Customer Service Today

Deliver WOW! Through Service…Core Value #1

Sissy and I have had the good fortune to visit many countries and spend time in some of the finest lodging in the world.  L’chaim!  A return to Château de Bagnols would be a delight, where I stayed in a suite with a REAL turret and fancied myself a 20^th century Rapunzel complete with 20^th century short hair…  Mandarin Oriental Hotels are always superior as are converted stables from England to Oregon.  It seems that when one converts a stable, there is a feeling that it must be decorated so much better than just any old suite.  I have found myself feeling quite like royalty with nary a whiff of manure! 

2004 offered my first experience at the Fairmont Banff Springs.  If you have ever wanted to stay in a castle in North America but simply don’t have one in your neighborhood, may I suggest boarding a flight to Calgary and making the beautiful two hour drive to Banff Springs and the Fairmont.  As Meg Ryan would say, “‘…it had me at hello.”  When you are greeted by attractive men in kilts or a bagpiper or just the friendliest staff you can imagine in the lobby of what can only be described as a castle, well – get ready!  From my first glimpse I was at home or rather “to the manor born”, and there was no doubt that I would have to share this experience with Sissy, sooner, rather than later.  Well, it was later, January 2007, to be exact and what a delight.  Once again the experience was not to be duplicated we were treated like the royalty we think we are and I have no doubt this experience, at least in part, helped plant the seed for Sissy’s role as an “ambassador’”!  We lounged around the Fairmont from seating area to seating area as if we were at home… hhhmmm.  There is a room off the main lounge with seating facing a fireplace that we claim as our own living room boldly taking naps on the big leather couch when we are not reading or writing.  The Fairmont Banff Springs was the platinum standard for customer service and excess – until our visit this year.  Don’t get me wrong.  Life at the castle was still superior but something had slipped a bit.  Had we set our standards too high?  I don’t think so.  After an awful lot of discussion and dissection, Sissy and I decided that they simply have allowed their standards to slip.  Had this been our first visit we would have been thrilled but since we had previous visits that were the absolute pinnacle of customer service we were left to compare. For the price of the experience, which one must consider, unless you are an Astor, Vanderbilt or Rockefeller our expectations were bruised.  Some would say you shouldn’t have such high expectations and to that I would respond, then prices should not be exorbitant but that would be gauche, wouldn’t it?

All that to say besides food and luxury, I am the Sister consumed with customer service.  Having served the public for years and years, I find myself comparing and contrasting service in every walk of life.  Don’t get me started with the “lack of” customer service at banks, post offices and other government owned or soon to be government owned establishments.  This distinct lack of service has come about because the general public allows and tolerates it. With a shake of our heads and comments like, “Well, that’s what we’ve come to now’” or “You know it is due to poor parenting and educational standards”, as if these comments somehow make poor service okay.  Many of you have lowered your standards to the point when you encounter someone who does anything verging on mediocre you are thrilled.  Not I!  I am on the lookout constantly for businesses that still give customer service and to those who don’t or won’t I avoid.  Hence, Zappos.com: the company that actually built their brand by offering exceptional customer service while selling shoes and now clothing and other items.  It remains to be seen if their original ideas will survive now that they are under the wing of Amazon.com.  Statistics are against them but Sissy and I will continue to test their strength of purpose.

But I digress.  Our recent experience in Banff Springs broke a little piece of my heart with regard to the Fairmont.  Would I make the effort and spend the monies needed to return?  Not sure today.  Do I think any resort can ever compare to the standard set by the Fairmont? YES!  I found one… The Four Seasons Biltmore located in Montecito, California. The Biltmore was a totally different atmosphere where the magic was not a castle but in the gardens, the views from one portico to the next and the staff.  Every employee speaks to you, from the receptionists to the housekeepers and not with their heads down or forced smiles.  I found myself looking for questions to ask simply for an excuse to interact with different employees.  The staff are as immaculate as the grounds, the food better than the pictures and there seems to be a true pride in the resort.  Having worked for a couple of major companies in my life, I do know the pressure behind these smiles and constant pleasantries but I also can identify when individuals are genuinely glad to have the jobs they have.  Every position in a resort where guests tool up in $250,000.00 automobiles is fraught with the potential for irritation.  Guests of this caliber are often of the mindset that employees are invisible which makes the business of staying “above it all” even more difficult.  The expectations of such guests do not include “room for error” so that every action or hesitant inaction could result in a blistering assault from an individual who is used to having the world rotate around them. Yes, we had a fabulous cottage, incredible food priced correctly; served in an ideal setting and coupled with personal service when we desired.  I am very thankful to have had this experience and can now say that the resort management company, Four Seasons, is earning their money.  Training has paid off in spades and I can only hope that the economy rebounds in such a way as to save the positions of all those whom I encountered.  Some may think that people of means are not affected by the economic downturn but their prudent frugality is, in some cases, exactly the reason they are “people of means”.

In January, tune in for my comments on Disney World.  Is Disney really “the end all” to customer service in our Universe or could they take lessons from Zappos?

Sister