becausewithout that we can't deliver
the brand promise, and it'ssomething we're pretty
passionate about at Fairmont.
MC (06:49):
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Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
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(07:12):
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode that transforms, like
you said, mary, who's in thelaundry room?
Edwin (07:22):
or who.
Yeah, Mary's worked here for 45years, by the way, and has been
pressing pillowcases perfectlythat entire time.
She's amazing.
MC (07:29):
Good job, Mary, Wow.
Well, first and this is aperfect segue into what I wanted
to ask you you know Mary's name.
You said 1,200 employees,that's a pretty phenomenal feat
to take.
We know that leadership setsthe temperature of an
organization.
Why is it so important to youthat these individuals feel a
(07:51):
career here, not just a J-O-B?
Edwin (07:55):
Well, again, it comes down to that culture.
I mean, we have to deliver thisbrand promise and I go back to
that not only because we'rehaving a conversation about it,
but because it is in fact whatwe do every single day.
You know, when I joined theFairmont Rural York in 2014, we
were just at the beginning ofthis journey of multi years of
sort of transforming the hotelphysically.
This beautiful clock tower thatyou see behind us, for example,
(08:17):
while stunning, is not anoriginal feature of the hotel,
that was added in 2019.
But today you would feel likeit's always been here.
A big part of that journey, aswe went on this you know,
incredible architectural moment,was we sort of paused and said
well, this is going to be great,that it's a beautiful new space
, but where does the team livein that?
Where is the culture?
How do we bring the 1,000,1,200 people that are part of
(08:40):
bringing this to life along onthat journey?
And we actually stopped in thetransformation process and sort
of reset ourselves and wecreated an internal branding for
the colleagues and for the teamhere at the hotel so that all
the leaders could go out andreally do training.
They could have that North Starto hold on to, to say what is
it that's going to be differentabout the Royal York and why is
it important that you show upevery day and you know, check
(09:02):
people in well and clean yourroom properly and deliver food
quickly in the restaurant orappropriately, and it and we
created that internal branding.
That's it's a little, it's aninternal branding you'll never
see in the public.
It's called we are FairmontRoyal York and it's this idea of
creating the essential Torontoexperience for our customers
every single day and at everymoment.
And if you're not serving acustomer like the bartender
(09:24):
behind the bar here, you arehelping to make sure that that
experience goes well.
So whether you're bringingliquor bottles and clean
glassware out from the back, oryou're clearing dishes from the
tables, or you're in the kitchencooking the food that's going
to land here in clockwork,everything that you do creates
an experience, and workingtogether in this sort of
(09:45):
symphony, if you will, is reallywhat makes our ability to be
able to go out and tell peoplethat we stand behind the promise
of turning moments into specialmemories.
You know, not long ago there wasa 40 foot Christmas tree just
in the other side of this clockand we had one of the most
incredible festive seasons ever.
This is the home of theholidays here in Toronto, and
when you show up and you, youknow, wait an hour to get a
table here in Clockwork to, youknow, have a glass of champagne
(10:08):
under the Christmas tree withsomeone special to make a memory
.
That sounds like a really easy,simple moment to execute, but
there are hundreds of moments oftruth behind the scenes to make
that landing of that champagneglass on the table be exactly
the way you want to remember it,and we spend an inordinate
amount of time with our team notonly thinking about how we will
(10:30):
do that, but then also, once wedo it, evaluating how we did it
.
So to make sure that we'reconstantly working on that air
of improvement and seeing how wecan move it along.
MC (10:38):
There's so much to unpack here and I'm not going to
torture you with my unpacking ofthese things but well, that's a
training session that we run,so you're gonna have to come
work for us.
Um it the the well you saidmoment of truth and and I can't
tell you how many times I'veheard that now in organizations
in the auto industry who areconcerned about these micro
(10:59):
moments of truth, who don't knowwhat they can do to bring them
into realization.
And as I'm listening to youspeak, what I, what I realize is
that the heart and soul of theorganization is examined.
