I travelled to Anaheim, California last week for Adam Urbanski’s Info Profit Success 2009 workshop (which was FABULOUS, by the way) and, due to our primary hotel being overbooked, had to spend my first night at another hotel.

Ideal?  No, but it happens and I’d just have to switch hotels in the morning (they’re all within walking distance so not a big deal).

So what happened?

There were several issues with the first hotel (the second, primary hotel was the Marriott and they were great!):

1. My assistant had requested early check-in.  No rooms were ready and I had to wait 4 hours for one.
2. I asked to join their Points/Reward program and the same front desk clerk told me to do it online as it was “easier for her”.
3. A new front desk clerk (shift change) and the original (from #1 and 2 above) were yelling (literally) across the lobby about a bellman neither liked — there were several guests in the lobby watching on in surprise.
4. The front desk told my assistant that a taxi from the airport would be about $35 — it was $60 (without tip). Note: The $60 was confirmed by the hotel next door as average.
5. No one thanked me for my business.

So what are we to do?

Simple. . .

1. Tell the never-before-seen front desk clerk upon checkout (manager was offsite when I checked in and out) and she was very gracious.
2. Email assistant to put this particular hotel on our “never again” list.
3. Spend the 4 hours walking to/from/around Downtown Disney buying shirts for hubby’s band from the House of Blues and having a great time.

No matter what business you’re in, it’s critical to make your clients feel welcome and appreciated.  How can you do that easily AND automatically?  

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Business Planning, Marketing Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.