The W "Interested" Experience

Last week I was fortunate enough to participate in a two-day customer experience program titled Creating Xtreme Customer Experiences with the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Fifty college store retailers gathered in Seattle for interactive workshops and learning tours on the topic of creating remarkable, memorable customer shopping experiences. Presenting the first day was Joseph A. Michelli, author of The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary. Another presenter was some guy who writes The Weekly Retail Experience.   

Tony Ellis, the educational director at NACS, didn't miss a detail in creating a wonderful learning environment for the participants. One of the smartest things Tony did was choose the W Hotel as the location of the program.  From the minute you entered the hotel you realized that differentiation is a key element of the W customer experience. The W definitely has its own brand personality and presents one of the most unique hotel experiences in the hospitality industry.

I have stayed at a lot of hotels in the world but this was my first visit to a W.  The W is hip, urban, and social.  I was once hip, urban, and social but not recently.  So I'm sure the targeted W customer likes the low mood lighting in the hallway and the music cranking in the lobby. Well, it's more like a living room than a lobby but I still didn't want to hang out there.  The Kobe burger was quite good but at $30 with the room service delivery charge it seemed a little over the top. There was no coffee pot in the room but, it being Seattle, there was a Starbucks across the street.  And for the life of me I can't figure out why the more you pay for a room the more you have to pay for an internet connection.

With all that, the W still exceeded my expectations. Why?  It's clear that the staff's goal is to exceed the customer's expectations.  From the doorman to the concierge to the banquet employees, every single person is focused on the guest.  Any time I engaged an employee it was clear that I was that person's priority. Other conference attendees staying at the W had similar stories of how the hotel had wow'd them.

One man asked the concierge how to get tickets to a Sonics game. The concierge pulled two tickets out of his desk and handed them to the guy. Another asked the concierge for some dinner recommendations and when they got to the restaurant they were treated to some appetizers, courtesy of the concierge - and this was not a restaurant located in the hotel.

The best story was told by the gentleman who had bought some fish at the world famous Pike Place Fish Market to take home with him. In the middle of the night he decided he was hungry and called down to the front desk to see if there was a microwave he could use to cook his fish. In minutes there was someone at his door with a microwave. That may not seem like a big deal but I guarantee that most hotels would have told the person why they couldn't accommodate him.

So why am I telling you all this?  Because in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season it's easy to lose sight of what's important.  And what's important is exceeding your customer's expectation.  Dr. Michelli said something I don't think I'll ever forget.  He said that a retailer doesn't have to be that interesting to create a great customer experience; they just need to be interested in the customer. I wasn't really into the hip and cool hotel with the $30 burger and no coffee pot in the room, but I had a great experience because the people who worked there wanted me to.

If you're interested in every customer who comes into your store, and you make it your goal to exceed their expectations, I can't imagine that you won't achieve your goals this holiday.