February, 1997: The Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters brought me to Tulsa to present two sessions at their annual convention: The Psychology Of Management and Real Life + Radio = 100% Local Every Day.
As you might know, I also conduct Customer Service seminars (both for radio stations and for their advertisers). The Warren Place Doubletree hotel offered a case study of managers who truly want to please their customers but do not have an adequately trained staff.
After checking in, I went directly to my room on the 5th floor…only to discover the card-key they gave me didn’t work. While I was fumbling with it, wondering if I was just too dumb to use it properly, another newly arrived guest tried to get into his room, next door to mine; his key didn’t work, either.
So I left my bags in front of my door, walked down the hall, and picked up a house phone. It rang 50 times or so, and then the operator connected me to the front desk.
I explained that my key didn’t work, and the desk clerk responded, “You’ll have to have a picture I.D. to get in the room. When the guy gets there with the new key, you have to have a picture I.D.” (Note that he did not apologize, express surprise and/or regret, or offer any explanation. Obviously this was not an uncommon experience for newly arrived guests, and it certainly didn’t bother him.)
When I finally got inside my room, I called the hotel manager to complain — not about the key that didn’t work but, rather, about the fact that this seems to happen a lot and that the front desk employees couldn’t care less. The manager listened and apologized; I thanked him for hearing me out.
After unpacking, I went outside for a long walk. (There’s a small park behind the hotel). When I returned to the room, I discovered waiting for me a bottle of wine and some fruit & cheese.
Voila! The hotel manager had demonstrated the sincerity of his regrets, and the earlier incident was forgotten. At least, for the time being…
…until that evening, when I made the mistake of ordering from Room Service. My dinner arrived, as promised, in 45 minutes. But the woman (Nancy) who took my order neglected to tell the kitchen I wanted a bowl of mushroom soup.
My Room Service waiter was very apologetic and said he’d be back with it immediately. Twenty minutes later I called Nancy to ask where my soup (the appetizer) was.
“Oh, I think he just left with it,” she lied.
I asked why I’d been kept waiting so long. Nancy replied, “We’re really busy tonight.” No regret, no apology.
After waiting another 15 minutes, I called the evening manager to complain. It was an hour and 20 minutes after I had placed my order, my dinner was cold, and the soup still was nowhere in sight. The manager gave exactly the correct reply in a situation like this:
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
I told him to forget the soup, and I would eat my cold dinner. But I wanted him to take the dinner charge off my bill (i.e., off the OAB’s bill). He immediately agreed, but he also insisted upon personally bringing me the soup (as well as my dessert, which Room Service also had messed up).
Clearly those two managers wanted to please their customers. But someone had failed to communicate this desire to the front-line employees who were responsible for virtually all of the hotel’s direct contact with those customers.
Moral: It’s not enough to believe in “Customer Service.” You need to teach it to everyone on your staff.
All those times I saw Burns & Schreiber on The Hollywood Palace and The Ed Sullivan Show, it never occurred to me that one day I might actually be friends with Avery Schreiber.
