After a recent three night stay at a hotel in Madison, WI; I’m left pondering three questions?

1. Why do more times than not hotel bathtubs drain slowly?
2. What processes do hotels have in place to clean drains once they don’t drain at all?
3. What percentage of hotel customers hate standing in water when showering?

My visit to this hotel would have been perfect, except for the whole plugged tub problem. Whenever this happens on a one night stay, I usually let the staff know on my way out so they can correct the problem for the next guest. Although I have no way of knowing whether they do or not, I assume that they didn’t know it was running slowly and I provide them with what I believe to be useful information.

On this visit, since it was three nights, I left a note on the tub after the first night, thinking problem would be solved for the next two nights. Nope, drain still clogged on night two and three. There goes the theory about they just didn’t know.

Like I said, I really liked this hotel. Staff was helpful, breakfast was tasty, room was clean and quiet. Is a slow-running drain a deal-breaker for where I go next time? No, especially because every hotel chain I’ve tried seems to have this same problem.

Maybe the staff cleans drains on a schedule, and it wasn’t time yet. Maybe they wait until it’s completely plugged and notice it when trying to clean a tub that’s full of water. In either case my conclusion was that they knew about the problem and chose to do nothing.

My note read “Hi, tub is draining slowly. Thanks.” I suppose a person might have interpreted my intent as “No biggie, but when you get around to it, you might want to check this tub drain.” Unfortunately that would not have been the correct interpretation. A closer one would have been, “I can’t stand the sound of shower water hitting standing water in the bottom of a tub and want this thing cleaned out so that I can enjoy my next two showers.”

If it is small stuff, don’t sweat it. Just make sure you know what is and what isn’t. And when you are in the customer service business, you aren’t the one who gets to decide. If the customer mentions it, the problem matters. Do something about it.

Last week my car was hit in the Q. Cumbers restaurant parking lot, and the driver took off. I called the restaurant just after closing time on the off-chance that someone saw or heard something that would help me identify the driver. Imagine my surprise when Erin, the manager, was ready to tell me the whole story.

Erin said she had just stepped outside a minute when she heard the bang of a big old Buick hitting my Civic as it tried to get into a parking place. Erin talked to the driver and asked for her name and number so that she could help make the connection. The woman refused to give it but said she would leave her name and number on my car. The note must have blown off because I never got it.

Erin sounded genuinely upset that I was going to be stuck picking up the repair costs, and then suggested a plan. While she didn’t have the woman’s name or license plate for me, she recognized the person the woman met at the restaurant for dinner. He was a regular customer, well-known to all the staff members in the restaurant. The plan was to wait for the man to come back and then get the information from him.

Erin called me two days in a row to tell me that the guy hadn’t come back yet, but she made sure her whole team was on the look out. She was coming up on two days off and reminded the other staff members to remember to look for this guy when she was gone.

Five nights later, I got a call from the woman who hit my car. Erin and her team had successfully chased this thing down for me. An hour later I heard these happy words from her insurance company, “We accept full responsibility for the accident.”

When I am doing workshops and seminars on customer service skills I stress the importance of identifying and meeting customer expectations. What I rarely suggest is blowing customers away by going above and beyond their wildest expectations. This is what Erin did. Her actions have given me a new story to tell as I help work teams take their customer service to the next level.

My problem wasn’t her problem. The most I expected from talking to someone at Q. Cumbers was a little sympathy and best wishes on my search for the other driver. Instead they sprang into action to help. They seemed tenacious in their quest to find the person, and ultimately were successful.

Erin even called one last time just to make sure the other driver followed through and contacted me as promised. And in case it hadn’t happened, she said she had the man’s license plate, so I’d have something to chase if necessary.

I’ve been eating at Q. Cumbers for years with no particular connection to the place, but after Erin’s efforts on my behalf, I have a whole new feeling and sense of loyalty about this restaurant.

There’s nothing more frustrating than ordering something, waiting in anticipation and having it not be right when it arrives. My wife and I recently ordered new HunterDouglas blinds for our bedroom from Hirshfield’s in Edina. When they showed up we discovered four problems.

1. Slight tear in one.
2. Hung crooked.
3. Too short.
4. Nightmare to install.

As it turned out, problems 2 and 3 were things we may have been able to resolve ourselves, but we didn’t know that at the time.

I called Hirshfield’s, and they said to bring the blinds in to be fixed. The person I talked to on the phone didn’t help me feel any better about my problem or give me much hope.  When we arrived at the store, I was ready for a battle, but then we met John. He greeted us warmly, listened to our story, looked at our photos of the problems, and simply said, “We’ll take care of it.”