Often.
(11:19):
It's it's it starts your day,you, it's why you're showing up,
it's your North star.
Edwin (11:24):
Can I give you a real, can I give you a real time
automotive car industry moment?
That would sort of tie thisinto my lens of that?
Because not only am I I happento be car shopping at the moment
, uh, which is a journey in andof itself, uh but I recently and
I'm not going to talk brands orwhat have you but I recently
had an experience where I neededto take my current vehicle in
because I had a moment of truthTire sensor warning not in my
(11:48):
hometown, you know, sort of oneof those panic moments of I've
got a significant drive to doand I don't know if I'm safe to
do so, right, and so pulled intoa dealership that is unknown to
me and I'm unknown to them.
So there's not like arelationship, and this is how
important those moments of truthare.
So you, you know, you pull intosort of the service bay and
you're going to interact withsomebody.
The person that we interactedwith initially was probably a
(12:09):
very entry-level person,probably not unlike a doorman or
a bellman or one of our frontdesk agents, and I've had
experiences in the past wherethat process is very to use your
word transactional.
This experience wasn't.
It was more of a hey, welcometo our dealership, what's going
on and how can I help youExplain the situation?
And it was very seamless, likeall right, well, let's figure
(12:30):
this out for you.
That's great.
So that's day job, right?
The moment of truth really camelater, when it was like, okay,
well, there is something wrong,you need to go to an advisor and
there's going to be a process.
That's also not the moment oftruth.
What to an advisor and there'sgoing to be a process?
That's also not the moment oftruth.
What the real moment of truthwas is a few minutes after we've
been sort of now sitting andwaiting and you're anxious, you
don't know if you're going to beable to get your vehicle
repaired that same entry levelperson that first greeted us
(12:54):
actually came back into theservice sequence and did a
couple of things.
One they were like hey, this istaking a few minutes.
Can I get you a glass of water?
Would you like to have a coffee?
And oh, by the way, I noticedthat your vehicle has blue
leather interior.
That's very unusual.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
And it isn't about the factthat there's an accent color on
(13:16):
my car.
It's about they noticed.
They picked up a cue which weteach our teams all the time,
pick up a personal cue and theymade a personal connection and
did something different.
I'm thinking about purchasinganother vehicle.
I'm actually very seriouslyconsidering going to that
dealership out of town becausemy experience was so personal
(13:36):
and that is enough to make adifference for me.
It's not about the car, thebrand or the fact that they did
fix my car.
It's about that connection andit wasn't just that particular
person.
The service advisor was veryfriendly and appropriate and
ultimately it was a goodexperience overall.
So those are those moments oftruth, and it isn't about how
clean is the dealership, how newis the styling or, frankly,
(13:58):
even what the brand is.
It's about how did you make mefeel in my interaction with you,
and that is going to drive mydecision and that's what we do.
We know that there's a lot ofother luxury hotels in Toronto
that aren't as busy, that arecloser to your office, but
people go out of their way tocome here, not because of the
beauty of the Royal York or thisclock.
It is because of the way thepeople that bring this hotel to
(14:23):
life every day make them feel.
Mary and Kevin and Paul andConnie here in the bar.
They're the people that makethat difference.
And so if your dealers aretrying to figure out what it is
that's going to make adifference in that service
journey, if you don't doubledown on how you are having a
dialogue with your team aboutthe promise you're making to
your customer and how theypersonally can execute that and
(14:43):
bring it to life, that's wherethe secret sauce is, and it's
frankly not that complicated.
MC (14:49):
I want to tie this together with this question.
In a world that is seeminglymuch more me, me, me and focus
on me and me, me, me, what wouldyou suggest is the best way to
start training people to focusoutside of the box themselves?
Because you mentioned pickingup on those cues.
(15:10):
How do you train to look forthose cues when people are so
concerned about themselves, orseemingly so concerned about
themselves?
Edwin (15:16):
You know it's interesting .
