There has been more written about customer service than just about any other business topic, so I’m not about to re-write or re-hash customer service words of wisdom that you have all heard many times. Instead I’m going to tell you about a personal experience I had recently which reminded me of some key lessons for customer service. This experience happened at the City Inn hotel in Birmingham.
I was working with a client delivering a 1 day training course and I would be meeting with the client for dinner the evening before then staying 1 night before delivering the programme and then travelling home. I’d never stayed at a City Inn hotel before so I was curious to see what the hotel would be like. Checking out the hotel website I saw that each room came with an Apple iMac for guests to use. Different and pretty cool.
I arrived at the hotel, checked in and went to my room. Keen to start using the iMac I switched it on and started using it. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect to the Internet and actually I couldn’t keep the iMac in computer mode, it kept switching to TV (it doubled as my entertainment centre) and TV mode only had sound. There was also a problem with the air-conditioning in the room too. I reported the problems to reception and the air-conditioning was fixed within 10 minutes but the iMac was going to take longer. I then went out for dinner. Getting back to my room at around 2330 I found the iMac still had the same problems.
Reception, were again very professional and decided to find me a new room, unfortunately there weren’t many free. Eventually I was moved to a different room but it was getting close to 0015. I was tired and not too happy. In the new room with the working iMac I went online and composed an email to submit to City Inn through the City Inn website.
The following morning I was preparing for the training programme when the hotel manager, Stephen Cresswell, came to see me. He was apologetic but he didn’t give a hard luck stories as to why I’d had problems or even a long list of exceptional circumstances. He told me he’d seen my email, simply apologised, told me why there had been problems and assured me the hotel was working hard to fix the problems. He also said he would check in with me at the end of the day.
Sure enough at the end of the day the Stephen checked in with me again, taking a real interest in how the programme had gone. He also explained he wanted to go some way to making up for the problems of the previous evening. To do this he offered me a free stay in the hotel for a weekend for my family and myself. He’d also organised a taxi to be waiting for me to take me to the station after I’d had a drink in the bar, compliments of the hotel.
Now some may be reading this thinking this is good customer service – a free stay in the hotel. But for me there is much more to the offer than a free room. The manager could’ve simply not charged me for the room that day yet he recognised that wouldn’t be the same. I was there on business and the bill would be picked up by a company – I was the one inconvenienced not the company. He also wanted me to come back ‘to demonstrate that the service of the hotel is normally much better’ and he ‘wanted the opportunity for his team and himself to demonstrate that’. I was impressed. He’d not only apologised, but he’d read my email some time between 0030 and 0630, he didn’t make a lot of excuses other than the service had not been to the normal standard, and finally he gave me something that is useful and meaningful.
While in the hotel bar I checked my email for the first time that day. I’d received an email at 0633 from David Orr, the Chief Executive of City Inn. David Orr had picked up his email, seen a complaint and contacted the customer (me) immediately. How many times does a complaint seem to fall on deaf ears in when it is delivered in person? At City Inn they clearly take customer service very seriously and respond immediately. I emailed my frustration after midnight and by 0633 both the hotel manager the group Chief Executive had responded personally.
The lessons?
• Take customer service seriously at all levels starting with the very top of the organisation. If employees see the leaders focusing on customer service they will know it is a priority and feel empowered to do there best.
• If you are going to compensate the customer, make sure it is something that is meaningful to them. A refund is not always the answer.
• Get the customer back – people don’t go back to bad service, but if you can find a way to get them to come back you can show them just how good the service can be. Just remember, when they come back - get it right.
Would I recommend City Inn? Yes. Am I going to take them up on their offer? Yes. How many people have I told this story to – too many to count.
