In my last blog I wrote about receiving excellent service and witnessing superb teamwork at the Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumour. Well for every good experience I guess there is the opposite. We finished our business in Asia and returned to Australia via Perth and Sydney last Thursday. We flew into Perth at 1.30am and left again at 5.45am to fly to Sydney. Needless to say we were tired and a little jaded when we arrived at the Hotel we booked in Sydney, the Stamford Plaza at Double Bay.

We arrived about 12.30 in the afternoon well before the designated hotel check in time around the world of 2pm. When we checked in we were told in no uncertain terms by the (non) customer service person that our room was not ready and that check in was after all 2pm, so you are early. Now this was said with an "I'm sorry, but" beginning the sentence, but as an astute observer of human behaviour and having worked with thousands of people across 18 years in human resources I could tell there was absolutely no sincerity associated with the prefix "I'm sorry, BUT".

"OK,when will the room be ready?" I enquired. "I can't tell you that, was the curt response and check in time is 2pm." She went on "You will just have to go somewhere and come back after 2pm" Very helpful indeed. She did eventually offer to call my mobile when the room became ready. I'm still waiting for the call.

I won't bore you with the details of the check in fiasco and how we were greeted with two single beds rather than a King bed and how it took one hour to get the situation resolved, while we propped our eyes open with match sticks!

Suffice to say I learnt something as a result of my experience here. If you are in a front line position it's best to say what you mean and be honest and caring as well. If you say immediately, it means just that not 1 hour later. Finally I remembered that well researched Customer Management fact, a happy customer will tell 4 others, a dissatisfied customer will tell at least 12 others.

Labels: Customer Management, Lindsay, service