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Complain To The Management
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Hi guys,
It struck me after I got back from holiday just how many businesses are constantly sending me emails... “please fill in this survey telling us how your experience was”.
For a car rental where I dropped off and picked up a new car in Orlando (there’s no point having a car during Convention) I got a total of 4 surveys sent to me - 2 from Virgin who I booked through and 2 from Alamo, and when I chased up the only thing that mattered that much to me - my air miles - I got a reply from a completely different company.
It drives me nuts, because when I’m there I am CONSTANTLY telling people what I think. Especially hotels. I tell the receptionist, concierge, barman, cleaning ladies, pool guy, waitress - I even went back at Costa D’Este to congratulate the chef for the best meal I ate in Florida (for the 2nd year running!!) this guy deserves an award (on top of the ones he’s already won!) (On a side note, it is totally worth making a special trip up here for the restaurant - great service, walk-in, whereas the people I sat next to on the plane said they couldn’t get into Gloria Estefan’s restaurant in Miami as it was so fully booked. Vero Beach, people, it’s worth it.)
Anyway, I tell them (you know what I’m like!) And then I get the surveys and the experience questions and the requests to post on Tripadvisor and Booking.com and I’m like... dudes I just got back from holiday! I have a business to run! And I will absolutely review you - in my own guidebooks (and probably on Tripadvisor too) but let me catch my breath!
But what is so annoying, is that we all know the answer. I knew it when I was working in quality management, when I got paid to go and interview teams on how to improve their services and they would say “Well, we need x and y and we’ve been telling this to our line management for ten years.” I’d write a pretty report and the CEO would say “Wow, brilliant.” I quit.
It’s like ‘Undercover Boss” - okay so we know we love it when they find out really dodgy things (like a Best Western hotel moving door numbers so they would pass the quality check!!) but in most episodes it’s incredibly obvious and staff are more than happy to tell anyone; “this is the problem.” It’s nothing new because they’ve usually been complaining about the same problem for years - but no one listened.
The one hotel I don’t think I’ve had a survey from is, in my opinion the best hotel chain in the world, Mandarin Oriental. It is very, very, very hard to find one negative thing to say about this hotel but I had two comments. The first was in the spa where I had booked an add-on treatment (and extra 20 minutes for $25 or something like that) which I wanted before my massage, there was a little confusion about that and after my massage I said “Look, I’d rather not have it now.” Their response, “Oh but we’re going to give it to you for free as an apology for the confusion.” It still didn’t quite work but I did get to see the massage suite (pretty!) and was quite happy because it was a freebie. The second... I had my dinner on the first night at the bar because it was a busy Friday night, bar and restaurant staff were so attentive and even apologised that they couldn’t spend more time chatting to me. When I mentioned that the mini-bar was spectacular but maybe they could suggest to the management to put sparking water in it too (it had 3 or 4 water choices)... the next day I opened my mini-bar fridge to find the water I had ordered at the bar the night before. Wow! That’s special treatment.
But what it really is, is staff empowerment. Staff who have the authority to quickly make that treatment free due to inconvenience, staff who can make a change to the stock in my mini-bar. Did I drink the water, absolutely! If they had put an expensive drink I had ordered the night before at the bar in my mini-bar I would probably have gone for that too, because that kind of personal service is a true luxury. It sells way more than “personalising” direct market campaigns that address me as Mr Pearl, because it's real personal service - listening to what’s important to me!
Sometimes we need surveys, Zumba Convention has a mammoth one, which is needed because it’s a mammoth event, and yes sometimes if you have a complaint you might not want to feed it back directly, but generally it saves so much time, trouble and money if we’re just... human. I know, being English this is sometimes difficult, and sometimes it’s hard to hear criticism but Please! Stop asking me to tell the management. Managers... before you send out a survey or start calling customers for feedback... look at what you already know, look at what your staff are telling you - they are an incredible resource.
90% of the time I am the boss and I always want to hear your comments, and then there are those few times when I am the monkey and not the organ grinder and I say “please tell those in charge, because I will tell them but unfortunately it doesn’t mean as much coming from me.”
But it should.