You know there's a wholegenerational conversation in
there, right, because as a brandthat's been around for over 100
years, we're, you know, we'revery fortunate that we have
people who've worked with us for10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years
in some cases here at the ruralYork, and so we have a real
multi generational workforcetoday, and we spent a lot of
time on our talent and cultureside really trying to understand
(15:38):
how do we continue to motivateand engage those different
groups, because they aremotivated differently, they
speak a different language andtheir comfort level with
communication tools and stylesis very different.
I would say to you, one of thethings you would not see walking
around the rural York is you'renot gonna see a lot of people
doing this.
Now, I have a device and itdoesn't leave my body very often
, but if I'm in an interactionmoment with a guest or, frankly,
(15:59):
a colleague, that's not myprimary focus.
So we work hard to make surethat our service journey doesn't
get tied to a device, thatwe're still finding those ways
to make sure that those personalconnection moments, when our
server comes to you here inClockwork, they're not coming to
you with a tablet to tap inyour order.
You know they're coming, youknow as themselves and they're,
you know, welcome.
(16:20):
What brings you into Clockworkthis evening so that we can.
You know that's a really nicepersonal connection to make, but
we're sequencing that to belike oh, I'm here for a quick
beverage before the game.
That's a different.
I'm going to give you adifferent service journey than,
oh, me and my spouse have justcome in to enjoy a relaxing
conversation.
So all of these, this language,is all designed to provide us
(16:41):
those cues, and then thecolleagues then need to take
those cues and know that thereare things that they can do with
that.
We're going to expedite thepregame cocktail table faster
than the couple snuggling in thecorner who are going to
probably have two or threeglasses of champagne because
they don't need to be out ofhere in 45 minutes, whereas if
we just sequence the tablethat's wanting to go to another
event and treat them all thesame transactionally, we're not
(17:02):
going to satisfy anybody.
So it's about creating thatlanguage and finding those cues
to help the team be moresuccessful in what we need them
to do.
MC (17:10):
This is so powerful.
I mean, I feel like car dealersneed to come and work at hotels
as part of their onboarding towork at a car dealership, and
actually, for that matter,anybody retail, you name it.
Edwin (17:22):
I'm going to start sending people over to you,
Edwin, You're going to get maybemy next business, fairmont,
hasn't opened a car dealershiparm yet, but but you know, maybe
it's something we should thinkabout.
MC (17:33):
Wouldn't that be interesting to have a hotel car dealership?
It's so critical, and it'ssomething that we're so
concerned about in our industry,to hear real, practical
information.
Even just the words you usetell me how strategic and
tactical and intentional theorganization is Well listen,
(17:54):
this is a multi-million dollarbusiness we are.
Edwin (17:59):
this doesn't just happen.
I mean, sometimes people sortof come in and they think you
know, oh, the hotel business isso fun and wouldn't it be great
to go and work in a hotel.
It's so pretty and everybody'sso happy and they are all those
things.
But it is absolutely a businessback to your earlier
conversation and there's a lotof thought and a lot of strategy
that goes into being successful.
And arguably, you know theFairmont Royal York and the
(18:19):
Fairmont brand in general.
You know it's really bore itsroots out of the Canadian
aristocracy, right, these hotelswere built in that era of
railway travel when thearistocrats were first starting
(18:39):
to explore the world and youknow, built a train system all
across the country here inCanada and in the US and abroad,
and these hotels were createdfor that purpose.
You know, spin forward 100 years.
We're still very reliant ontrains.
I mean we've got 400 or 500,000people coming in and out of the
Union Station right across thestreet from us every day.
The Union Pearson Express itcan take you right to the
(19:01):
airport from the hotel isincredible.
I mean, think about it.
You could fly into Toronto, geton the UP Express.
Come to the hotel, gounderground in the path to your
meeting, come back to the hotel,have a great dinner here in
rain or at the library bar, getback on the up, get on your
plane and never have to gooutside.
So why do you need to worryabout whether it's cold or hot
or snowing or raining in Toronto?
