Lessons from the Hotel Industry

I watched a presentation from the hotel industry, in which the speaker mentioned some of the warning signs that indicate a property is going swiftly downhill:

1. Employees no longer care about the customers.  When a customer identifies a problem, the employee refuses to acknowledge it or take any action outside of their routine duties to solve it.
2. Maintenance is poor.   There is basic and obvious neglect in the physical environment: peeling wallpaper, a thick coat of dust, dirty or broken furniture.  All of these seem superficial, but are symptoms of a property that is neglecting the basics.
3. Commitments are not made or honored.  The company’s basic promises to customers are not being kept.  Customers are stalled or brushed off in hopes they will go away and simply accept that their expectations will not be met.
4.  Employees show no initiative and merely follow orders.   Rather than going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure customer satisfaction, employees take a not-my-job attitude and do nothing to address the problems they see. 

Each of these has parallels in online services across all industries:

1. Customer feedback is ignored.   Comments or problem reports are not accepted, or if they are the customer receives a stock “thank you for your feedback” reply and nothing is actually done to address the issue.
2. The site is broken or outdated.   While it would seem to be basic practice to avoid broken images and links, these sorts of blemishes still exist on many sites.  And while web sites don’t become threadbare, their design becomes outdated and behind the times.
3. Service commitments are not honored.  The company’s operations are governed by strict policies and procedures.  The typical response to a customer request or problem report is an excuse without a remedy.
4. Nothing beyond standard service is available under any circumstances.   A customer who has an unusual request will not be heard, or if he is heard he will be told why the request will not be honored.

In all, what this amounts to is a culture of excuses rather than a culture of service excellence: when a company is settled in its routines and its message to customers is “that’s the way it is” then its culture has become toxic and customers will abandon for a provider that seems more interested in serving their needs.

In a competitive industry, which is virtually every industry, customers do not need to tolerate poor service to get the core value.  There are other choices, and they will find them.