Only the other day I booked a guesthouse in Killarney for the bank holiday weekend. My husband and I are going down to volunteer for the Make A Wish Foundation at the Irish Open so we’re going to be busy for the weekend and didn’t want to spend a crazy amount of money.

I found a fairly new guesthouse in the centre of town advertising €55 B&B – fair enough for a bank holiday. Booked the guesthouse, received a receipt by e mail stating clearly the price and that availability would be confirmed by the premises. A short time later an e mail arrived saying the price should be €85 B&B – a 55% increase because it was a bank holiday weekend. This was not mentioned on my receipt so brought it to their attention and they refused to do anything about it but they hoped they could accommodate me on another occasion – well the answer to that was a flat no!

They have lost my custom and I’m a regular visitor to Killarney. I’ve told everyone I know that also frequents Killarney not to book there. Perhaps my lack of business won’t make any difference to them but I prefer to give my money to someone that knows what “customer service” should actually mean.

I know many people leave things and say nothing but that’s what has caused the problem in the first place! We need to speak up

Will I go back to this hotel? Maybe. But I owe the hotel nothing. What I’ll do is email the owner of the hotel the link to this blogpost and comments and see what happens. If I owned the hotel, I’d ring, thank the person for the feedback, invite them & their family/friend over for a really good meal on the house and see what I could do to help their business. I would do my best to turn a disaster into a story of how the tide of a flawed culture can be turned.

I like the point you make about expectations being set in advance by the brand – 4-star hotels promise a lot.

I managed staff for many years. Spent huge amounts of time attending to customer service performance. I’ve hardly ever met a member of staff unable to deliver good service – when the leadership is there. As soon as staff know what’s expected of them – and what’ll happen if they don’t deliver superb customer customer service – they give customers good service – provided the business is sound.

It is great to see that a customer can be so detailed in a review and that a blog like this should be a lesson to people working in the industry everywhere.

I do agree that a common enemy such as bad service can unite two people. I would love to know the identity of this hotel, for fear it is my current workplace.

I always believe that you should visit a place a second time for them to win you back or even confirm your original thoughts.
JD

Excellent customer service is about going beyond the customer’s expectations. We all of us have preconceived notions about what we might expect when dealing with particular companies and organisations.

My expectation of service at the Four Seasons for instance is higher than that at a 2-star motel. Nevertheless, I might be delighted at the service at the latter even though it would almost certainly fall short of what I would get at the former..which might disappoint my expectations.

And yes, it’s about empowerment and good staff selection and training. Employ people who like dealing with people. If they don’t measure up, get rid of them. The damage a poor front of house person can cause to your business can be huge.

If staff have to break the in-house rules or procedures to satisfy a customer they should feel free to do so. How many managers have the courage to instruct their staff *in writing* accordingly? The best managers do.