Travel can indeed be one of the most frustrating things about business in today's world. But it does provide some wonderful stories about service, such as this one my brother, Steve, tells.
While spending a weekend in New York City, my brother, Steve, had an interesting experience of good customer service. It is particularly noteworthy because he doesn’t expect outstanding customer service in NYC. It is a total departure from the stereotypic "NY state of mind," rudeness and the "I-don't-care-who-you-are" attitude.
His wife was joining him on one of his business trips to the Big Apple. He had an old Hilton coupon that would give us a free weekend stay in the NY Hilton and Towers. He was meeting her in the city after having stayed with me in Connecticut. Upon check-in, he discovered that he had left the coupon at my house. Expecting to have a problem, and ultimately to have to forfeit the coupon, he began to plead my case. Two sentences into his opening argument, the clerk politely says, "no problem, you can mail it to us". It was not the reluctant, suspicious response you often get, but a cheerful, believing response. It took several more sentences of Steve’s case before he realized what the clerk had said. The clerk took all the punch out of a carefully planned argument. Steve was shocked. He stammered out a stunned, "thank you", still expecting the charges for the weekend to appear on his bill. His final bill was $0.
Needless to say he later rushed off the coupon to the manager of the hotel with a glowing letter of praise for the clerk and their policies of trust. Guess where he prefers to stay when in NYC?
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