by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
A lot of cheese has been moved at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront the past couple of months.
New uniforms are on order. All 966 rooms will be remodeled in the next year and a half. New management is in place and a new attitude is being instilled. New general manager Phil Tufano says the changes are not so much about what was wrong with the Adam’s Mark, but rather about converting the hotel to the Hyatt look and raising customer service levels to Hyatt’s expectations.
“We call it ‘Hyattizing.’ We are putting in our systems, policies, procedures and service training,” said Tufano, adding that every employee is going through customer service training in an effort to familiarize them with the Hyatt system.
This conversion process is not new for Tufano, who found out on a Friday that he would be in Jacksonville the next Tuesday. Tufano has been with Hyatt for 20 years and has led other conversions.
“I also took over the Hyatt Palm Springs, so I had done this before,” said Tufano.
The number of changes that must happen quickly when a 966-room hotel changes ownership can be daunting. At or near the top of Tufano’s list of priorities was to have his marketing department contact all the hotel’s customers, especially those under contract for conventions and luncheons, and inform them of the change. The hotel’s computers also had to be converted to the Hyatt system. And, the signs needed to be changed.
“The permanent signs have been ordered,” said Tufano. “We had to go through City Council to get them approved.”
The changes aren’t being made by only upper management. About 95 percent of the Adam’s Mark employees are still with Hyatt and Tufano and his staff are working with many of them during the conversion process, especially in the area of uniforms. Gone are the days of burnt-orange shirts and bellmen wearing get-ups more suited for Chicago. Soon, employees will be sporting a more Tommy Bahama look — khakis, tropical shirts, sport coats and khaki skirts for the women. Tufano is presenting the employees with several options and will go with what proves popular.
Tufano is hoping the new uniforms will help create a new positive self-image for employees. A training program that stresses customer service and the assurance that mistakes are to be learned from should combine to quickly bring the entire hotel up to Hyatt standards.
“We want to instill a culture change and that takes a focus on customer service and proper training. We want our employees to know that if they make a mistake, we want them to learn from it. We want them to be comfortable making decisions,” explained Tufano, who has worked at Hyatts in Orlando and Atlanta before, so he was familiar with the southern work ethic. What pleasantly surprised him about Jacksonville were the personalities of his 400 new employees. “Throughout Jacksonville, the attitude is wonderful. You teach people how to do things, you can’t teach people to be nice or how to smile. If the service is not there, that’s from a lack of direction and that’s the fault of management.”
If a new attitude isn’t pervasive enough, hotel guests and visitors will notice plenty of aesthetic changes and improvements. The front desk is getting a makeover that includes a new color scheme and tile. The dominant teal will be replaced by earth tones of greens, browns and darker blues.
“It will be more contemporary Florida with a little more luxury. A little more Hyatt,” said Tufano, adding the fitness center and pool area are also being revamped.
Next spring renovations on all 966 rooms will begin one floor at a time. In addition to changing the look of the rooms, Hyatt plans to change the feel by incorporating new materials into the bedding and room aesthetics. Tufano said it will take about that long to approve all the changes, sign a contractor and begin work after the busy season which runs from January through April.
Tufano also said the restaurant Bravo! will be closed for the summer and may or may not reopen as Bravo! in the fall. The hotel owns the restaurant and the space and may opt to lease the space to a well-known chain.