How to serve a Sara lesson from QBQ

Serving Like Sara

The theme of Outstanding! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional is this: “People fire organizations, but they don’t fire the outstanding ones.”

And, the book is dedicated to “those who care enough to improve the place.” It’s tough to have one (the theme) without the other (the people who care).

A story that sums this all up comes from Antonio, an Outstanding! fan:
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John,

Until three years ago I was a loyal customer of a well-known hotel chain for over a decade. But then an incident occurred where they not only provided terrible customer experience, but would not make any effort to correct it—for a longtime and loyal customer, I might add!

It was at that moment I fired them—just as you say people do in your Outstanding! book—and gave Hyatt a chance to earn my business. I will say, my first stay did not go all that well, but management did everything they could to get me to give them another try. I gave them a second chance and it was truly an outstanding experience! I’ve been a loyal customer ever since, with multiple Hyatt stays in various cities.

And here’s an example of what Hyatt does for me:

My wife and I had reservations at a Hyatt hotel in Indianapolis for a quick getaway. I received this email three days prior to our arrival date from Sara, the assistant GM.

Hello, Antonio:

I see you have an upcoming reservation at my hotel and want to see if there's anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable.

I approach all of my guests' stays in a proactive manner so that your experience will be second-to-none! No request is too small or too large. If you need your fridge stocked w/ energy drinks, the sofa-bed made up ahead of time, or a printer placed in your room for some late night work, please let me know and I'll figure out a way to make it happen.

Please reach out to me in whatever way is most convenient for you and let me know how I can make your life more "seamless.”

My staff and I look forward to seeing you soon. Safe travels and I hope to hear from you shortly.

Thanks,

Sara Grindstaff
Assistant General Manager