So nice to be able to say thank you for a really good experience with not just one but two companies this week:
1. Kimpton Hotels – last year we booked to stay in one of their hotels in San Francisco – looked lovely, fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor. Booked a smoking room. Went about our business and the day before leaving lovely Las Vegas for SF checked up on the room. Found they had become a no smoking property. Rang them to confirm, and cancel. They had changed to being a non smoking property on the 1st of May, but had not contacted customers who had booked a smoking room, or even told us at the time of booking (March) that this was happening.
They did have a good ruse of sending emails to suggest that you upgrade your room – I got two of them between booking and arriving – so they had systems in place to be able to identify potential upgradees. Anyhow, upshot was that they refused to refund the first night fee as I only managed to cancel 20 hours in advance. I phoned and emailed and received a really unpleasant email back from the hotel marketing representative. The amount was debited from my card. Without taking them to court, I wasn’t going to get the 250 bucks back. Instead, I put it down to experience and tried to forget about it. grrr….
Then a week or so ago I received a cheery newsletter from Kimpton Hotels. I got a bit mad so I wrote back asking them to immediately unsusbscribe me - I do blush when I read what I wrote (it was late at the end of a looong day) “You might consider not sending e-marketing to people who are already totally turned off you. I would never stay at a kimpton hotel after your money grabbing treatment of us last year”
Fair play to them – they got back within a couple of days and said they’d remove me, but could I please let them know what had happened… So I forwarded the e-mail thread, thinking I’d get more of the same. To my total astonishment I didn’t! I got a lovely e-mail from their director of operations, apologising unreservedly for how we had been treated. He said the charges would be reversed immediately and offered a complimentary stay if we’d give them another chance.
That’s good customer service.
Number 2: Our central heating blew up on Tuesday night – thank heavens it’s spring! I called three separate companies, only one came back to make an appointment within an hour. Peter from Irish Boiler Services arrived when he said he would, checked out the boiler, re-arranged his day to come back to try and put a fix in place. And made me feel like I was a valuable customer. He didn’t manage to fix it yet so we’re still a little chilly, but I feel he’ll do a great job.
That’s good customer service.
