Recently I had a birthday and what transpired was a tale of two services…
The first hotel my partner had been in contact with several times in the month before our arrival to make sure everything was in place for our arrival.
The second hotel, had one phone conversation and one email conversation.
When arriving at the first hotel, they had oversold their hotel for the night of our stay…and didn’t notify us in advance of our arrival from all the way across the country.
The second hotel, welcomed us immediately upon arrival and the general manager came out to greet us, wish me a happy birthday, and let us know that he had upgraded us to a much better room.
This is a very thin outline. Both services are memorable for different reasons. But think about this from the customers’ point of view, which side of the conversation do you want to be on.