Last week I had a brief and jam-packed business trip to Winnipeg --- two days, one night and a helluva busy agenda.A coworker and I stayed at an upscale hotel, part of a famous international chain. I have stayed there once before. It wasn't great then, but it was okay, as compared to what it was this time --- bottom-dwelling suckfest lousy, stuff-you-tell-stories-of legendary awful.
Rather than bitch and whine about a lousy stay at a fancy hotel, I have willed myself to be positive and treat this as a valuable life lesson. So here are my learnings:
1- Non-smoking rooms are not guaranteed: Even though 95% of their rooms are non-smoking, you may still get a room that smells like the tin foil inside of a pack of Camels. Be prepared.
2- People in the hotel industry cannot count: What do you mean over-sold? I have a confirmed reservation. Do you not know how many rooms there are in this building? Math counts, people.
3- Not all customer service people like customers: Assuming the front desk people are your front of the line customer service people, shouldn't they be happy and pleasant? My lesson -- appreciate the great ones, they are a rare breed.
4- Monkey see, monkey do: When you ask for the supervisor and she is too busy to come out from the back, or you hand over your business card and ask for the General Manager to call and she is too damn busy to make that call, don't expect good service from the underpaid staff at the front desk. We learn what we see.
5- A bad hotel is good for the environment: No hot water equals teeth chattering cold equals get my freezing white ass out of the shower fast equals less water used equals Al Gore loving save the planet fast shower.
That's it people, I am now a wiser man due to that crappy hotel experience. I humbly thank them...
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12 comments:
I find the MOST customer service people do not like customers, nor do they like serving. Isn't it ironic? More so than 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
Hey Brahm, you got to name and shame that hotel! You never know, the bosses of those waste-of-space people might get to read it.
On another note relating to customer service. My US friend Clare (from the blog 'Gary the Dog'), is a mystery shopper and she took me on one of her assignments. Needless to say the service was crap, but it was so rewarding filling out the mystery shopper forms afterwards! Does that make me a bad person?!!
I'm in customer service right now and even though I'm good at it from my experience it's hard to be good for every customer. Sometimes we run into people who are never happy.
Still, it's no excuse when the whole hotel gets it wrong. Wish we knew what chain it was so I don't ever use them.
I'm doing customer service right now for a cell phone carrier and it is difficult. The training makes it sound like our customers are all reasonabaly intelligent, rational and responsible people. Some I would just as soon revoke their phone priveleges the way they talk to us.
The reservation remark reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where he and Elaine are trying to rent a car and they gave his car away and he explained the meaning of "reservation" to them.
i love when you travel!! there's always "something"... having worked in my youth for a customer service in a major canadian company (now defunct...), i prided myself in my services, but always made fun of people, even sometimes in their faces, as often enough, they were a bunch of dumbasses just trying to screw the company, but i could see through them, despite my young age. i grew up with adults only. i've learned quickly of their ways...
i kinda miss those days, as they were always good for a laugh, despite some aggravations.
:)~
HUGZ
The hotel was the Fairmont, and I feel kinda bad naming them as have since spoken to the General Manager and the call went ok. Plus I am getting married at another Fairmont in three weeks.
I too work in sales and service, and I am often the dude who gets the angry customers, and sometimes we have screwed up, and sometimes we have to own up to it. It is the people in any situation like that who just don't seem to give a crap who bug me...
Why oh why can't I have a smooth and easy business trip???
You are SO RIGHT- that was much better than bitching and whining about a lousy stay at a fancy hotel!
HA!
Yeah, i hear you, though actually because I am a spoiled brat at hotels. Bob travels every week so he has a zillion Marriott points and now I know the nuances of a category 8 (like the one I just visited in NYC) and a cat 4.
Chocolates on the pillow, baby. ;)
xoxo
For the most part customer service has gone to hell. And in this day and age I'm not sure why? It should be that customer service should be on the top of the list for any company. I think it may be that people are just so unhappy and it is hard to give good customer service when your employer is treating you like crap. But it is still no exuse. If you take a job then it is your responsibility to do the job.
I don't know...that "Welcome to Winnipeg" sign? The exclamation mark makes me a little suspicious.
I have a theory that customer service people start off all friendly and eager-to-help and then interaction with the general public warps them into the uncivil, wasted, miserable people they become. There's a special place in heaven for those who have to deal with the public.
On the other hand, screw 'em. They should be thrilled to have a job.
wow
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