Steve Wynn, chairman and CEO, Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Before heading off to EFI Connect, I had the opportunity to review Steve Wynn’s very impressive resume. Even though I have been to ten consecutive EFI Connect conferences at this establishment, I had never had the pleasure of meeting him, nor did I know much about him.

Turns out Mr. Wynn is a legend in the resort business. He created the first destination resort in Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget, as a result of a 1971 transaction with Howard Hughes. Mr. Wynn was named one of the “25 Captains of Capitalism” by Forbes Magazine. In honoring Wynn Resorts as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies for seven years in a row, Fortune Magazine stated, “CEO Steve Wynn’s transformation of mundane hotels and casinos into sparkling gaming palaces has forever changed Las Vegas.”

And though I personally don’t particularly like visiting Vegas, I can’t imagine staying anywhere else when I do go. So I was really looking forward to hearing what he had to say. Having Steve Wynn as a conference keynote builds on EFI’s heritage of bringing in knowledgeable, thought-provoking keynote speakers to the conference, for which attendance grew more than 10% year over year. Following his keynote, a small group of us were able to spend about an hour with him, and I have to say, we were spellbound.

Mr. Wynn’s talk was a bit wide ranging, and he couldn’t resist throwing in a few political barbs, but the primary focus was on a few critical factors that have made his resorts such a legend in the industry, factors that any of us can easily introduce into our own businesses to gain positive results. By the way, he apologized to EFI CEO Guy Gecht for being late to a meeting since he had committed to taking Katie Perry back home from skiing (in his jet, of course). Despite the fact that he runs in different circles than most of us, his advice is completely down to earth.

Mr. Wynn began his talk by saying, “We all think our products are better, but is it true? Underlying every major business franchise is a simple question: Is it really better, is the price justified, is the thing we say about this hotel true? You get to decide, not me. And in this building we have learned many lessons. The crystal chandelier, the hand woven carpets, the ornamental iron and stone are great, but that is just stuff. The stuff of this place is 10% of the franchise. Only people make people happy, it is that simple.”

He went on to ask, “How do you create an organization like that? Is there a technique, principles, something you can do that energizes people to go to another level? I believe that leadership is defined by making ordinary people perform in extraordinary ways. When leaders bring their flock to another level, they have victories.  But how to do it?”

I am sure there are many things Mr. Wynn and his management team do to make it happen – and it does happen: The service at the Wynn is outstanding and I have never had a bad experience with an employee there in the ten years I have attended Connect. As anyone who travels often knows, there are always plenty of opportunities for bad service or rude employees in hotels, airports and the like!

But my key takeaway from listening to him had to do with storytelling. It might sound a bit odd, but it works for him, and it can work for your business as well. Mr. Wynn points out that he gets his employees from the same pool as every other establishment in Las Vegas, but his goal is to make each person’s job something that makes them feel good about themselves once they are hired. Here’s the story!

At The Wynn, there are some 1,200 to 1,300 supervisors, anyone who supervises two or more people. Supervisors hold 10- to 15-minute pre-shift meetings every day with their teams. Sort of like the staff meetings in the movie Maid in Manhattan. But there’s a difference at The Wynn. Wynn put all of his supervisors through a storytelling training program and redesigned the pre-shift meetings. Depending on what department they were in, some would have more contact with guests than others. For example, housekeepers don’t get as much chance to talk to customers as a waiter or dealer.  In the pre-shift meeting, supervisors ask staff if anything happened the day before with a customer. They have been trained to draw stories out of the group even if they are shy or reserved. Wynn said, “The first time we started this years ago, one of the bellmen shared a story. In the South Tower suites, we take the baggage up in the elevator the old-fashioned way and the bellman explains how the room works, asks if they have any questions. In this case, he had taken an older couple up, and the woman shrieked that she had left their medicine on the hall table. They were confused and frightened. The bellman asked if there was anyone home that could check, and yes, the housekeeper was there; she confirmed that indeed the medicine was there. This bellman had a brother that lived nearby their home in the LA area, and asked the couple to tell the housekeeper that his brother would be by to pick up the medicine and bring it for the next day. As it turns out, the bellman himself retrieved the medication and returned with it at 3 AM. Those people will tell that story to a thousand people. And the supervisor also praised the bellman in the meeting for ‘making this hotel everything they could dream of.”

Wynn went on to tell several other stories, but you get the idea. This is a practice they have followed for years, and it shows everywhere you go in the hotel. We asked some of the employees about it, and it is real.

Richard Branson is known to have said that you don’t need to focus on customer satisfaction; that if you have happy, engaged employees, you will also have happy customers, and the focus should be on the employees. The Wynn is a great example of this. And your business can be as well.  Maybe storytelling isn’t the way you do it in your business, but it is an idea to get started with.

One other thing Mr. Wynn said that really stuck with me when we were in our small group meeting.  He said that his greatest fear is becoming too isolated from the day-to-day realities in the hotel and from the customer experience.

My challenge to you is this:  Give the storytelling a shot. And make sure that you set aside time each and every day to interact with customers … travel with your sales people or invite customers in, but spend time with them to understand their greatest fears and address those as is appropriate based on the relationship you have with them.

Make 2016 the year of the best ever customer experience … by making it the best-ever employee experience. And share your stories with us!