When good service just isn't good enough

Something was missing from the service at my hotel, and I left unsatisfied. But there was nothing “wrong” - why was I unhappy?

I stay in a LOT of hotels - I’m in a hotel bed sometimes more often than my own. And I stay at hotels up and down the spectrum, from freeway Motel 6’s to the Four Seasons. I’ve written before about the ways that production and hospitality are inextricably linked, and it’s not just that production professionals stay in hotels a lot.

Hotels are instrumental to the event industry, and our hospitality partners are, in reality directly responsible for more of the parts of events that our clients and guests will remember - no guest goes home remembering what the pixel pitch of the LED wall was, or if we used Christie, BARCO or Panasonic projection, but they DO go home and talk about the food, beverage, and guest experience. Our hospitality partners are the backbone of the events industry, and I think those of us on the production side would do well to learn from them on what works and what doesn’t in customer service.

Which brings me to my hotel - I have spent the past 9 days in two different hotels - I spent a week at a large convention hotel for an event, and then stayed the weekend at another hotel nearby. And this weekend, the hotel was gorgeous - well appointed, strikingly gorgeous decor, and a phenomenal rooftop bar. The F&B was quite good overall. But something was missing, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I wasn’t satisfied with my stay.

Now I don’t want to put this hotel on blast, it was in all regards a perfectly fine stay, and to their credit, it was a very busy weekend, and they had some very high profile guests in a group block that were undoubtedly taking a lot of attention. This is an issue of mismatched expectations, not any real failing, and I certainly won’t leave them a negative review.

But I think there is a lesson here. There was clearly nothing “wrong” - why was I unhappy?

I spent some time considering why I felt so disappointed, and realized that there are two factors at play here - one is that the property was very well appointed - the hard product was exquisite, but the service was just not quite to the level I’d expect to match the hard product. It was fine, nothing was wrong, but in context it felt merely adequate. By contrast, days prior, at the convention hotel, while the hard product was nothing to write home about - clean and in good repair, but really an average convention hotel - the service, both on the guest side and on the event services and banquets side, was phenomenal. Everyone from the valet to the event services staff setting chairs in the ballroom to the housekeeping staff who greeted me in the hallway treated me like I mattered to them.

I know that I can’t expect above-and-beyond service all the time, by definition, but it’s been interesting to interrogate my guest experience at both back-to-back properties, the sense of hospitality I walked away from each with, and find the takeaway lesson.

In live events, we are in the service business. While this is our day-to-day, for our clients, this is their one-and-only. What is old hat for us, is a high-stakes and often frightening experience for our clients and presenters. Our job is to convey confidence and care to our clients and use our old-hat skills to make their experience exemplary.

Just as my experience as a hotel guest was dramatically changed by very small gestures from hotel staff, MY client’s experience is dramatically different based on very small changes in my behavior. As I compare my guest experiences with each other, I’m thinking back to the ways I’ve interacted with different clients, and how I’ve made them feel. Thinking about the ways that I have made someone's day, and the ways that I have had a negative impact on my clients or their guests when I was cranky or less than magnanimous.

As a leader, it is my responsibility to set the tone for the day. To ensure that my client, and my team are empowered to have the best show possible. It’s my job to delegate, to problem solve, and it’s my job to run interference when things go wrong, no matter who is responsible.

I’m reminded that in service, the small details matter. They matter a lot. As a Producer, it’s my responsibility to ensure that my client and my team feel heard and understood, and that the small details they care about are taken care of. So sweat the small stuff. Treat your teams and clients with individual care, no matter what’s going on. Because when we feel cared for we put on a better show.