The service power of fully engaged employees

My wife, Sally, and I recently spent a few days relaxing at a resort hotel in Phoenix. One of our best customer service experiences came from an unlikely source: an associate named Darryl who was doing construction work to help renovate some of the hotel's rooms.

Businesses often focus customer service initiatives on employees whose customer service role is obvious. At a hotel that might be a front desk agent, bellman, or valet. However, anyone who comes into contact with your customers, whether directly or indirectly, is in the service business. Darryl was a great example of how one person can make a big difference.

We ran into Darryl while walking through the hotel. He greeted us with a warm smile and asked us if he could help us find anything. When we told him we were touring the hotel, Darryl told us about some of the renovations they were working on. He spoke with obvious pride about how the hotel was working to make itself even better.

Darryl then asked us if we were enjoying our stay. We told him we were, especially the time spent lounging by the pool. Darryl gave us a few tips on which pools were best at different times of the day.

Finally, Darryl asked if there was anything he could do to make our stay more enjoyable. We told him no, but Darryl encouraged us to let him or another hotel associate know if there was anything we needed.

Darryl created a positive experience for us because he knew he was in the service business. Do all of your employees know they are in the service business, even if "service" isn't in their title? Are they fully engaged with your organization? Try to imagine what you could achieve if you had more Darryls!

Ignoring little red flags is a big red flag

Someone who is passionate about customer service should always be on the lookout for red flags in their organization. Here’s a red flag from a hotel that I recently stayed in:

This room service basket sat in the hall for two days.

Specifically, this is a room service basket that sat in the hallway for two days. It was a little surprising that it sat there for that long, but it didn’t do a lot to diminish the quality of my stay. 

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was one of many small signs of poor service. A front desk agent breached etiquette by verbally announcing my room number when she checked me in. The bellman passed me in the hall several times without making eye contact or saying hello. The housekeeper made up my bed with a duvet that had a stain on it.

In the big picture, all of these red flags combined told me the hotel's staff wasn't passionate about service. And to think, I probably wouldn't have thought about all of this if I didn't have to pass by that basket everytime I left my hotel room.

Booking meeting space: site visits

Last week, I conducted site visits as part of my search for meeting space for my Getting Started as a Supervisor public workshop. Here's a quick re-cap if you haven't read my previous posts on the subject. I contacted 12 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange County to get a quote on meeting space. Two major hotel chains (previously referred to as Hotel A and Hotel B) were involved.

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Booking meeting space: trying to save your reputation

A good thing happened this Monday. Cyrena from one of Hotel A's properties called to apologize for poor service and see if there was anything she could do to make it right. (See my previous posting on Cyrena and others for the full back story.)

I was impressed that she made the effort to call, wanted to hear me out, and was attempting to make things better. It didn't put her hotel back into the running for my event, but it may have been just enough for me to consider her property in the future.

Look for tomorrow's installment where I'll update you on my site visits and hotels that apparently think "1 business day" means 10 calendar days.

Booking meeting space: better never than late

I'm sure you've heard that old saying, "Better late than never." Today I found an example of the opposite, "Better never than late."

On April 18 I submitted an online request for a quote on meeting space to 12 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange County.  The requests went to two hotel chains, referred to here as Hotel A and B because this is an active sales process. Both chains claimed a 1 business day response time on their websites.

Today, 6 business days later, I received a voice mail from someone at one of Hotel A's locations. The salesperson left a brief message where she essentially told me to expect a call tomorrow from someone else. Tomorrow I will be visiting some of her competitors who have already sent me proposals so her phone call was too little, too late.

In this case, it would have been better to never call at all. Blame it on technology, say your dog ate the lead, or perhaps corporate commandos from another company broke into your office in the middle of the night and stole your computer. Come up with something. Anything. Except, of course, "We just got around to calling you today." Now, you won't get the business AND you'll look worse than if you hadn't bothered to call at all.