(19:21):
We've got an entire world ofwonder for you that you can
experience 365 days of the year,just the way you want it.
MC (19:28):
I love the packaging.
I'm sold.
Where do I buy shares Rightthere?
Edwin (19:33):
at the front desk.
MC (19:34):
Edwin, I can't thank you enough.
This has been tremendous.
I appreciate your insights.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the show.
Edwin (19:40):
Well, thank you for letting us talk a little bit
about Fairmont, when we hope weget to turn some moments into
memories for all of you sometimesoon.
Thank you.
MC (19:47):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
I'm sitting down with theregional vice president and
(00:22):
general manager at the FairmontRoyal York, edwin Frizzell.
Thanks so much for joining meon the podcast.
Edwin (00:28):
Oh my gosh, it's so excited to be here and we're
thrilled to have you here at theiconic Fairmont Royal York.
MC (00:32):
It is iconic.
We walked in, we went ooh ahthe other night and that's not
something you get at a qualityinn.
Edwin (00:39):
Well, I'm not going to disparage any other brands,
because we love all of ourfriends equally.
But I will tell you that ispart of the Fairmont essence,
that idea of walking into aplace that does have that
special feel and really we workfor that.
You walk in for the first time.
You should take that breath,take that pause and go.
MC (00:57):
Wow, let me just pause for a moment because this is
someplace special and I want toremember this moment as part of
my journey.
It's that feeling of you get aglimpse of oh, this must be what
royalty feels like, and thenconveniently- we have the Queen,
and then you look at the walland there they are, and what is
the significance of them on thewall now that we have King?
Edwin (01:13):
Charles.
Well, so King Charles has notyet made an official visit to
Canada or to Toronto and has notbeen in residence at the Royal
York as yet.
So we are anxiously awaitingthat first visit and we'll be
doing some updates, obviously,to our presentation.
But of course, queen Elizabethand Philip, his Royal Highness
Prince Philip, did visit us manytimes and that particular photo
(01:35):
and their signature in the bookwas their last visit to Toronto
.
MC (01:39):
This was.
This is not scripted, but I'mcurious.
Then there must be be aprotocol, like a playbook for
you when royalty comes to visitrather lengthy, yes.
Edwin (01:50):
And it's part of our journey.
I mean, Fairmont hostsdiplomats and dignitaries and
members of many royal familiesnot just the British royal
family across our portfolio andyes, there's a very lengthy SOP,
if you will, about how wemanage that, but we're very
fortunate.
We have a great relationshipwith, particularly, the Royal
Office in London and they workvery closely with our team.
They're good friends and greatpartners and we look forward to
(02:11):
welcoming King Charles very soon, I'm sure.
MC (02:13):
I wish I was here for that.
Can I just say, I wish I washere for that.
Edwin (02:17):
Well, it can be a little bit of a to-do.
I remember when I had theopportunity to welcome Prince
Harry when he was here for theInvictus Games just a couple of
years ago, and you know we're abusy hotel and there's a lot of
things going on on a generalbasis but you really do kind of
take that moment and pause andbe like, wow, look what's
happening, because there was agreat deal of interest, of
course, in his visit at the time.
MC (02:36):
I find that so fascinating.
You know, I grew up in BritishColumbia.
Now I live in Texas and findmyself quite a monarchist.
Now that I'm in a countrywithout a monarch and there's
almost like an undertone ofpride that comes along with
having a sovereign, I can'tquite explain it.
Edwin (02:50):
Well, she is on our money still, so we see her quite
regularly if you know what cashis, but you know and maybe not
on your credit card or yourdebit card.
But, yes, no, it is all part,it's part of the charm of our
country and it's something thatCanadians are very proud of.
Our partnership.
MC (03:03):
I want to talk to you a little bit about the hospitality
side of the business.
I find that people in who areoften in a similar position as
yours, where you are overseeingthe operation, have something
inside of them that loves tocare or have concern for others,
and it's something we look atin the auto industry because
(03:24):
it's a very, dare I say,transactional business.
