Customer Service Part 2

So, what sparked my rant on customer service? Our recent vacation. We spent 2 weeks in Arizona and Las Vegas. We drove to and from and spent a couple of nights on the road as well. Our experiences with the vast majority of the places we stayed and ate at were tremendous.

The Tropicana, which happened to be under construction was great. The staff helpful, friendly and wanting to go out of their way to accommodate us even though there was the noise of jack hammers from about 7am till 5pm. None of that mattered. We were comfortable and well cared for. Ergo, an experience where a not totally ideal situation was made up for by good customer service. We will go back and we will refer others to them.

The many great restaurants we dined at all had tremendous customer service. Binkley's in Cave Creek, AZ, Mix at Mandalay Bay, Robuchon at the MGM Grand, Aureole at Mandalay Bay, all were superb and of course the food remarkable. Even the customer service at the Howard Johnson's in Oklahoma City en route to Arizona was great.

Then, the last night of our vacation, we stayed at the Super 8 in North Platte, Nebraska and the whole thing was stained with one lousy experience. We had spent 15 hours on the road, through a snow storm, rain and a long day. I called in advance to notify them that we were arriving later than anticipated. The girl on the phone said no problem. When we arrived at approx. midnight, the girl at the front desk was less than hospitable. At first she demanded we pay for the room, which we had booked online through Travelocity, which is always pre-paid. We hassled with that for about 5 minutes. She then proceeded to put us in a smoking room, when the hotel was half empty. When we requested she move us she said "the room is pre-paid, I can't change it." Well that sent Jeff and I over the moon. Jeff eplained he is allergic and we cannot sleep in a smoky room. She reluctantly agreed to move us 2 doors down to another non-smoking room. Needless to say, about 30 mins of lousy customer service to deal with after an exhausting day. The next morning, we requested that they take a copy of our confirmation letter stating that the room was pre-paid and print out a receipt saying we didn't owe anything or shred the the imprint of the credit card they took. They refused to do both. I have never stayed at a hotel that didn't give us a receipt for services rendered. They were rude, uncaring and made us feel like we were an imposition. The room itself was fine. Comfortable, clean, etc. But, the entire stay was ruined by two crummy attitudes.

It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise great vacation. And an always good reminder that customer service is everyone's job and of the utmost importance.