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.
Comments