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October 1, 2006
An open letter to
Mr. Kevin Kowalski
Vice President, Brand Management
Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
Dear Mr. Kowalski:
A recent trip illuminated the extremes we travelers still find in customer
service in the hospitality biz. In case you are interested, here were
those high- and low-lights.
I'll begin with customer service done right.
This past summer, my wife and I had a fantastic vacation touring with
Bike Vermont in and around Acadia
National Park in Maine. (I absolutely recommend this outfit if
you are contemplating an active vacation.) Anyway, on the final night of our trip, we
were chatting with Jane, a host at the
Manor House Inn
where we were staying while in Bar Harbor. In our conversation we
mentioned that we needed to be at the Bar Harbor Airport around noon the
following day.
“Good,” Jane said, “I don’t have to be at work here until two o’clock so I
can drive you there before my shift starts.”
What!? She would take us to the airport before beginning work? That kind
of customer service is nearly unheard of. Indeed, as we discovered several
hours after departing Bar Harbor, that kind of customer service was
certainly unheard of at one of your hotels.
We had stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near the San Francisco Airport the
previous week and had left our car there as part of the hotel’s “park and
fly” package. Following
a night’s stay, we were delivered by shuttle to our terminal at
the airport and were told that when we returned back in town to call the
hotel and they would dispatch a shuttle to pick us up.
We did as
instructed. I called and waited the 20 to 25 minutes I was told that it
might take 25 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. After 25 minutes I called
again and was told that the driver had missed us (an unlikely happening)
and that he would be back in 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, I called
once more. This time I was told that the shuttle would appear within 8
minutes. When that time limit expired, we piled into a cab and headed for
the hotel—a 10 minute ride away.
From
the taxi I called the manager on duty at the hotel, told her of our
experience and would expect to be reimbursed for the cab fare once we
arrived. As she was himing and hawing, I said, “Okay then. See you soon.”
As the conversation ended, the taxi driver piped up that more than a few
times he had to deliver people back to the Crowne Plaza who had been
stranded by the hotel’s shuttle service. His presumption was that it was
easier or cheaper for the hotel to let travelers find their own way back
to the hotel than to dispatch a driver for them. Although skeptical of
this theory, his conjecture did little to assuage my frustration. Indeed,
I felt myself beginning to feel a little like the guy in the ad below
(▼)
for my workshops on managing angry customers.
Anyhow, after arriving at the hotel, I took the receipt I got from our taxi driver
to the manager on duty. Mary Ann Neverida was pleasant enough, and I did a
pretty good job of controlling my anger. Even then, Ms. Neverida still had
my customer loyalty by a thread as I stood at the counter. But in her next
breath, she snapped that thread saying that she could
compensate me for the taxi fare, but “we don’t reimburse for tips.”
Now had someone met us at the curb when we arrived in the taxi, paid our
fare (including tip!) and offered some other recompense, we would still be
pretty chapped off, but probably would consider returning to the hotel again
as a guest. Not now. For
a five spot, that hotel has lost a customer—and any potential customers who
may learn of my experience.
But wait, the story gets even better. Soon after arriving back home, you
may recall sending me an email where you wrote,
“As a valued guest, your opinions are of great
importance to us. We are interested in learning how satisfied you were
with your hotel stay beginning on August 01 at the CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL –
SAN FRANCISCO-PENINSULA-ARPT.”
You noted that the results of the survey “will help us to
continuously improve and will ensure that you receive the high standard of
excellence you expect.” (I guess that you hadn’t heard about our
experience. Otherwise you would have known that the standard we expect from
the hotel is not one of excellence at all.)
Anyway, at the end of the survey, there was a text box where you invited
me to comment further or ask a question. I thought that was nice. I
requested your email address so that I could send you a
message—this message—about our experience.
To date I haven’t heard a peep from you. And I guess that by now, after
seven weeks, I won't. So I figured I'd pass along here the two lesson we
learned from all this: (1) Recommend and return to the Manor House Inn in Bar Harbor
and (2) avoid and warn others about the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City.
You are on your own figuring out if there are any lessons here for you.
Sincerely,
Terry Riley
Epilogue
In mid-October I received a nice (form) letter from Michelle at the
Crowne Plaza thanking me for completing the customer satisfaction survey
and offering me a complementary room upgrade on my next visit—like there's
going to be a next visit.
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