While we know an organizationlike the Fairmont is not a
charitable organization althoughit may have some charities, it
is a for-profit organization.
How do you balance being ableto show that experience that
every guest deserves whenthey're on your property, or
what you want them to experience, while also balancing the
(03:46):
day-to-day of?
You know you have individualsat your front desk who are there
to collect money, who are thereto, you know, make sure that
the business is profitable.
Edwin (03:54):
Absolutely, I mean, and you're absolutely right.
I mean we are not.
Contrary to what some peopleoccasionally ask me, we're not a
not-for-profit organization.
And so yes, we are very muchsupporting our community and we
do a great deal of work in thatspace.
There's a lot of questions inthere, but I'm going to start
with the reality of a brandpromise.
So our Fairmont brand promise,which is the promise we make to
our customers, is not about ahot shower or a quick breakfast
(04:17):
or a comfortable bed.
Our brand promise at Fairmontis about turning moments into
special memories, and so whenthat is your brand promise, you
need to have clarity for yourcolleagues to understand their
role in what that means, and sowe absolutely talk a lot about
this idea of not having atransactional experience, and
while we serve over a millioncustomers a year here at the
(04:38):
Royal York, for every single oneof those on an individual basis
, our goal is to create a memoryfor them that is special for
them at that moment, and you canonly do that with great
colleagues who feel empoweredand engaged around that promise,
and so we do quite a lot ofwork with our teams around
identifying what that looks like.
Now for the front desk agent,it's a little more clear.
(05:02):
Their role is welcoming.
It's all about making sure youreceive the right room that
you've reserved and orientingyou to the hotel.
But let's think about somebodylike Mary down in our laundry
department who right now ispressing the pillowcases that
are going to go on the bedsheetstonight.
You know, mary's role ofturning moments into memories is
making sure that thosepillowcases are clean, without
tears, without stains, and areperfectly pressed so that when
the room attendants place themon the bed and perhaps Queen
Elizabeth puts her head down atthe end of the night, that that
(05:23):
pillow creates that memory inthe right way.
And so her role is no less ormore important than the front
desk agent or the sales manageror, frankly, mine.
All of us have a role to playin making those personal
connections with our guests andeach other, because it takes a
team.
There's over 1,200 people whobring this hotel to life every
single day, every single day,and our journey is about making
(05:48):
sure that their journey atFairmont is equally as memorable
and special and fuels theirpassion for that brand promise
that we make every single day.
It's about there's a culture,that there's a lifeblood.
It's not like a culture, it isa culture.
There's a Fairmont, there's aculture at Fairmont.
When I interview people who,you know, aspire to come and
join our team there, I'm likewhy would you like to work for
Fairmont?
And we hear a million storiesabout why that is, and, of
(06:09):
course, it's a great location,it's a beautiful hotel.
I want to advance my career,whatever those items are, but at
the end of the day, you'rejoining our family and our
culture at Fairmont is very muchabout you know, we look at our
people first.
People are at the heart ofeverything we do, both to
execute our brand promise andalso they're our customer.
We're not making widgets, we'recreating memories every day,
(06:30):
and so the idea of creating thatculture starts with our people,
and we spend as much timefocusing on our engagement,
empowerment and training andensuring that that culture is in
the right space, becausewithout that we can't deliver
the brand promise, and it'ssomething we're pretty
passionate about at Fairmont.
MC (06:49):
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Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
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you also know that I'm the CEOof Flex Dealer, an agency that's
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(07:12):
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode that transforms, like
you said, mary, who's in thelaundry room?
Edwin (07:22):
or who.
Yeah, Mary's worked here for 45years, by the way, and has been
pressing pillowcases perfectlythat entire time.
She's amazing.
MC (07:29):
Good job, Mary, Wow.
Well, first and this is aperfect segue into what I wanted
to ask you you know Mary's name.
You said 1,200 employees,that's a pretty phenomenal feat
to take.
