-
Case Study
VIP Gets
Lost in the Service Shuffle or How the ABC Hotel
Dropped the Ball
Monday
10:00
A
.
M
.
The eight o'clock Monday-morning sales
meeting had been more tedious
than
most, Ms. Sarah Salesperson thought as she made
her way back to her
office. She poured
herself a cup of coffee before sitting at her
computer to
compose a memo. The
director of sales had hammered away at one of her
pet themes that morning:
suppose she's right, Sarah mused as she
began to type; dropping the ball is
certainly easy enough to do at a
600-room hotel. In light of the morning
meeting, she thought it might be wise
to send a note about Mr. Bigbucks to
Ray Smith, the front office manager.
Mr. Bigbucks was a director at XYZ
Corporation,
an
international
firm
that
could
mean
$$500,000
or
more
in
room bookings in the next
two years
—
if Mr. Bigbucks
could be persuaded
to place some of his
group meetings and other business with the hotel.
He
was
due
to
arrive
at
1:30
P
.
M
.
today,
and
Sarah
wanted
everything
to
be
perfect for him.
Dear Ray:
Just
wanted to remind you that Mr. Bigbucks of the XYZ
Corporation
is
arriving at 1:30
P
.
M
.
today for an overnight
stay.
Please
make sure he gets the
full VIP treatment. I've
chatted with
him on the phone a few times, and
will
meet
with
him
in
person
next
month
about
the
possibility
of
booking some business with the hotel,
but I won't be able to
connect
with
him
this
visit
—
I'm
flying
to
Dallas
this
morning.
Don't worry
—
I
remembered to fill out the VIP forms this
time and everybody should have them by
now!
Sincerely,
Sarah
10:30
A
.
M
.
To
make doubly
sure Ray understood the importance of
Mr. Bigbucks,
Sarah walked
down to the front office to deliver her memo in
person, but
Ray was not at his desk. Oh
well, he'll probably be back in a minute, she
thought. She left the memo on Ray's
chair so he would notice it first
thing.
11:10
A
.
M
.
Ray finally escaped for a few minutes
from a meeting the general manager
called
that morning, and
went straight to his desk to check for messages.
He read
Sarah's memo and
decided to drop it off at the front desk on his
way back to the meeting.
11:20
A
.
M
.
At the front
desk, Evert was trying to stay calm and friendly
despite the
crowd milling in the lobby.
He had only been a front desk agent for three
weeks and still got nervous when tour
buses pulled up outside the hotel.
That
morning
two
groups,
the
American
Society
of
Poets
and
the
Plate
Glass
Producers,
were
checking
in;
this
afternoon
the
American
Pharmaceutical
Association would arrive for a four-day regional
meeting.
Evert didn't even notice Ray
until Ray tapped him on the shoulder.
sure housekeeping knows about
this,
beside Evert's computer
keyboard.
Evert half-turned
and
nodded
while
continuing to check in a
guest.
11:45
A
.
M
.
Evert
took
advantage
of
a
lull
to
read
what
Ray
had
dropped
off.
He
quickly
picked
up
a
walkie-talkie
and
called
Gail,
the
executive
housekeeper.
Evert at the
front desk. We've got a VIP, Mr.
Bigbucks,
arriving
at
1:30
this
afternoon.
I'm
changing
room
816
from
'clean and ready' to
'out of order' until you can give it the VIP
treatment, OK?
Thanks.
11:50
A
.
M
.
Why am I always at the other end of the
hotel when I get a call like this?
Gail
thought
as
she
hurried
to
the
employee
lunchroom.
And
why
is
it
always when my staff is
eating lunch or taking a break? She asked Mary and
Teresa,
two
of
her
best
room
attendants,
to
interrupt
their
lunches
and
follow her to room 816. As the three of
them were walking to the linen
closet
to get fresh bedspreads and blankets, she called
Roger/the head of
maintenance and
engineering, and asked him to send someone to 816.
Then
she called George in the kitchen.
for 816 ready?
drop them off
soon.
1:20
P
.
M
.
Gail stood in the doorway and cast a
critical eye over room 816 one last
time. The quiet and-order she surveyed
were in sharp contrast to the noise
and
bustle of the last hour and a half. A small army
had descended on the
suite and
performed all the tasks needed to transform a
guestroom from
merely
to
As
Mr.
Thompson,
the
hotel
general
manager, had said to Gail on more than
one occasion,
the
for the
first time, that's what I want them to think:
'Wow!'
Gail
reviewed
her
informal
checklist
in
her
mind.
The
clean
bed
linen,
blankets, and bedspread were upgraded to freshly
ironed sheets, new
blankets, and a new
bedspread. Mary edged the carpet with a whisk
broom
to
get
every
speck
of
dust,
the
furniture
was
pulled
out
and
the
carpet
vacuumed underneath, and the
chair and chair cushions were vacuumed.
Then
the
carpet
was
spot
cleaned.
All
the
drawers
in
the
bedroom
and
bathroom were wiped out
to make sure no dust or hair was hiding. As the
drapes were taken down and replaced
with freshly cleaned ones,
Chris Jones
arrived
from
maintenance
and
checked
over
all
the
room's
mechanicals.
While he was
checking the bathroom, he noticed a small rust
stain on the
toilet seat. Teresa could
not scrub it off, so Chris went off to find a new
toilet
seat to replace the old one.
Nothing in the room made of wood escaped the
polishing cloths. At around 1:00 P.M.,
Jessie arrived from the restaurant with
the hotel's platinum amenities package:
a miniature wicker chair about two
feet
high
containing
cheese,
crackers,
a
bottle
of
wine,
fruit,
nuts,
and
bread
sticks interlaced with packets of hard candy made
by the hotel chef.
Personalized
matchbooks embossed with Mr. Bigbucks's' initials,
a vase of
fresh-cut flowers, and a
gilt-edged note signed by Mr. Thompson himself
completed the amenities. The
installation of the sparkling new toilet seat
was completed just ten minutes
before.
Gail
gazed
down
at
the
undisturbed
herringbone
pattern
in
the
carpeting,
left by the vacuum Teresa ran as the last touch,
and couldn't
think of a thing she had
missed.
front desk, and went off to see
if she could sneak in a few bites of
lunch.
4:35 P.M.
Mr. Bigbucks arrived at the hotel
looking a bit rumpled from the long plane
trip
and
the
taxi
ride
shared
with
four
other
people.
The
hotel
lobby
was
crowded
with
pharmacists
and
late-arriving
poets
checking
in
at
the
conventions desk. He walked up to an
unoccupied spot along the regular
front
desk area and waited until a front desk agent
could break away from
the group check-
ins.