Much love, Pearl x
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Hi guys,
It struck me after I got back from holiday just how many businesses are constantly sending me emails... “please fill in this survey telling us how your experience was”.
For a car rental where I dropped off and picked up a new car in Orlando (there’s no point having a car during Convention) I got a total of 4 surveys sent to me - 2 from Virgin who I booked through and 2 from Alamo, and when I chased up the only thing that mattered that much to me - my air miles - I got a reply from a completely different company.
It drives me nuts, because when I’m there I am CONSTANTLY telling people what I think. Especially hotels. I tell the receptionist, concierge, barman, cleaning ladies, pool guy, waitress - I even went back at Costa D’Este to congratulate the chef for the best meal I ate in Florida (for the 2nd year running!!) this guy deserves an award (on top of the ones he’s already won!) (On a side note, it is totally worth making a special trip up here for the restaurant - great service, walk-in, whereas the people I sat next to on the plane said they couldn’t get into Gloria Estefan’s restaurant in Miami as it was so fully booked. Vero Beach, people, it’s worth it.)
Anyway, I tell them (you know what I’m like!) And then I get the surveys and the experience questions and the requests to post on Tripadvisor and Booking.com and I’m like... dudes I just got back from holiday! I have a business to run! And I will absolutely review you - in my own guidebooks (and probably on Tripadvisor too) but let me catch my breath!
But what is so annoying, is that we all know the answer. I knew it when I was working in quality management, when I got paid to go and interview teams on how to improve their services and they would say “Well, we need x and y and we’ve been telling this to our line management for ten years.” I’d write a pretty report and the CEO would say “Wow, brilliant.” I quit.
It’s like ‘Undercover Boss” - okay so we know we love it when they find out really dodgy things (like a Best Western hotel moving door numbers so they would pass the quality check!!) but in most episodes it’s incredibly obvious and staff are more than happy to tell anyone; “this is the problem.” It’s nothing new because they’ve usually been complaining about the same problem for years - but no one listened.
The one hotel I don’t think I’ve had a survey from is, in my opinion the best hotel chain in the world, Mandarin Oriental. It is very, very, very hard to find one negative thing to say about this hotel but I had two comments. The first was in the spa where I had booked an add-on treatment (and extra 20 minutes for $25 or something like that) which I wanted before my massage, there was a little confusion about that and after my massage I said “Look, I’d rather not have it now.” Their response, “Oh but we’re going to give it to you for free as an apology for the confusion.” It still didn’t quite work but I did get to see the massage suite (pretty!) and was quite happy because it was a freebie. The second... I had my dinner on the first night at the bar because it was a busy Friday night, bar and restaurant staff were so attentive and even apologised that they couldn’t spend more time chatting to me. When I mentioned that the mini-bar was spectacular but maybe they could suggest to the management to put sparking water in it too (it had 3 or 4 water choices)... the next day I opened my mini-bar fridge to find the water I had ordered at the bar the night before. Wow! That’s special treatment.
But what it really is, is staff empowerment. Staff who have the authority to quickly make that treatment free due to inconvenience, staff who can make a change to the stock in my mini-bar. Did I drink the water, absolutely! If they had put an expensive drink I had ordered the night before at the bar in my mini-bar I would probably have gone for that too, because that kind of personal service is a true luxury. It sells way more than “personalising” direct market campaigns that address me as Mr Pearl, because it's real personal service - listening to what’s important to me!
Sometimes we need surveys, Zumba Convention has a mammoth one, which is needed because it’s a mammoth event, and yes sometimes if you have a complaint you might not want to feed it back directly, but generally it saves so much time, trouble and money if we’re just... human. I know, being English this is sometimes difficult, and sometimes it’s hard to hear criticism but Please! Stop asking me to tell the management. Managers... before you send out a survey or start calling customers for feedback... look at what you already know, look at what your staff are telling you - they are an incredible resource.
90% of the time I am the boss and I always want to hear your comments, and then there are those few times when I am the monkey and not the organ grinder and I say “please tell those in charge, because I will tell them but unfortunately it doesn’t mean as much coming from me.”
But it should.
Much love, Pearl x
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