We know that leadership setsthe temperature of an
organization.
Why is it so important to youthat these individuals feel a
(07:51):
career here, not just a J-O-B?
Edwin (07:55):
Well, again, it comes down to that culture.
I mean, we have to deliver thisbrand promise and I go back to
that not only because we'rehaving a conversation about it,
but because it is in fact whatwe do every single day.
You know, when I joined theFairmont Rural York in 2014, we
were just at the beginning ofthis journey of multi years of
sort of transforming the hotelphysically.
This beautiful clock tower thatyou see behind us, for example,
(08:17):
while stunning, is not anoriginal feature of the hotel,
that was added in 2019.
But today you would feel likeit's always been here.
A big part of that journey, aswe went on this you know,
incredible architectural moment,was we sort of paused and said
well, this is going to be great,that it's a beautiful new space
, but where does the team livein that?
Where is the culture?
How do we bring the 1,000,1,200 people that are part of
(08:40):
bringing this to life along onthat journey?
And we actually stopped in thetransformation process and sort
of reset ourselves and wecreated an internal branding for
the colleagues and for the teamhere at the hotel so that all
the leaders could go out andreally do training.
They could have that North Starto hold on to, to say what is
it that's going to be differentabout the Royal York and why is
it important that you show upevery day and you know, check
(09:02):
people in well and clean yourroom properly and deliver food
quickly in the restaurant orappropriately, and it and we
created that internal branding.
That's it's a little, it's aninternal branding you'll never
see in the public.
It's called we are FairmontRoyal York and it's this idea of
creating the essential Torontoexperience for our customers
every single day and at everymoment.
And if you're not serving acustomer like the bartender
(09:24):
behind the bar here, you arehelping to make sure that that
experience goes well.
So whether you're bringingliquor bottles and clean
glassware out from the back, oryou're clearing dishes from the
tables, or you're in the kitchencooking the food that's going
to land here in clockwork,everything that you do creates
an experience, and workingtogether in this sort of
(09:45):
symphony, if you will, is reallywhat makes our ability to be
able to go out and tell peoplethat we stand behind the promise
of turning moments into specialmemories.
You know, not long ago there wasa 40 foot Christmas tree just
in the other side of this clockand we had one of the most
incredible festive seasons ever.
This is the home of theholidays here in Toronto, and
when you show up and you, youknow, wait an hour to get a
table here in Clockwork to, youknow, have a glass of champagne
(10:08):
under the Christmas tree withsomeone special to make a memory
.
That sounds like a really easy,simple moment to execute, but
there are hundreds of moments oftruth behind the scenes to make
that landing of that champagneglass on the table be exactly
the way you want to remember it,and we spend an inordinate
amount of time with our team notonly thinking about how we will
(10:30):
do that, but then also, once wedo it, evaluating how we did it
.
So to make sure that we'reconstantly working on that air
of improvement and seeing how wecan move it along.
MC (10:38):
There's so much to unpack here and I'm not going to
torture you with my unpacking ofthese things but well, that's a
training session that we run,so you're gonna have to come
work for us.
Um it the the well you saidmoment of truth and and I can't
tell you how many times I'veheard that now in organizations
in the auto industry who areconcerned about these micro
(10:59):
moments of truth, who don't knowwhat they can do to bring them
into realization.
And as I'm listening to youspeak, what I, what I realize is
that the heart and soul of theorganization is examined.
Often.
(11:19):
It's it's it starts your day,you, it's why you're showing up,
it's your North star.
Edwin (11:24):
Can I give you a real, can I give you a real time
automotive car industry moment?
That would sort of tie thisinto my lens of that?
Because not only am I I happento be car shopping at the moment
, uh, which is a journey in andof itself, uh but I recently and
I'm not going to talk brands orwhat have you but I recently
had an experience where I neededto take my current vehicle in
because I had a moment of truthTire sensor warning not in my
(11:48):
hometown, you know, sort of oneof those panic moments of I've
got a significant drive to doand I don't know if I'm safe to
do so, right, and so pulled intoa dealership that is unknown to
me and I'm unknown to them.
