Following up from my previous posts in my complaints to my recent hotel stay I received a response from the Customer Service desk just within the promised 24 hour window.--------------------------Dear Devon MacDonald,Thank you for emailing us. I welcome this opportunity to assist you.Please be assured both &&&&&Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and &&&&& Preferred Guest strive to maintain the highest quality of customer service. I apologize if your experie... Read Full Story

As promised - below is the response I received from the hotel I was dealing with. They are in a difficult position - I have already left - and they have limited opportunities to win me back.Companies should do what they can to try and restore an overall customer experience though. Dealing with the customer service department or help line is as much a part of the experience as staying at the hotel itself-------------------------------------Well Hello There Mr. MacDonald,Thank you very much for... Read Full Story

In a recent post on the NY Time Freakonomics blog an example of a company creating a Moment of Truth and really wowing the customer was given as the single best example of customer service.The linked story is incredibly heart-warming and is one of those times when an employee has gone the extra mile out of care for the customer. Companies should be looking for those moments when they can win a customer (and entire set of blog readers for life).Not all interactions will have the opportunity to... Read Full Story

Coming into effect in the next few days in Canada is the National Do Not Call List. Developed by the CRTC, but managed oddly enough by the largest telecommunications firm in Canada Bell Canada, this is a very water-downed version of what most of the public had been asking and looking for.In an article in today's Toronto Star they cite a poll of Canadians that state 64% intend to register for the do not call list. I do hope for the sake of bitter irony that this poll was conducted over the... Read Full Story

10 minutes after I had submitted my online comments to the hotel I received the below automated response from the hotel.--------------------------------------------Dear Valued Guest,Thank you for contacting &&&&& Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.This is an automated acknowledgment of your message to let you know we have received your email and that we will reply within 24 hours.This message is not intended to answer the email that you have just submitted but we do want to co... Read Full Story

As promised in my earlier post I will be sharing my communications with myself and the hotel regarding my past stay. In a search of their corporate website I was able to submit a complaint through a free formed box and select the "Compliment or Complaint" category.I first drafted the submission in MS Word - a better way to few the overall message and execute spell / grammar check rather than within a tiny box - and a web pop-up notified my of the message being sent. I did however receive a me... Read Full Story

This past weekend my wife and I travelled to NYC for some fun and adventure. The preperation for this trip has been highlighted in my previous posts (here, here) about dealing with reward companies - we used points for our flight and for a portion of our hotel.The hotel market in New York is very competitive and very expensive. With high rental rates and a demand for consumer dollars the level of service and comfort is typically quite high at hotels. The hotel that we stayed at was a higher-e... Read Full Story

After my previous post I needed to call back into Company A to ask them to do something (send me an email) that they has said they would do, but didn't.I knew what I was getting myself into so I waited until I had a good gap between meetings and phone calls to call them. After failing the voice authentication again and waiting on hold for 18 minutes (yikes) I was able to get through to someone and have them send me the information I needed.The interesting part was that I received a follo... Read Full Story

On my to-do list today was a couple of calls into Customer Service lines for reward programs. Reward programs themselves are a CRM initiative. Designed to increase the buy-in that customers have with a specific brand and reward them with incentives and free stuff when and if they are eligible, they are standard practice amongst a number of industries (travel, banking, retail)As a CRM and Customer Experience Professional I look at these interactions as ways to learn more about the different te... Read Full Story

After a month of either vacationing or working to hard (strange but true balance) I am back at my blog.Over my vacation and the summer my family and I spent a lot of time at our family cottage and as such drove past the many seasonal businesses and tourist locations that survive on cottage traffic alone.A particular restaurant (which will remain nameless - first person to guess correctly in comments gets a DVD copy of new release "Your Beautiful Cul de Sac Home" - email me directly ... Read Full Story