Elaine Lin Hering said during her speech at the recent Global Leadership Summit that “the road to success is paved with mistakes well-handled.”
Elaine knows what she is talking about. She is the senior consultant at the Triad Consulting Group. Her expertise is in designing and delivering programs used to build leadership capacity.
During her speech, Elaine described a success model with technical and hospitality components. Technical success includes delivering a product or service just as you said you would. Hospitality is all about how you make the consumer/end-user feel.
According to Elaine, technical elements account for 49% of success, while hospitality accounts for 51%. In other words, you can be technically perfect but still fail because the consumer doesn’t feel good about the transaction.
Think about it, how often is the customer experience perfect from a technical standpoint? Also, when the technical elements of a transaction are less than expected, it’s a pretty good bet that some elements of the hospitality component will suffer.
Mediocre Hotel Service
To bring this concept home, let me offer you two examples from recent hotel stays.
Hotel 1
Hotel 1 is a high-end hotel in San Diego where I stayed during a convention. With 1,362 rooms, this hotel is massive. Unfortunately, they have only 100 or so covered parking spaces for overnight guests. The spaces are so small that my full-size car barely fit. To add insult to injury, they charge an extra $50.00/day for parking.
On my second full day there, I returned to my room after dinner and found the maid service had skipped my room. When I called, they did nothing. It was too late, they said, for maid service.
As I was leaving, I checked out electronically and paid for the parking at the same time. When I left, the automated parking system said I hadn’t paid my parking bill and wanted me to pay another $150.00 to be released from parking jail. After calling the parking customer service number and waiting 15 minutes, I was finally freed.
When I got the usual “How did we do?” email from Hotel 1, I let them know in detail. All I got back from them was a “thanks for completing our customer service survey.” No recognition of the concerns I expressed, no apology, no nothing.
Hotel 2
Hotel 2 is a boutique hotel on San Diego’s beautiful Mission Bay. It is my family’s go-to spot for mini-vacations. We’ve gone there every year at least once for several years. We love stepping out of our room onto the bayside boardwalk or walking a couple of blocks down to the ocean.
Last year, our stay was delightful. When we arrived, we were recognized as returning guests by the desk clerk. There was a lovely cheese and cracker plate along with a personal hand-written welcome note from the manager waiting for us in the room. All the hotel staff did an incredible job throughout our stay.
Sadly, our next stay with Hotel 2 was not as delightful. There was no recognition from the desk clerk as she told us our room would not be ready for several hours past the usual check-in time. Maid service was late every day, and every day we had to call to get towels or something that was missing. Our room had a small kitchenette with a toaster. Unfortunately, the toaster didn’t work, and neither did the replacement one they brought a day later, just before we checked out!
I detailed our experience in a note to the general manager in the hotel’s “how did we do?” email. Two days later, I received a letter in the mail from the general manager. He apologized for the issues during our stay and made no excuses. Additionally, he gave us the phone number of his private secretary, who, he said, would be happy to handle our next reservation personally with the first night comped by the hotel.
When I called his secretary, she was delightful. She expressed concern for our last stay as she personally handled making the reservation for our next stay. In addition to comping the first night, she also reduced the rate of the additional nights of our vacation.
Guess which hotel, 1 or 2, that I give rave reviews about and which one I suggest people avoid?
5 Steps for Handling Mistakes
Elaine described five steps for handling mistakes in her speech. Successfully completing each step gets you closer to achieving hospitality success, even when technical elements are lacking.
1) Be aware you made it
Both hotels asked how they did, and both hotels received a fitting response from me.
2) Acknowledge it
Both hotels acknowledged receipt of my response with the details of my concerns. Hotel 1’s response was an automated, impersonal email. Hotel 2’s response was a personalized letter acknowledging each of the specific issues I brought up.
Hotel 1 quit at this step.
3) Apologize for it
Hotel 2 apologized in the letter and then once again when I called the secretary to make the next reservation.
4) Act on it
Hotel 2 acted on my concerns by acknowledging the maid service issues and promising to conduct additional training sessions with the staff. This validated my concern and made me feel like my issues were taken to heart.
They also acted on my concerns by offering to comp a night of my next stay and giving me personalized help in making the next reservation.
5) Apply additional generosity
Hotel 2 then applied additional generosity by following up with emails confirming my reservation and lowering their regular room rate for the balance of my next stay.
Mistakes Happen Everywhere
My examples of the five steps of handling mistakes are from a hotel experience, but they apply to all kinds of businesses and customer transactions.
Every transaction represents a promise between the business and the customer. In Proverbs 11:3, the Bible tells us, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.” As Christians, we need to be examples of integrity in the business world where our promises are delivered, and when we fall short, as we no doubt will, we must take action to correct our shortcomings.
Leaders, it is critical that we first model these behaviors ourselves; only then can we train our organizations and empower them to model these behaviors. Mistakes occur in every business every day, but we can still pave the way to success when the mistakes are well-handled!
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. What do you think of the five steps to handling mistakes? Is there one you think is most often overlooked or one that is most important to you as a customer?
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Category: Skills | Quality/Excellence
