The social: Less than an hour after checking into my room at the Westin in Sydney, my doorbell rings. (Wait… I have a doorbell?)
At first, I think I am having auditory hallucinations, which isn’t good. I start to do the math: I left the Greenville-Spartanburg airport on Saturday at 11:05am. Passing through ATL, LAX and SYD, I have flown right through Sunday: It is now 11:23am on Monday. Time zones notwithstanding, that is how long I have been traveling to get here. My brain can’t do simple math anymore. I have no idea how many hours of sleep I have managed to grab in the last two days. Certainly not many. The backs of my eyeballs ache and I am starving.
The doorbell rings again. I go to answer it. Outside my door stands an impeccably dressed hotel staffer holding a small bowl of fruit and an envelope. In the US, she would be well past retirement age. Here, she is one the hotel’s ambassadors, and standing no more than five feet tall in her spotless uniform, she is glorious. She greets me with a warm, genuine smile and a bow. “Welcome to Sydney,” she says, beaming with pride. She offers me the bowl and the envelope. “Anything we can do to help you enjoy your stay, please let us know.”
This is not my typical experience when I check into a hotel. Even one whose rooms have doorbells.
I set the fruit on the desk and open the envelope. It is a note from Mark Burns, the manager, welcoming me to his hotel. Not hand-written, but specific to the reason for my stay. The signature isn’t digital. It is signed in pen. Here it is:
Outstanding.
The fruit, by the way, was delicious, and the rest of my stay at the Sydney Westin was as spectacular as that first morning.
The media: A human being. Ink and paper. A bowl of fruit.
No matter how great your Social Media program is, it cannot take the place of this: Rocking your customers’ worlds, and allowing employees to connect with customers like human beings rather than like corporate robots. Start at the core of your business, not along its edges. Engagement, customer loyalty, great experiences and love for your brand aren’t add-ons to be reaped from having a presence on Twitter and Facebook. A presence in Social Media might make you popular and seem cool, but being great there isn’t enough. You must be great across every medium, even the ones that don’t get a whole lot of attention anymore. Perhaps more so.
The social and the medium: Platforms and digital channels aren’t everything.
Cheers,
Olivier
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
Olivier,
What I’d like to point out is the one-one nature of the contact that was made with you. I find so many companies trying to use social media as a one to many medium. That’s like leaving the bowl of fruit outside many doors. And not even taking the time to knock. The fruit ends up stale and in the garbage.
Sincerely,
Hugh
I could of not have said it better… Great example of not Knocking on the Door.
I meant you could not said it better… Sorry sometimes my english as a Second Language affects my writing š
Excellent article, and great comment Hugh. So many companies (in particular the larger ones), have social media accounts and only post their accomplishments on their page. Who would want to read that? Social media needs to be a 2 way street. Your knocking on the door example was excellent
Jason
http://twitter.com/StartupSidekick (follow me on Twitter for more entrepreneurial advice)
“Start at the core of your business, not along its edges.”
We all have so many ways of saying this – this is a good one. Ultimately, the tools can’t make you social. Showing up can’t make you social. Being social is the only thing that makes you social. If there is one thing that is absolutely beautiful about what continues to happen daily is that companies are forced into transparency, whether speaking for themselves or allowing someone else or track record to do it for them.
Nice when one company takes real customer service to the streets, and somewhere the crowd is not watching (ie: not for the purpose of more fans).
Agreed. š
Just as in the past you have mentioned and I have experienced. (As with BestBuy they are great on Social Media but suffering in their brick an mortar stores) many people focus to much on Social Media and forget the Social part.
Here locally in Puerto Rico given we are a U.S. Colony we are heavily influenced by the U.S. and disgracefully we can see how our neighbor the Dominican Republic beats us on Tourism not only by their competitive rates in All-Inclusive resorts but the key part is their commitment to service.
I am currently working on trying to improve the environment around me as much as I can to get most of these small companies and medium ones to focus on Great Service and giving the extra mile.
Many of them get all hyped up on opening a twitter account, facebook like page, creating a blog, and doing other social media related efforts but when you visit them physically it makes you unfollow them, remove your like from their page, not visit their blog or in the worst case scenario communicate your negative experience online where they really can suffer.
Don’t get me wrong their are many places where locally we can bump into great social treatment
If you ever visit Puerto Rico I recommend you to visit La Casita Blanca ( which I wrote a post about http://raulcolon.net/?q=No_need_to_be_the_Foursquare_Mayor) since they are focused on service they stand out from the rest. They can rest assure that if they keep being as warm as they are to their customers even people like me (Vegetarian and with no options to eat at the place) will recommend the place for people to visit.
Like Hugh said after you move and make all the effort don’t forget to Knock and give service with a GENUINE Smile.
Great. “We are humans” is the lesson today’s business world needs to learn. And it is the slogan of my small little company. š
Wow, a bowl of fruit. Compare that to my last hotel stay, which I will admit was in a cheap Days Inn. The ceiling was peeling, the shower was moldy, and the towels looked like they were left over from someone’s yard sale. Now I was not there for the decor, but I do expect cleanliness and some sense that they care from a hotel chain. But it was lacking enough to make me never want to stay in a Days Inn again no matter what. Next time I’m going for the fruit.
Yeah, but I bet you had free wi-fi in your room, right? š
Hospitality at it’s best! Most businesses think of the money and forget to take care of the source
Olivier, really like this post. How well you express that you shouldn’t need a shoehorn to get Social Media into the communication strategy. Your ears should have been burning yesterday, I was teaching Twitter 101 and quoting the Brandbuster. I’ll get you on the radar at our place one way or the other. Even if I have to RT you to do it! hahahaha
Whatever works. š
Great post Olivier. It’s the small things that are so often overlooked by agencies who focus on trying to crack the ‘big idea’, and in doing so often overlook what is most important. As marketers if we took a step back and asked ourselves how we can surprise and delight people at every touch point then brands could have more of these moments and connections with consumers.
Exactly. Well said, Carl.
Sounds neat, but I wonder how much of it has to do with the fact that it was you checking in. What I mean is : if it’s a hotel that’s doing their homework, they’re monitoring social media and (knowing you you probably tweeted about it š ) and they looked into how well-known/influential/visible you are online..
(I don’t mean to knock the little old lady by the way – she sounds fabulous š )
Just got to thinking that this can’t be how they treat EVERY guest..or is it?..
Oh sure: It is SUPER simple. It’s common sense, smart business, and soooo easy to do. Yet, few hotels bother to do it. Same with restaurants. Those that do win. Those that don’t let customers leave without having converted them into loyal customers. š
I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s the “frontline” people in a company — those with the daily customer contact — that are your number one marketing tool. And they need to be given that respect with that responsbility for them to excel at their work and make the customer experience a positive memory. Kudos to the hotel manager and staff member (But Olivier, what did her age have to do with the story? š
Great post. I love awesome customer experience stories.