[Live from runway 26R - LAX]
I wrapped up my Monrovia, California stay by doing laundry.
The Hampton Inn didn't have the facilities and said I could use the Embassy Suites next door.
Off I went. The nice front desk person, Shiela, says "Welcome!"
After she tells me where the laundry room is, she says:
"We have a great fitness center, free wireless, free breakfast, free evening drinks. Please walk around and enjoy your stay. Perhaps, next time you will consider staying with us."
As I waited for the rinse cycle, I thought about Jeff Jarvis.
Why Jeff?
The whole episode of Jeff's Dell showed the power of Blogging to get the word out. We've learned that this customer feedback loop is going to be a serious force to get company attention.
Hopefully, smart companies will get it.
But I hope the Shiela's of the world can benefit as well. This young person, non manager type, was amazing. I am going to give em some business and it is because of her.
I'm blogging it so that you know about Monrovia, the Embassy Suites and Shiela.
Maybe we should all crank up the positive venting, so to speak.
When we see good service, find good talent, a blog entry serves (I hope) the same purpose on the positive side as the bad stories.
And let's hope the companies who tune in for the bad news, pick up and act on the good as well.
The medium is powerful.
Here's to Shiela.
Up up n away!!
Simon Cooper headed up Delta Hotels in the late 80's/early 90's (now a separate Canadian brand of Fairmont/CP); last I heard he was a senior executive for Marriott in the U.S. He also was a fellow graduate of the Executive MBA program I participated in and often was asked to speak at UofToronto MBA events.
Simon would talk about the hotel business and how his greatest fear was that the lowest paid employees were the ones in contact with his customers. So he made sure that all employees working with customers were empowered to make decisions that would cause customers to return. I personally experienced this several times -- for instance, once when I mentioned the poor service in a restaurant, my bill for that meal was immediately and spontaneously zeroed out by the desk clerk. Two points:
1. Leadership must create an environment where the employees feel comfortable (and empowered) making these decisions.
2. The employee motivation that arises from that empowerment probably far outweighs any increase in compensation they could receive.
Simon set a standard by which I have gone on to measure hotels and my desire to return.
Posted by: Jim Courtney | August 18, 2005 at 01:45
Rick, how about tagging this post so when I'm looking for a hotel recommendation I can find it (maybe on Technorati) along with a recommendation from someone who's opinion I respect. Stephen O'Grady (http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/000403.html) of redmonk fame is grass rooting for the same thing on Flickr using 'poweroutlet' to locate AC power at airports. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sog/3317770/)
Posted by: Gary Potter | August 18, 2005 at 07:31
I sent this url and the referring url (DailyPundit's post) to Embassy Suites, letting them know that this has influenced the choice of my next hotel stay.
The future.
It's here.
Posted by: kobekko | August 19, 2005 at 16:48