Who Goes Beside The Elevator?
I travel a lot for business. Recently, I had a 10-day coast-to-coast road-trip. Ten days, ten nights, away from home, and far too many different hotel rooms. At the end of my journey, I had two nights in the same hotel in Calgary. The first night I was checking in late, I did not arrive at the hotel from the airport until midnight.
Even though I stay with this hotel chain a lot and when booking, I always ask to be situated as far from the elevator as possible, because of my late check-in I was put in a room right next to the elevator. Tired from the long late flight I went to sleep. Well, I slept for about an hour. For the rest of the night every time the elevator was in use I could hear the squeaking and creaking of it as it pulleyed its way up and down the 20-some stories.
The next morning, exhausted, I went to the front desk and asked if there was any way I could be moved to another room for my second night. You would have thought I came with the most ridiculous request of the week! The customer service clerk at the desk huffed and puffed his way through the process almost as if he were completing the task reluctantly and he expressed his inconvenience through his body language.
Impressions
So, what is the impression I am left with about this hotel? Well, I had a horrible nights sleep next to the elevator and I had a unpleasant “exchange” process with the front desk. It left a a bad taste…I gotta say! So, what impression do you leave with your customers when they are unhappy? How do you handle their discomfort? How do you decide who gets to sleep next to the elevator?
Every organization deals with people. People have pleasant and unpleasant encounters with your organization. How you deal with the problems is customer service. If you have bad or mediocre customer service you un-do any of the good marketing you have invested in. If on the other hand you resolve problems with excellence then you magnify your marketing and leverage good-will and positive word of mouth.
Great customer service takes a small amount of time and a little bit of effort but in relative terms the “cost” is very minimal and the pay-off is exponential!
Image via Flickr: Joe Penniston
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http://www.shrinkingthecamel.com Bradley J. Moore
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