Stories of Excellence - Hotel/Hospitality

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June 16, 2008

All-Natural Excellence -- No Additives, Preservatives, or Artificial Flavors

I was inspired by the customer service I received recently from an assistant hotel manager at the Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles. It was so exceptional I just had to share the experience.

The Wilshire Grand is a well-appointed 900-room, 3-star hotel in downtown LA -- close to the Staples Center (where the Lakers play), convention center and restaurant district. The place was hopping during the recent Book Expo America, and Samana Gardezi seemed to be everywhere. She was at the front desk, she was at the concierge desk, she was in the business office; she was overseeing one activity or another on any number of floors, answering phones, assisting guests, and putting out fires resulting from the sold-out weekend.

Samana assisted me personally on three occasions, each time making a point of confirming I was happy with the outcome. Undoubtedly she was handling roles secondary to her primary responsibilities in many cases, but if she found any of the work onerous or stressful she never let it show. And I observed how she managed to be efficient without missing a beat when it came to maintaining rapport with her staff. The phrase "grace under pressure" was all I could think of.

As the editor and publisher of Lior Arussy's Excellence Every Day, I've been thinking about excellence a lot lately. One of our primary goals in LA was to announce the book to the publishing industry, and thus it was timely to discover (on the scene and right under my nose) an individual who epitomizes excellent customer service. I was reminded that excellence isn't just something we read about in books, or something to hope for -- excellence really can happen, does happen, and will keep happening.

In Samana's case, what strikes me the most is that doing the very best she can to delight every hotel customer in every interaction comes across as genuine and unscripted. While parents, teachers, bosses and other mentors can certainly help to instill this quality, I wrestle with the degree to which it is an innate personal trait. I don't think you can teach it, at least not to everyone (though I'm willing to bet Samana went through a fine training program), and I think many firms overlook or are too politically correct to concede this point. And of course in many cases they are simply desperate to fill positions. As a result, they hire too many individuals who may present themselves as caring about customers, but who really could care less. For these employees, customers are merely obstacles or even annoyances, deserving of just the basic perfunctory service in order to keep them moving in the queue without complaint. I am convinced that if businesses can find ways to hire people who LIKE and care about people, whose natures don't allow them to deliver anything less than their best, success in customer service will result 99% of the time. (I suspect there's always one percent that's beyond our control.)

Yes, we need to hire a Samana, every time. But how? And, equally importantly, once we've got a Samana, how do we keep her? Naturally, we know we have to treat her really well, because this is the employee we want to keep away from the competition at all costs.

When I checked out of the hotel, Samana was there again. (How does she do that?) She looked me in the eye, smiled, remembered me, and spent just the right amount of time being friendly and personable -- just as she had with the two ladies checking out ahead of me. Once again, she was completely real.

As a frequent traveler, and as a provider of customer service myself, I'm thrilled to come across an individual like Samana. It's all too rare, and I wonder: Why does it have to be that way?

Samana has a bright future as a leader; I have no doubt she will someday be running a major enterprise -- if that’s what she wants to do. Her strength is her conviction that the experience of each customer is paramount, supported by the personal and communication skills necessary to let every guest know she cares.

Samana embodies the principles that Lior Arussy espouses in Excellence Every Day and, as a result, she can singlehandedly transform a 3-star hotel to a 4-star experience. She delivers excellence naturally -- no additives, preservatives, or artificial flavors.

Bravo, Samana!

John B. Bryans
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
Book Publishing Division
Information Today, Inc.
Medford, New Jersey
www.infotoday.com/books