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Customer Service the City Inn Way – Follow-up

A few weeks ago I shared a personal customer service experience I’d had at the City Inn hotel in Birmingham.  Recently I went back to the hotel and this is the update.

The hotel was busy, it appeared there was at least one function and the hotel looked full.  Despite this the service from every member of staff I encountered was excellent – professional, courteous, efficient and human (they took time to talk to us).

The hotel manager had left a personal handwritten note in our room thanking us for returning and adding his number should we have any questions or issues.  We had none.

The hotel and its staff exceeded our expectations and made us feel valued.  We will recommend the hotel to anyone and I would certainly recommend the hotel chain.

It was a great example of recovering from a poor customer service situation, starting from a negative point, and turning it round so that we left as promoters of the hotel and the hotel group.

Thanks to Stephen and the team at City Inn Birmingham.

Presenting Pt 2 – Acronyms, Abbreviations and Terminology (maybe not that bad after all)

Acronyms, abbreviations and terminology – none of these are inventions of modern life; they’ve been around as long as the spoken word.  Why do we use them?  Well we use acronyms to help us remember terms, abbreviations for convenience so we don’t need to keep repeating a string of words and terminology is useful when talking about subjects in a specific field or discipline.  But how about using them in presentations?

Most books or training sessions tell you never to use terminology, always avoid jargon, cut out all acronyms and explain all abbreviations.  Often this is good sound advice and it is advice I would also give unless…

Presenting Pt 1 – Don’t Forget To Tell Your Story

Presenting is something that most people have to do at least once or twice in their career; often it is something that most have to do in one way or another on a regular basis.  I am regularly asked to run some form of programme that will help develop or improve their presentation skills.  Each programme I run always have the same key message – tell your story.

MBTI – Getting It Right

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a very powerful tool that is very flexible and robust and can truly help to move individuals and organisations. Yet too often I come across poor implementation, execution and rollout of MBTI that at best achieves nothing or at worst leaves the client confused or taking inappropriate actions.