What butler training teaches organisations about hospitality | Vincent Vermeulen | TEDxUHasselt

Imagine this. You walk into a shop. You look at all those products, shoes, All of a sudden, a sales person walks up to you. What is the most likely question they're going to ask

you? Can I help you? Now, how many of you don't like that question? And that's what I see in rooms all around the world.

My name is Vincent, and I train butlers. And it all started in 1884. I know, I still look amazing. It actually started with my great-grandfather. And I come from a long line of hospitality uh

people. And in fact, I grew up in a hotel. And when I grew up in the hotel, I went of course to the hotel school. And after the hotel school, I went to the South

of France. And I became an assistant sommelier in a two-star Michelin restaurant. When I stepped into that two-star Michelin restaurant, something hit me.

I didn't know it then, but I was crazy about personalized service, and it has driven me the rest of my life. I came back to Belgium. I took over the hotel and the restaurant of my

parents. And together with my brother, we grew into a big catering company. And by the turn of the century, I realized I don't like my job.

And why not? Well, because the service wasn't personalized anymore. I wanted to go back to that personalized service. So, we sold the company, and I went to I did my butler training, and I arrived in one of

the most high-level hotels in England. And I quickly learned something there that I have applied in my school for a very long time. And it was the difference between service and hospitality. Many organizations around the world think that service and hospitality

is exactly the same, but it's not. It's comparing apples and pears. What is it? Well, it's not that difficult. Service is your technical knowledge.

I mean, a car mechanic knows how how to fix your car. A surgeon know exactly how to operate. That is very specific to every single Hospitality is completely different.

It's all about emotions, and this is And that's what I teach my butler students. And now you probably think, well, what does this have to do with me? I'm not a butler.

I don't want to I don't want to be become a butler. Well, there's a lot of similarities with your organizations and butlers. You will agree with me that life exists of relationships.

And a customer relationship exists of two parts. Frequency and duration. Frequency means how many times do you see your customer? Once a week, once a month, once every 5 The duration is how long is that interaction?

When you meet someone, is that 5 minutes? Is it an hour? Is it a The higher the frequency, the higher the duration, the more intense the And this is exactly what happens between butlers and families, for example.

Imagine a butler starting working for a family, and he works for Mr. John Smith. And the butler would say, "Mr. Smith, your car has arrived.