Over the past month, I’ve written about some unfortunate customer service situations related to hotels.
One involving a Hilton in Miami.
The other involves the Holiday Inn Express in Newington.
Hilton, for the record, offered me restitution in the form of rewards points. It wasn’t exactly overwhelming, but I was pleased to receive a response to my complaint.
Holiday Inn has refused to respond to my business partner regarding their egregious actions, despite promising to do so.
He’s now considering legal actions.
However, not all customer service situations are terrible, and when they delight, they deserve a little attention too.
Here are two:
Back in April of this year, Grill 110 in Canton, Connecticut, offered us a less-than-ideal experience. After writing about the experience, I was immediately contacted by the person who manages The Shoppes at Farmington Valley, where the restaurant is located. She apologized on behalf of the restaurant, even though she was not directly affiliated with Grill 110 in any way, and offered to make up for the poor service by meeting me and my family at the Shoppes and taking us for ice cream.
It took until July for us to finally return to Canton, but she continued to email me, reminding me that she was ready and willing to get together when the time was right.
This constant contact was the most impressive part of the whole experience. Rather than leaving it up to me to reach out when the time was right, she reminded me of her offer at least three times between April and July.
When we finally arrived in Canton, she greeted us outside Ben & Jerry’s. She gave us a gift card for the store, bags full of swag from various shops, another apology, and a great conversation about the history of The Shoppes at Farmington Valley and the importance of customer service.
She turned a negative experience in a restaurant into an exceedingly positive experience that will bring us back to Canton again and again.
We’ve already been back twice since that day.
She gets it. And her efforts were deeply appreciated.
Two days ago, Elysha and I celebrated our wedding anniversary in New York City, where we visited The Met and The Whitney, saw a Broadway show, and enjoyed some delicious meals. When the person checking us in at our hotel — the Chatwal by Hyatt on 44th Street — asked what brought us to New York, I told her that it was our anniversary.
Shortly after arriving in our room, there was a knock on the door. The front desk staff had sent up a bottle of champagne, a charcuterie plate, and a card congratulating us on our anniversary.
Beautiful and brilliant. A gesture deeply appreciated by Elysha and me. We ate some of the meat and cheese before heading off to dinner and enjoyed the champagne after returning from the show.
The hotel also provided complimentary slippers to their guests — which are almost always single-use and disposable — but Elysha had always wanted a pair of travel slippers for hotel visits and saw this pair as small enough to include in future travels and surprisingly comfortable. Rather than just assuming they were single-use, she asked someone at the front desk the next day if they would be disposing of the slippers after our stay, and he said yes.
She was pleased. Travel slippers acquired.
But as we stood at the elevators, waiting to go up, the man appeared with two brand-new pairs of slippers, still wrapped in their sealed bags. “Here,” he said. “These are for you.”
Another tiny gesture that meant a lot.
The next time we are staying in New York, we will be staying at The Chatwal by Hyatt. They have earned our business.
I’ll also be writing to them, thanking them for their excellent service and crediting the front desk staff for their attention to detail.
Providing excellent customer service doesn’t require a lot. Simply meeting customers’ expectations is usually enough.
Exceeding expectations by correcting mistakes quickly and consistently, and delighting customers with small, meaningful gestures, is enough to bring people back again and again and speak highly of you and your company in the future.
