Our ‘queen’ seemed visibly delighted by the warm reception she had just been accorded and appeared to be in a hurry to ‘hop’ into the next phase of her visit. The bar had been set and every effort had to be made by every member of my team to keep dazzling Mrs. Sinclair.
A great guest or customer experience begins with a great first impression. Make sure to design an experience that delivers nothing short of that. The first impression of a person, product, or place always sets the bar for any relationship; therefore when you raise the bar and manage to keep it there, odds are you can build an enduring relationship with a customer. In a world that’s always on the go, it may not always be easy to keep traditional friendships intact. Thus customers crave, more and more, real relationships with service providers or the people that contribute directly to making their experiences golden and memorable.
Make it personal
What followed was a hearty chat with the guest as we slowly paced towards the main entrance leading to the hotel’s reception.
“Great to have you here Madam Sinclair,” I said, truly meaning it. And as I ushered her into the hotel I said with a flourish, “Welcome to paradise!” and flashed her a heavenly smile.
“It feels really great to be here!” she responded with an equally heavenly smile.
I knew exactly which buttons to press, having done this many times before. When I addressed her by name, I noticed the “OMG!” look in her eyes- she seemed actually surprised that I had taken the trouble to remember it. I loved the whole experience because I knew this was going to go very well!
It is very critical for every Customer Service Provider to fully appreciate and master how to use Emotional Touchpoints during service delivery to produce powerful effects that leave ‘ happy bumps’ on customers. Emotional TouchPoints are aspects of a person’s life or experiences that are important or dear to them. A person’s name is probably the sweetest melody they can ever want to hear in a place they have never been to before or in a place where they are not known. Within five minutes of arrival all the check-in formalities had been completed and David, our Front Desk representative was ready behind the wheel of his golf cart waiting to dutifully chauffeur Mrs. Sinclair to her room.
Delighting Unexpectedly!
What Mrs. Sinclair did not know was that “she had seen nothin’ yet” as the mother of all delights was patiently waiting to pounce on her as soon as she stepped into her room.
Behind the scenes, my team had gathered information from her passport that it was two days after her birthday. The assumption was that whatever the case, her plan must have been to celebrate her birthday during her trip to The Land of a Thousand Hills. So we had a nicely worded card with the words, “Happy Belated Birthday” and a small gift of finely ground Rwanda tea packed in a little ‘agaseke’ basket. This was our version of a flower bouquet since our lodge is located within a tea plantation. Her bed also had extra pillows.
The moment she walked into her room, she stopped, took a long pause…… and slowly the tears of joy started flowing down her wrinkled cheeks as the team, until then hidden strategically behind the curtains, emerged singing “Happy birthday to you…” for her.
Find out in our next issue how this memorable customer experience was simply the grand beginning of a relationship that changed our business like never before.
