Responsive customer service

Recently, I stayed in a hotel that I haven’t previously visited. I am moderately flexible in my access needs, but not as flexible as many wheelchair users owing to the nature of my impairment and the fact that I use personal assistance. I always try to make sure before staying somewhere new that the access will suit me. I am often frustrated by the lack of access information on hotel websites. Some don’t even bother to say whether they have accessible rooms. One hotel that I was exploring had no information anywhere on the website, except in a very specific location which required several (unintuitive) clicks to reach. I was surprised they weren’t more vocal about their provision – it is surely something to be proud of?

I am puzzled that hotels and other customer facing organisations don’t recognise the importance of letting disabled people know what access they provide. I can just about understand not providing the information by default, but when a customer asks it should be possible to provide it quickly and accurately. Organisations that pride themselves on customer service surely want customers to have an excellent experience. Anyone who has specific access needs and has arrived somewhere where those needs can’t or won’t be met, knows how immediate the impact on good experience is.

Indeed, most hotel websites have a gallery showing off the wonderful features of their facilities, including the bedrooms and bathrooms, but finding pictures of the accessible accommodation, even if they have it, is challenging.

It doesn’t take much to know what your provision is: height of bed, height of toilet, any ramps in the building or steps with platform lifts, for instance, all of which can have an impact depending on someone’s access needs. And getting photos of the accessible bedroom and bathroom is virtually impossible. There just seems to be a total lack of comprehension when it comes why a disabled person might need this reassurance. I once spent an exhausting and frightening late evening wandering around Edinburgh in a taxi looking for somewhere that could meet my needs, and that was in the days when I was much more adaptable.

The hotel I stayed in recently seemed to have a policy of encouraging their employees to say no first; then, only if the customer insisted, to reconsider. I learned something from the experience too! I thought I did my research well enough. But in future I will not stay in a new hotel again without insisting on photographs of the accessible accommodation and a few basic measurements. If I can’t get that, there will probably be trouble ahead… This should not be information that I need to prize out of the hotel – it should be readily available and willingly provided.

This experience caused me to reflect on one of the qualities of good leadership: not making assumptions. This is true for leadership in relation to both employees and customers.?Listening?to what people are saying openly and attentively, then?responding?to what they’re actually saying, and not what you think they are saying or meaning, is fundamental to good employee and customer relations. If you lead a customer-oriented organisation, enable your employees to do likewise. Don’t set them about with policies or practices that prevent them from responding to customers where they are. Your customers are not docile, obedient sheep, they are free individuals, paying you to deliver a service that they will enjoy and appreciate – and importantly they are free to go elsewhere. Just as I will be doing!