Here is an interesting article from the Motella Blog. http://motella.blogspot.com Maybe not the kind of service you need to follow!!! I wonder how it would reflect in the ratings for this motel on trip advisor?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Motel “Complimentary Hot Breakfast”
For those motels that are looking for new marketing ideas, we see that Spoof Times have reported on an innovative way for motels to offer a “Complimentary Hot Breakfast.”
Former guests of the Budget Inn and Travel Center of Wichita, Kansas are suing the hotel for failing to follow through on their advertisement of a “Complimentary Hot Breakfast” for their guests. “It was the main reason that we decided to stay there on our cross country trip,” said Wayne Garth of Denver, Colorado.
When asked how the motel breakfast did not meet their expectations, Mr. Garth said “Complimentary means free, right? At least, that’s what I always thought it meant. My credit card was charged for five $9 meals after we left. There is nothing complimentary about that!”
“Now, let’s look at the word hot. They had powdered donuts and bowls of Fruit Loops or Cornflakes. That doesn’t look very hot to me!”
Rahad Patel, owner of the motel, offered the following explanation: “When you enter our breakfast area, my daughter is standing there, thanking you for coming in. She tells people that they look nice, that she likes their clothing, or that they have cute kids. She is very complimentary to all of the guests.”
“My daughter is also dressed in a string bikini while she does this. Even though I am her father, I must say that she is pretty hot. She is also a straight “A” student and is going to be a doctor.”
“Breakfast was served by a very attractive girl saying nice things to people. That qualifies as Complimentary and Hot, doesn’t it?”
May 10 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
A recent bad customer service experience has reinforced the fact to me of how important interactions are with customers and how they can make or break a business.
I have trouble coping with the new age customer service call centers which most large companies appear to have taken on as a necessity of modern times and my experience with one of the “Customer service representatives” yesterday did nothing to improve my beliefs. The short version of this story is that my daughter purchased a Hewlett-Packard laptop in February 2007. She has not had a good run with her computer and during the 17 months she has owned it she has needed to replace the battery charger four times. This hasn’t been an issue to date and I have to say Hewlett Packard have been very good at simply replacing the charger by sending a new one. That is until yesterday. When she rang yesterday she was told that her laptop was no longer under guarantee and she would have to pay for a charger. The last replacement charger was more than 3 months old and so no longer under guarantee.
As she is a young university student she was quite upset at the prospect of spending $100 on a new charger and maybe having to do this every four months. So being the good mother I try to be, I rang the Hewlett Packard customer service center to express my concern at what I considered to be a possible inherent fault in the lap top chargers. This is where I came across what I considered to be bad customer service.
After giving me his name, Mike, which was not a reflection of the accent I was hearing, the young man proceeded to tell me that as the charger was older than three months it was no longer under guarantee and they could not replace it. I should have known then to stop but I tried to make this “service” person understand that my problem was not their policy on replacements, but that it was the continual malfunction of these chargers which possibly reflected an inferior product when comparing them to other laptops on the market.
He simply repeated that they could not replace the item as it was out of guarantee. A fact I already knew as it was now the third time we had been told this. I tried in different words to say that I understood that was the policy but this was not an isolated instance it was an ongoing issue with this laptop which I felt had not been fixed but just deferred until the guarantee was expired. The “service” representative replied “I do not want to repeat what I have already said.” Leaving me with the distinct impression he didn’t care and wasn’t hearing what I was actually saying.
After several attempts to get ‘Mike’ to listen to what I was saying I realized I was pushing the proverbial up hill and so asked to speak to his manager as I was not happy with the response. To my amazement I was told no one else in the company could talk to me as they would just be repeating what Mike had already told me. My next statement was that I would like the number for the complaints line as I was not happy about this process. Again to my amazement I was told that they did not have a complaints phone for me to ring. Dumbfounded I then asked “Is there no way I can contact Hewlett Packard with a complaint?” Grudgingly I was told that they only have an e-mail I could use if I had to. The e-mail address was not forthcoming though and I still had to ask for the details so I could contact the company. I was left feeling very frustrated, exhausted and angry.
This whole experience made me think of the cost of the item and the damage which can be created to a business by the customer service. I have now taken to print via the web with my disappointment and named the product and company. My daughter too has taken to print via the web. How much damage does this create for the companies reputation? Statistics show that 71% of people will change their mind about a product on the basis of another persons review. My review of Hewlett Packard doesn’t stack up well for them.
It isn’t just large companies who are affected by this, all businesses must offer exceptional customer service to retain the customers they have and create that vitally important word of mouth advertising. My specialty area of motels is no exception to this rule. A motel which provides a great customer experience, is interested in and tries to solve a guests problem will always succeed over a motel which simply provides a facility and has a take it or leave it attitude. If you operate a large motel it is also vital that your staff know what your customer service ethics are and deliver the same experience for your guests. The biggest thing with customers is to remember they are people who want to feel cared for and wanted.
September 09 2008 | Articles for current moteliers and Entering the Motel Industry | 7 Comments »