skip to Main Content

Meeting expectations

I arrived in Prague this morning, safe and sound. My luggage, however, is still enjoying the sights and sounds of London’s Heathrow airport. At least that’s what my airline thinks. They should arrive sometime between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM local. Ignoring the fact that they should have arrived around 11:30 AM, with me.

My hotel didn’t know I was coming. Again, they should have, but they didn’t. They sent me to another hotel with a similar name. Who also didn’t know I was coming. That hotel confirmed that my reservation was in fact at the first hotel.

But, the second hotel did something about it. They gave me a room and apologized for my inconvenience and contacted my airline to make sure my bags show up in the right place and provided me a shaving kit, toothbrush, dental floss, and comb. Without me asking for any of it.

Little things? Sure. But very much appreciated from a guy who’s operating on about 3 hours sleep after flying all night from Newark to London to Prague.

Sometimes meeting customers’ expectations is doing nothing more than showing a little empathy and treating your customers like human beings. And that’s really not so hard, is it?

Tim Peter is the founder and president of Tim Peter & Associates. You can learn more about our company's strategy and digital marketing consulting services here or about Tim here.

This Post Has 0 Comments

  1. …I found your blog because I track “Prague” on Twitter and that led me here after another click from your Twitter home page. Your experience with the second hotel is an indication of just how much service has improved in Prague in the 15 years I’ve lived here. Your experience in the first hotel is what we used to call “service with a sneer” and the type of people who still practice it are gradually either changing their ways for the better or becoming homeless. Drop me a line if you’re headed back this way again. -Robert Morrison (aka PragueBob)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back To Top
Search