His manner was kind and confident. Soon we were talking about gardening and dinner because getting the blinds fixed was a forgone conclusion.  We told him we couldn’t turn over the blinds right then because we would have nothing for our bedroom.  He said to take them and he’d get back to us with the plan.

He called that night and told us Designer Blinds, the HunterDouglas manufacturer, would be sending us temporary blinds. When they arrived, we would bring the damaged blinds to his store and he’d send them out for repair. The next day he called with the additional news that when the repaired blinds were returned, a factory rep would stop out and install them to make sure everything was right. That was a huge relief because they were so difficult to snap into their brackets.

As we discussed timing he told me that if I had any questions, I should call him as often as I wanted. He wouldn’t be bothered by my calls and had no problem pestering the manufacturer on my behalf.

A couple days later, I received a call from the repair manager, Paul, in Omaha telling me he had the blinds in his shop. He called again the next day, to tell me they were on the way and even tentatively scheduled his person to come out two days later, after he thought they would arrive. To my delight, Spee-Dee delivered them the next day.

Today the repair tech, Rex, came to install them.  He arrived on time, took off his shoes, installed the blinds, adjusted them and readjusted them until they were just right. Then he agreed to look at a couple older blinds that weren’t quite right and adjusted them as well; the whole time teaching me the tricks so that I could fix these in the future myself.

Why am I so happy? Multiple reasons.

1. Was kept in the loop the whole time.
2. Consistently reassured that the problem would be taken care of.
3. Retailer, manufacturer, delivery company all worked together seamlessly.
4. Everyone kept their promises.
5. Got a couple extras for my trouble, a technician to install them and his willingness to look at additional blinds as well.
6. Everyone listened well and demonstrated through their actions that they cared.

Besides my initial disappointment created by the problems, the only downside in this whole experience is that all the players have once again raised my expectations for future customer service experiences. I wonder if they’ll be met.

Thank you John, Paul, and Rex.  Job well done!

Photo by FilmNut

One evening I was driving home after a long day of facilitating. I was tired and hungry. Suddenly down the road my oasis appeared. McDonald’s was at the next exit.

I had stopped at this same McDonald’s on a busy Friday evening a couple of weeks earlier. My experience then was mediocre at best. My expectations on this night were not high, but my choices were few and my stomach was empty.

As I placed my usual order, I noticed three baskets of uncooked fries hanging above the deep fryers. I also saw a few fries remaining under the heat lamps. Suddenly a little warning signal went off in the back of my head. I was going to get cold, soggy fries. Of course I couldn’t know for sure, but I was already preparing myself for disappointment.

The young boy who was helping me placed my burger and a soda cup on the tray and then went for the fries. I saw him hesitate ever so slightly. He scooped up some fries and began to walk towards me. Again he paused. Suddenly, he stopped and said, “These fries aren’t good enough.”

He turned to throw them away, along with those under the heat lamps. He put all three baskets into the fryers, and we began to wait those long three minutes.

The folks running the drive-up window started frowning as cars backed up. The rest of the front-end staff shuffled aimlessly as they waited for fries. I watched the timers move down from three minutes towards zero. It seemed as if time was standing still.

We all waited because a boy who appeared to be no older than 14 “pulled the cord” and stopped the line. It seemed like a brave thing to do. It was also the right thing to do. Those were the best fries I ever had.

Photo by evelynishere

Realizing this amount of money was too small to justify the time and energy he already had spent on the phone, the salesman closed the conversation by telling the manager, “It’s going to take $4 to satisfy me, but the decision is yours. I’ll look for your check in the mail.” A week later, a $2 check arrived.

Either the ramp manager never wanted to see or hear from this salesman again for making such a big deal over a couple of bucks, or he didn’t understand the concept of life time value (LTV).

LTV is the amount a customer could potentially spend with you over the course of a normal life. Imagine this salesman parking in this ramp five times a month at $5 a shot for the next 20 years until retirement. The salesman’s potential LTV to the parking ramp is $6,000. Unfortunately for the parking ramp owner, the manager sent $6,000 to his competitor’s ramp to save $2. How might knowing the LTV for each of your customers impact the $2 decisions you make on a daily basis?

Benefits and costs are very personal and usually go well beyond the service received and the payment made. Benefits often include intangibles such as security, fun, and prestige. Costs can include hassle, fear, and unfulfilled promises.

If you want to deliver excellent value, make the time to understand benefits and costs from your customer’s perspective. Once you understand the equation, your job is to make sure that the benefits outweigh the costs. Keep the equation positive, and your customer will be happy. And when the customer is happy, your team wins.