Know what not to do? Don’t send your customers in circles trying to find answers.
I went on a last minute trip last week, and everything was easily booked. I needed to make a small shift to my reservations and asked at the front desk as I checked in. I was told that the front desk couldn’t handle that matter, and that I needed to call their central reservation line. Okay, no biggie, I’ll take care of it when I get to my room.
I call central reservation and am bumped from one to another, to yet another person. Nope, sorry, you’ll need to take care of that at the front desk. What? The front desk told me I had to speak with you. Nope, they were wrong, talk to them. Call the manager there…
I call the manager at the front desk to take care of this detail, and I’m told they can’t handle that, that I need to call central reservation…
WHOA….enough all ready! This wasn’t going to do. Finally I was pushed to concierge.
I was a bit weary, as I’d all ready spoken with a bunch of people, and really, it wasn’t a big deal…what needed to be done. Finally, I go to concierge (in person, forget the phone at this point) and tell them I’ve had to speak with 4-5 people all ready, and I was trying to handle a small detail.
Her confident response, “I’ll be the last person you talk to about it. We’ll do whatever needs to be done to correct this,” made me feel like I’d finally found my answer. You know what, I had. She simply took matters into her own hands, and with all of a 3 or 4 minute phone call, it was all resolved. Done…simply and quickly. She renewed my faith at that point, but it really opened my eyes in this scenario. Look how many people didn’t want to be bothered, or pushed it aside…when really anyone could have handled it.
The situation? I was switching between one hotel and another, all owned by the same company. She took care of those details in minutes…not a big deal. She was uncertain why no body else could help me with that…but I was glad to meet up with her, that’s certain.
Look at your own business? How many people do customers have to go through to get something accomplished? If a customer is being bumped from person to person, maybe it’s time to relook at how you’re handling customer service.
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