Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for. I am extremely thankful for my wife of 24 years being in my life, and so supportive of me and our entire family. I am grateful for our daughter and all that she has grown to be over the last 19 years. I am extremely grateful for my family (parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousin, and grandparents—on both my side and my wife’s) and all the support, love, and consideration they have afforded me over the years. I am extremely grateful for my health and that of my family. And I am grateful for the communities I belong to—my past schooling/education, church, friends and acquaintances, personal activities network, and all those in the sponsorship and fundraising communities. And of course, I am grateful for you reading this TMC!
There is much to be grateful for and I am appreciative. But in the last few months, I have had this growing resentment (I know. I need to deal with it and maybe this is the way) of crappy, sub-standard customer service. Customer service is, in my mind, the thing that can make or break a long-term relationship or even a short-term decision process. If your product price is higher than others’, that’s fine if it provides greater value. People will pay more for better products and not be dissatisfied with the higher price. They will also pay more for better service. Sometimes it is the service that actually closes the sale or resale.
I was in the hospitality industry for a long time before I entered the sponsorship marketing industry. In hospitality, customer service is tantamount. The food may not be fantastic, or it may be good, but took too long to get to the table. In both cases, if the service (the server) is exceptional, the customer will return. But if the food is good, or even great, and the ambience is terrific, but the service is bad, most customers will not return. We need to remember this in the sponsorship world. What can we do to make the experience of our partner, fan, subscriber, donor, or product user better? How can we “wow” them?
I’m not going to tell you what we can do to enhance our partner/user experience in this TMC. I will do that next week. This week, I want to rant about bad service, and where I can, identify what I did about it.
- BC Ferries – Why is that BC Ferries cannot provide reliable internet service on their ferries? Or for that matter, any internet service at all? The two-hour ferry ride from Nanaimo to Vancouver is 42 miles. From the time we pull out of the terminal to when we dock, there is either poor (cutting in and out) or no (most of the time) internet service. I can take a seven-hour flight from Vancouver to Halifax or from North America to Asia, the South Pacific, or Europe and have very good (but sometimes shoddy) internet service over vast oceans (versus the Straight of Georgia) on 16-hour flights. But BC Ferries cannot provide internet service for the 42-mile stretch for two hours? Solution: Whenever possible, I now travel Hellu Ferry
It costs more, but I can be productive on the 75-minute ride with internet.? Or, I fly! I still have to take BC Ferries when I want to take my car, but never again will I do a walk on. I guess when you have a virtual monopoly, you don’t have to provide good customer service. (Take note: Over my nine years living on Vancouver Island and having taken hundreds of BC Ferry trips, the staff service, from ticket takers to custodial staff to those in the restaurant, has always been exceptional. Great customer service there, but internet service should be expected in today’s world, not an extra. I would even be OK with paying for it like you do on the airlines.
- Restaurants – Last spring, we had a couple of dining out experiences that were not so great. We gave them both a second chance. In the first one, the food was not so good, but the service was great. We went back. The food and service was great and we continue to eat there. We recommend it, and go with friends and for business meals. In the second one, the food was mediocre and the service was poor, but the ambience (ocean view and sunshine) was amazing. The restaurant was fairly new, so we decided to give it another chance. This time, ambience was great as always, and the food was better—actually good, not great, but good. We would go back based on the ambience knowing we could get an OK meal too, but the service was even more horrendous. We vowed never to go back, but did over the summer. The ambience—amazing. The food—good like last time. The service—awful again. We are done with that place. Since then, there have been a couple of times when we were going out for dinner with different friend groups. Both times, this restaurant was suggested. We said, “No. We would love to have dinner with you, but we refuse to go there.” They understood and we went elsewhere. One of the couples has never been just based on our stories. The other (lol… not that they didn’t believe us, but had to see for themselves) went and had great ambience, OK food, and crappy service. I was in the hospitality business for a long time. How can you not train great servers? Perhaps it is their hiring process, but they are your front-line ambassadors.
- Hotels -- I am an IHG (Holiday Inn group of hotels – 14 brands) loyal guy for the most part. I travel about 150 days a year, so do a lot of hotel nights. It is beneficial to stick (where you can) with one hotel chain or airline. I am a Diamond Elite member with IHG. That means I spend over 100 room nights per year with them. Recently, I had to make a change to an upcoming stay--ironically, at the hotel I am staying in right now in Montreal, the Holiday Inn Downtown on Sainte Urbain. I went to make this change in July—the original booking was made back in May. I needed to stay an extra night here in Montreal. I knew if I called the reservations folks, I would get someone who is automated by script and based somewhere in the USA. I also knew that the actual hotel controls the inventory of their rooms, not the central reservation department. I knew that the cost of the extra room would probably be higher than when I originally booked in May (supply and demand pricing). So, I called the hotel directly—on a weekday so that there would be qualified folks to help me (versus calling at 10:00 p.m. BC time which is 1:00 a.m. Montreal time, say, on a Sunday morning). I explained what I needed. They said they could not switch the reservation (which is not true) and would have to put me through to central reservations. Once I explained everything again, they said they did not have the same type of room available (I had booked a standard room with a king bed). They only had a room with two queen beds. I said fine. But they then said they would have to change my original reservation as well and that would mean instead of paying $225 per night for the first four nights and $395 for the additional night, I would have to pay $395 per night for all five nights. I said that was ridiculous. They said they would reach out to the hotel to see what they could do. So, while on hold, I went online and booked another hotel (not Holiday Inn) near the airport (as I am leaving on an early morning flight this Friday morning) for less than I was originally paying downtown. Then the reservation person came back and said that the best he could do was what he had offered at the increased rate for all five nights. I said thanks, but no thanks. Leave my reservation as it is, and I will book into another hotel for the fifth night. It is pain in the butt to check out, then check in for one night at another property, but I was not paying the increased amount for five nights. This all took 55 minutes of my time on the phone. Six days later (yes, six days, not the next day), the front office manager from the Holiday Inn Downtown Montreal where I was originally booked and the same hotel that told me they could not accommodate my request other than paying almost twice as much for all five nights versus just the one extra night, emailed to say they could accommodate my request, add the extra room night, and I would only pay the elevated rate for the one night. No apology for the inconvenience, no upgrade, nothing other than “We can now accommodate you.” I am in their upper 1% level of customers—a Diamond Elite member. If this is the way they treat Diamond Elite members, how do they treat their one-time guests?
(Once again, take note, the level of service I receive from IHG Hotels like the Holiday Inn and Suites Calgary South, Holiday Inn Montreal Centre-Ville Ouest, Intercontinental Montreal, Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs, Holiday Inn Express and Suites Downtown Edmonton, Holiday Inn Express Regina South, and others is exceptional, and I would highly recommend any of those properties.)
To learn more about great customer service in the sponsorship industry, be sure to register for and attend the Western Sponsorship Congress? Alberta Forum
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