Customer Service: Little Things Matter

Imagine the scene. I have decided to take a weekend off and head up to the hinterland for a weekend away from the rat race. Two whole days of luxury with the person I love. Having made the decision to spend the money pampering myself, the sense of anticipation is electric. Good vibes flood my body.

I book on-line. It all seems pretty easy. I even got a discount for a late booking. The confirmation e-mail came through. I am set. What a great weekend this is going to be!

I drive up to the resort. My first glimpse is of a breathtaking property. I know I have made the right decision. There is some kind of construction work going on at the gates that I hardly even notice as I feast my eyes on what will be my home for two glorious days.

I park the car. A little confused by the signage at first, I eventually find my way, collecting my overnight bag, heading up to reception.

Checking in is a breeze after I draw the staff attention away from a problem they seem to be having with a computer or printer or such thing. A pleasant man escorts us to our room which looks exactly as I had expected. And wow, someone was thoughtful enough to put a bowl of fruit in the room. My dream weekend has commenced.

I flop down on the beautiful, huge bed to read about the facilities here. The food at the restaurant looks divine. I flick on the TV to see what channels they have and what movies are showing, making a mental note to watch a movie I have missed seeing before, in the comfort of my bed after dinner.

Now to explore; We decide to take one of the walks mentioned in the room compendium. It is no quite clear from the compendium where to go, but the nice people in reception give me directions, once I get their attention.

The walk is beautiful, if a bit longer than I thought, because the signs were a bit hard to follow. But that's probably just me. Signs and directions were never my strength.

The shower after coming back from my walk was great. Nice and hot. The water pressure was a bit low, but never mind, there is a drought on and I can't be selfish about water.

Now to book dinner. What? The restaurant is full? Didn't anyone contact us to advise us to book in advance? Well, no they did not. But you will see what you can do? Thank you. A table set up especially for us, you say. Thanks. See you at dinner.

The food was great. The young man who served us was very nice and seemed to know the menu well. The gesture of the free glasses of champagne to make up for not being informed about booking dinner was much appreciated. We did seem to be out of the way a bit though, in our special table and there did not seem to be enough staff on as we had to keep on getting our waiter's attention rather than him noticing when we needed something.

The young lady from reception was so helpful, but alas to no avail. The remote or the set top box or something is wrong and we can't watch our movie we were looking forward to viewing. Never mind, our favourite TV programmes are on anyway and we did enjoy that. And we did appreciate the bottle of wine brought to our room in appreciation of the few little problems we had over dinner.

Breakfast; my favourite meal of the day. The sunrise this morning was stunning. We sat out on our balcony early before breakfast with hot coffee we made from the free sachets left in the room. How thoughtful is that!

Most of breakfast was great. The juices were really fresh and the bacon was crisp, just how I like it. The hash browns were a bit soggy and the staff seemed a lot more casual than at dinner, talking more amongst themselves than serving customers.

It was little annoying to find the newspapers we were reading before breakfast had been removed by housekeeping. The crossword will have to wait.

I should have known that we would need to book a massage at the retreat. Silly me! Still, the pool and spa were both great, a good top up before we check out.

I did appreciate the apologies from reception about the mix-up on the room rate with the discount and all. It was no problem for them to fix. Now back to the rat race. I wonder whether I'll do this again. I'm feeling a bit under whelmed and I don't know why.

About the Author

Kevin Dwyer is the founder of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more or see more articles visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au ©2007.