So there's not like arelationship, and this is how
important those moments of truthare.
So you, you know, you pull intosort of the service bay and
you're going to interact withsomebody.
The person that we interactedwith initially was probably a
(12:09):
very entry-level person,probably not unlike a doorman or
a bellman or one of our frontdesk agents, and I've had
experiences in the past wherethat process is very to use your
word transactional.
This experience wasn't.
It was more of a hey, welcometo our dealership, what's going
on and how can I help youExplain the situation?
And it was very seamless, likeall right, well, let's figure
(12:30):
this out for you.
That's great.
So that's day job, right?
The moment of truth really camelater, when it was like, okay,
well, there is something wrong,you need to go to an advisor and
there's going to be a process.
That's also not the moment oftruth.
What to an advisor and there'sgoing to be a process?
That's also not the moment oftruth.
What the real moment of truthwas is a few minutes after we've
been sort of now sitting andwaiting and you're anxious, you
don't know if you're going to beable to get your vehicle
repaired that same entry levelperson that first greeted us
(12:54):
actually came back into theservice sequence and did a
couple of things.
One they were like hey, this istaking a few minutes.
Can I get you a glass of water?
Would you like to have a coffee?
And oh, by the way, I noticedthat your vehicle has blue
leather interior.
That's very unusual.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
And it isn't about the factthat there's an accent color on
(13:16):
my car.
It's about they noticed.
They picked up a cue which weteach our teams all the time,
pick up a personal cue and theymade a personal connection and
did something different.
I'm thinking about purchasinganother vehicle.
I'm actually very seriouslyconsidering going to that
dealership out of town becausemy experience was so personal
(13:36):
and that is enough to make adifference for me.
It's not about the car, thebrand or the fact that they did
fix my car.
It's about that connection andit wasn't just that particular
person.
The service advisor was veryfriendly and appropriate and
ultimately it was a goodexperience overall.
So those are those moments oftruth, and it isn't about how
clean is the dealership, how newis the styling or, frankly,
(13:58):
even what the brand is.
It's about how did you make mefeel in my interaction with you,
and that is going to drive mydecision and that's what we do.
We know that there's a lot ofother luxury hotels in Toronto
that aren't as busy, that arecloser to your office, but
people go out of their way tocome here, not because of the
beauty of the Royal York or thisclock.
It is because of the way thepeople that bring this hotel to
(14:23):
life every day make them feel.
Mary and Kevin and Paul andConnie here in the bar.
They're the people that makethat difference.
And so if your dealers aretrying to figure out what it is
that's going to make adifference in that service
journey, if you don't doubledown on how you are having a
dialogue with your team aboutthe promise you're making to
your customer and how theypersonally can execute that and
(14:43):
bring it to life, that's wherethe secret sauce is, and it's
frankly not that complicated.
MC (14:49):
I want to tie this together with this question.
In a world that is seeminglymuch more me, me, me and focus
on me and me, me, me, what wouldyou suggest is the best way to
start training people to focusoutside of the box themselves?
Because you mentioned pickingup on those cues.
(15:10):
How do you train to look forthose cues when people are so
concerned about themselves, orseemingly so concerned about
themselves?
Edwin (15:16):
You know it's interesting .
You know there's a wholegenerational conversation in
there, right, because as a brandthat's been around for over 100
years, we're, you know, we'revery fortunate that we have
people who've worked with us for10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years
in some cases here at the ruralYork, and so we have a real
multi generational workforcetoday, and we spent a lot of
time on our talent and cultureside really trying to understand
(15:38):
how do we continue to motivateand engage those different
groups, because they aremotivated differently, they
speak a different language andtheir comfort level with
communication tools and stylesis very different.
I would say to you, one of thethings you would not see walking
around the rural York is you'renot gonna see a lot of people
doing this.
