I often write from the point of view of a business operator wanting to increase my (happy) customer base, but two things recently made me decide to write about the benefits of being a good, recognised and valued customer.  Now I should point out that these benefits are truly maximized when you are connecting with companies who value customer service!

My car needed gas, but it was at the very end of it’s lease term and due to be returned in two days time to the dealership, and so I decided to just put $20 in to get me through the next few hours, and so that I didn’t return the car with the fuel light on.  Due to an error at the pump, I had to stop the fill from happening when it was ticking over at about $27.  You know, I was just standing there daydreaming and not paying attention when it flicked past $20.

So I went to the counter, and a new guy was on, who wanted to just charge me the full amount.   Now without going into complicated details, it was the station’s fault that my fill went beyond the required $20.  Fortunately for me, the other person working the counters that evening agreed with me when I said “hey this was not my problem but yours, and I’m a regular customer here and not trying to rip you off’…” outcome was that I only had to pay the $20.

Now that may not have been a lot to get excited about, but it was really nice for me to feel OK as I left the station, and didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth over a mishap, which it would have if they’d pushed the point and made me pay the whole amount. Thanks Shell 5 Xrds, Hamilton, you guys Rock!

The other recent incident was that I had a technical error on my  Eftpos card when I went to pay for a meal with a client last week, at a local cafe I regularly love to host client meetings at.  This was a new client and I wanted to impress her – - the last thing I needed was to have to make her pay for her lunch, or to look bad in front of her when my card was rejected.

I should point out that I stupidly went there with only my card, and not my whole wallet and handbag that day, and no spare cash in my pocket either.   When the payment was rejected due to this technical glitch, I went through those immediate feelings of embarrassment, stress, and OMG what next? all in the space of milliseconds.

Fortunately I was such a regular customer, that although I was not even on first name basis with the assistant behind the counter, she was able to happily smile and say, that’s ok Maria, why don’t you just pop back tomorrow and fix it up.  Now she didn’t even have to check this with her boss, but was able to see the situation for what it was, and immediately put me as ease in front of my client.  Wow – what fantastic customer service at Cafe 547, Hamilton East.

I do like to try new places to shop, and eat, but confess to being a person who sticks with where and what I know a lot of the time and it’s nice to feel that my loyalty to businesses I go to is rewarded when sticky things happen.  As they do from time to time for all of us.

Now I believe that we customers need to step up to and embrace a golden rule in order to deserve some extreme levels of customer service too.  I share with my children too, and this works regularly.    Be nice to the staff!

At the supermarket, with the wait staff, the guy behind the counter at the lunch bar or service station – whoever they are,  use their names, start some level of conversation when appropriate, and treat them like you really do value their contribution to your day.  They’ll not only remember you, but will probably be even more helpful on that maybe one day time you need some extra help.

No, my room did not look anything like this-unfortunately!

I was wide awake, having slept deeply for about 4 hours, after arriving from NZ to London, and falling into bed (finally).  A 30 hour journey ended with my waiting to get into my hotel room, and so I spent a couple of extra hours walking about the streets of London before obtaining a key to the box I was to live in for the next 2 days.

I hadn’t  paid a lot of attention to my surroundings on arrival in my room, but here I was now at some time in the night, acutely aware of 3 things:

1. I’d landed in a room with no natural light, windows or fresh air and I was desperate to breathe.
2. My room was the size of 2 double beds – I was in a double bed and there was about that much room again for my bags and a tiny desk.
3. There was no top sheet on the bed – discovered because I was so hot and I couldn’t work the aircon unit out.   Eeewww!!!

I’ve stayed in more hotels around the world than I’ve ever bothered to count, and as I lay there feeling the stuffiness of the room, I was trying to work out why there was no top sheet on the bed, feeling quite icky about the fact.  I mean, in a hotel why would I assume that the duvet cover was in fact changed every day?   In these days of working smarter and more efficiently this flew in the face of practicallity – more washing and more time for the maids to change the linen.  So in my jetlagged, sleepy and hot state, I was literally fixated on the question of how many other bodies of strangers had been in this bed recently – and was I effectively sharing a bed with 10 strangers?

The rational part of my brain would not let this go – as I quickly dressed and headed downstairs for some real air.  After pounding the pavements for a few minutes (it turned out to be 3.30am and I had no intention of straying past sight of the hotel doorstep) I returned to my box of a room and to my bed, fully dressed.  

The very thought of sleeping for one more night in that room was enough to cancel the rest of my stay and make other arrangements.  But I can quite clearly state that this midrange posh hotel (4 stars) in the middle of Londonwas most definitely the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in. That includes some dodgy spots in Europe, and an old pub in Tauranga NZ.  It was so awful that I’m now blogging about it. 

You see it wasn’t just the room, and how awful it was being in there, but the attitude of the reception staff was unispiring (I’m being polite), and the restaurant staff were decidedly average in their attention to detail and given that this was a 4 star hotel, opposite the Hilton Euston, and the photos all looked pretty good when I booked it, my expectations were a long way from being met.  In fact – I know some pretty average 2 star spots who could run rings around these guys.

So – in terms of customer service – the Ambassador Bloomsbury failed completely to unimpress me (and some others who stayed there too as part of my group). 

The worst part is, that for them, I know they will be blissfully unaware of the fact that in this day and age, delivering underwhelming customer service to a person who speaks and writes about this is a silly thing to do, because look what ends up happening.  And this is the same for many businesses these days.  The ability for customers to share with their friends and colleagues thier good and bad customer service experiences is multiplied so many more times than a few years ago. 

Businesses – especially those in the hospitality industries – simply cannot afford to be complacent about this. Customer service is what wins or loses customers, and builds or destroys reputations.