If you travel at all you have had this happen.

You have one of those credit card looking room keys that, when you get to your room at some point during the stay, does not work.

You go all the way to the front desk and ask for them to rekey the card at which point the person at the front desk (at least 60% of the time) asks, in an accusatory and blaming manner and tone, “did you have it next to your cellphone?” The implied message from them is that it is YOUR fault the key is not working.

Wait a minute, my credit card doesn’t fry when it is next to my phone (I know, better technology). And why is it my fault? And then they ask for identification. This is when it gets better because I often don’t have any..because…yup, it is IN the hotel room. At which point they are often totally confused. Sometimes they ask some information they can see on the computer, sometimes they get security to escort you and always they make you feel like an idiot because their key system failed.

I spoke to 250 people the other day and brought up this issue. Over 90% of the room has had a key fail and about 80% of them (180 out of 250) have had the “it is your fault” experience.

The last time I checked..telling the customer they are an idiot (even if they are) is not a solid retention strategy. And this applies to internal and external customers.

SO, the next logical question for you is where in your system are you making users/customers feel stupid and giving them a poor experience?

We all THINK we don’t do that but we all do somewhere along the way. Put yourself in their shoes and take a look at the service you provide.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 12:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.