Now, I have a device and itdoesn't leave my body very often
, but if I'm in an interactionmoment with a guest or, frankly,
(15:59):
a colleague, that's not myprimary focus.
So we work hard to make surethat our service journey doesn't
get tied to a device, thatwe're still finding those ways
to make sure that those personalconnection moments, when our
server comes to you here inClockwork, they're not coming to
you with a tablet to tap inyour order.
You know they're coming, youknow as themselves and they're,
you know, welcome.
(16:20):
What brings you into Clockworkthis evening so that we can.
You know that's a really nicepersonal connection to make, but
we're sequencing that to belike oh, I'm here for a quick
beverage before the game.
That's a different.
I'm going to give you adifferent service journey than,
oh, me and my spouse have justcome in to enjoy a relaxing
conversation.
So all of these, this language,is all designed to provide us
(16:41):
those cues, and then thecolleagues then need to take
those cues and know that thereare things that they can do with
that.
We're going to expedite thepregame cocktail table faster
than the couple snuggling in thecorner who are going to
probably have two or threeglasses of champagne because
they don't need to be out ofhere in 45 minutes, whereas if
we just sequence the tablethat's wanting to go to another
event and treat them all thesame transactionally, we're not
(17:02):
going to satisfy anybody.
So it's about creating thatlanguage and finding those cues
to help the team be moresuccessful in what we need them
to do.
MC (17:10):
This is so powerful.
I mean, I feel like car dealersneed to come and work at hotels
as part of their onboarding towork at a car dealership, and
actually, for that matter,anybody retail, you name it.
Edwin (17:22):
I'm going to start sending people over to you,
Edwin, You're going to get maybemy next business, fairmont,
hasn't opened a car dealershiparm yet, but but you know, maybe
it's something we should thinkabout.
MC (17:33):
Wouldn't that be interesting to have a hotel car dealership?
It's so critical, and it'ssomething that we're so
concerned about in our industry,to hear real, practical
information.
Even just the words you usetell me how strategic and
tactical and intentional theorganization is Well listen,
(17:54):
this is a multi-million dollarbusiness we are.
Edwin (17:59):
this doesn't just happen.
I mean, sometimes people sortof come in and they think you
know, oh, the hotel business isso fun and wouldn't it be great
to go and work in a hotel.
It's so pretty and everybody'sso happy and they are all those
things.
But it is absolutely a businessback to your earlier
conversation and there's a lotof thought and a lot of strategy
that goes into being successful.
And arguably, you know theFairmont Royal York and the
(18:19):
Fairmont brand in general.
You know it's really bore itsroots out of the Canadian
aristocracy, right, these hotelswere built in that era of
railway travel when thearistocrats were first starting
(18:39):
to explore the world and youknow, built a train system all
across the country here inCanada and in the US and abroad,
and these hotels were createdfor that purpose.
You know, spin forward 100 years.
We're still very reliant ontrains.
I mean we've got 400 or 500,000people coming in and out of the
Union Station right across thestreet from us every day.
The Union Pearson Express itcan take you right to the
(19:01):
airport from the hotel isincredible.
I mean, think about it.
You could fly into Toronto, geton the UP Express.
Come to the hotel, gounderground in the path to your
meeting, come back to the hotel,have a great dinner here in
rain or at the library bar, getback on the up, get on your
plane and never have to gooutside.
So why do you need to worryabout whether it's cold or hot
or snowing or raining in Toronto?
(19:21):
We've got an entire world ofwonder for you that you can
experience 365 days of the year,just the way you want it.
MC (19:28):
I love the packaging.
I'm sold.
Where do I buy shares Rightthere?
Edwin (19:33):
at the front desk.
MC (19:34):
Edwin, I can't thank you enough.
This has been tremendous.
I appreciate your insights.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the show.
Edwin (19:40):
Well, thank you for letting us talk a little bit
about Fairmont, when we hope weget to turn some moments into
memories for all of you sometimesoon.
Thank you.
MC (19:47):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
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