Tiny details can add up to make a huge difference
In the hospitality business, it is amazing how little tiny details can transform an experience from good, average or just ok, to amazing!
There’s this drive-in laundry operated by a 5-star hotel which I regularly visit for washing and / or dry cleaning my clothes. Whenever I handover items for laundering I need only provide my mobile phone number to itemize and generate my printed laundry receipt. This is because the software system in use has my name and other relevant details in its database – all gathered from my first visit.
The counter staff is obliging, efficient and extremely polite, always addressing me with a ‘Sir’ when we communicate. For example, It would go “Here you are Sir” or “You can collect it only on Monday Sir, as we are closed tomorrow”, etc. I’ve often wondered why they do not use my name since it pops up on the screen, immediately I mention my mobile phone number to enable itemize laundry on to the system generated list / invoice. However, I have not pressed the issue as my clothes are laundered and ironed to perfection each time.
During my recent last visit to collect my laundered clothes, the girl at the counter, a new hire, when collecting the laundry receipt greeted me, “How are you Mr. Wahab?” At that instance, she moved my usually good experience to excellent, and all it took to do that was to add a small detail – my name. As it applies to customer experience and service, it is often the tiny details that shift the interaction from average to amazing. In this instance, using my name at the right time was that small auditory garnish that enhanced the moment.
Then there was this time, when I stayed at this hotel in the Maldives, where my room air-conditioner did not work and I had to leave the room for an hour because it needed repairs, only to come back and see a note of apology from the Manager along with a plate of chocolates – in the shape of a wrench and some nuts and bolts. This was a memorably brilliant case of resolving a problem, both professionally and with creative flair. With that action, this hotel crossed that line from been average to amazing.
Consider the case of the hotel in Florida that landed a wedding reception dinner for 250 guests because of a fruit basket. It all started three months before the day of the nuptials, when the parents of a soon-to-wed couple decided to host a ‘get to know’ the families’ luncheon,. So they booked a hotel, only to cancel 48 hours before the planned luncheon, as the mother of the bride had to suddenly undergo an operation. Imagine the in-patient’s surprise a day after surgery, when a tastefully arranged fruit basket was delivered to her bedside, with a ‘get well soon’ card – from the hotel. The young couple who had set their hearts on having the wedding reception at another hotel immediately switched the booking to this hotel – all due to its thoughtful and compassionate gesture.
These little spontaneous acts are a great reminder, that in the hospitality and retail business, we must constantly look for these opportunities, and strive to provide the "wow" to our customers. One does not need to go over the top to be seen as amazing. You need to be just a little better than the rest and that’s where those tiny details turn up trumps.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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