Marketing Clinic Feature by Dee Blick of The Marketing Gym & award winning Chartered Marketer.
Sleepless night and a surly service
A few weeks ago I arrived at a well known hotel in Bristol at 10:10 PM after a four-hour journey. Check-in was effi cient and within minutes I was in my room. We had requested a quiet room and so I was alarmed to discover that the traffi c noise outside my room was so noisy I thought that the window had been left open. It hadn’t. With it being late, I couldn’t face complaining and so decided to turn on the TV to drown out the traffi c noise.
The television didn’t work.
I paid a visit to reception and was told there were no quiet rooms available, no batteries and no spare remote controls. Instead I was off ered a complimentary evening meal (at 10:30?!) or a discount on my next stay.
I then discovered that the mattress was so old that the springs were protruding from end to end, with only the thinnest layer of fabric to stop them from breaking out of their confi nes.
A few days later I received the ubiquitous e-feedback form. I spent 10 minutes completing it, explaining the problems, deciding that an absence of melodrama or thinly veiled expletives were best avoided. I did however in the comments section add “I am curious to know if you will actually pick up the phone and respond to my feedback or ignore it completely.”
I’ve not heard a bean from the hotel group which does suggest their feedback process is a farce.
16 To advertise in thewire t. 07720 429 613 e.
the.wire@btinternet.com
So what can you learn from this experience? •
If you’re competing on price, you can’t give customers everything and they don’t expect everything. But, you have to be brilliant at the basics and deliver their expectations. I didn’t expect fl uff y Egyptian towels and Jo Malone toiletries in the bathroom for £42. But I did expect a quiet room, a comfortable bed and a television that worked.
• When seeking customer feedback, don’t regard it as a ‘going through the motions’ exercise; a box to tick. Respond swiftly to complaints. Unhappy customers enable you to improve your business. They tell you about glitches and faults that may otherwise not see the light of day because most customers don’t like complaining even when on the receiving end of bad service.
• Empower your staff to make decisions in the customer’s favour.
• Double check customer requests before delivering your product or service. A quiet room is just that. Not a room by two lanes of noisy traffi c.
• And never take your customers for granted or treat them like second-class citizens.
Clinic
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