Do you TREAT your customers as Grade C – but edible?

by Nov 4, 2006Uncategorized0 comments

Do you make your customers feel “STANDARD?”

How would you feel if a restaurant, hotel, vendor or other type of business greeted you when you walked in the door as….. “STANDARD”. I wish I could feel more “Standard.” It just warms my heart to be appreciated as a commoner. Let me ask – how often do YOU take the time to make your valued clients feel “Standard?” Every day, just now and then or every chance you get?

Traveling is just part of what I do for my lively hood. Well get this….I don’t generally have a negative experience with Hyatt Regency but when booking a trip to Chicago this coming January, I called the Hyatt of course as I am a ‘valued repeat customer’. Their wonderful automated prompt picks me up and begins to direct me appropriately. My options soon were “is your reservation with a group or meeting organization or as an individual.” I respond with “individual”.

My fair toned female auto-respondent friend replies. Thank you, we are transferring your call to…..standard. HUH?! I kid you not – I was being transferred to “STANDARD.” Is this a person, place or thing or possibly another 2 minutes worth of hold music that I didn’t have time for.

I could go count the number of nights that I stayed in a Hyatt this year. It’s certainly (and thankfully) not as many as some of you, but I bet more than most. AND, even if I’m not in their top 20% of spenders, the last thing I want to be called is “Standard.”

Just to make sure I wasn’t a one-off call. I called back a few time to hear what other things I might be called. Which left me to believe I was either ‘standard’ or a ‘meeting’ to them – but certainly anything BUT a valuable client.

Webster’s defined standard as:
1) an object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind
2) a grade of beef immediately below good.
3) an average requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.:

What do you do?
When you speak to your customers or clients, I dare you to make them feel as if they are the single most important client of your business. Not only will they appreciate it, but they’ll go out of their way to refer others to you. The business of relationships is a fundamental key to success (no new news there). And the moment you begin treating your valued clients as a ‘grade of beef below good’ is the moment they seek to find a relationship that builds them up to be more.

Maybe they’ve fixed it – check it out yourself: dial the Chicago Hyatt at 312-565-1234 and respond as an individual. See how you feel! PLEASE, let me know about it and see how long it takes them to change it.

You know what else – and this always perturbs me. After I DID make a reservation I was told to have a nice day, but was never told “THANK YOU.”

I’m sorry Hyatt. My usually high expectations for you have just gone to Grade C, but edible – “STANDARD.”

Sincerely, Your “valued client?”

Jon Petz

The book site: www.BoringMeetingsSuck.com
The Corporate site: www.BoreNoMore.com

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