Hotels Attracting Business Travelers With Frills

In the Straits Times report today entitled Hotels Dangle Frills, it has been reported that some hotels here are dangling frills to attract the corporate traveler, seeing as how the leisure traveler numbers are dwindling in this economic downturn.

In the report, it is also stated that many hotels are not willing to cut rates as this could mean a drop in quality and service.

Some of the frills include free use of the gym, free laundry services up to two pieces daily, breakfast, use of the mini-bar etc. While these are welcome moves seeing as how the business and corporate traveler usually need these things, some things crop to mind.

Would corporate travelers even mind paying for these things in the first place? Sure they are accountable to the finance department for any expenses now, more so than before. However, if the spending is deemed necessary to secure the business, it will be spent right? Perhaps. I do agree, these frills help make the overall package attractive. It is however, only one of several initiatives deemed necessary to win the customer over.

On the whole, I am glad they are not taking drastic measures just yet, like slashing of rates to rock bottom prices. The decision to "add value" is, in my opinion, a far more long term approach. Will it last though?

In this downturn, perhaps it is also a good time to invest in training. Nothing makes a better wake up call than the prospect of not having any business. In fact, in good times, it is relatively speaking, a lot easier to get business, but one must never forget to build relationships, in good or bad times. The true test of a customer's loyalty comes in bad times, when the customer is still spending, but spending a lot more prudently. They will be selective of what they spend on, how much they spend and when they do the spending. This applies throughout, whether you are spending on company's expense such as for a business trip, or even going out with friends.

In lean times like these, companies must continue training their teams to build long lasting relationships with their customers because when the good times come, will they be prepared to handle the surge in spending? Will they remember to treat their customers with respect, be ethical and most importantly, serve their customers well?

It is not just about hard skills, but soft skills too. At the end of the day however, customer service personnel and their employers must realise that customer service, the love of serving customers and the pride that comes with doing a job well has to come from within. We must cultivate such a mindset if we are to improve in our standing as a centre of excellence in service.

I am no industry expert on customer service, but I know how I would like to be treated as a customer, in good or bad times.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.

Defining Good Or Bad Service

I have received questions from friends on what is good or bad service. A willing smile? A wide variety of products offered? Being able to answer all your queries?

Everyone has his or her threshold for what makes service good or bad. However, some underlying truths remain.

Service is about people, dealing with other people. It is about an experience for you, the customer.

Can we really learn good customer service or how to serve people better? We can probably learn the technical aspects but some things, we need to have a genuine love for. The genuine love for people is a core trait that is often lacking in many in the service industry. As I once overheard, "In service, you need to have a big heart." This translates to having a love for the people you serve.

How many times have we had a bad service experience because providers do not listen, or are too eager to get their point across to you, based on legalities or terms and conditions before first listening to what your problem is?

So, what really constitutes good service? It is the willingness of service providers to listen, do what they can to act on the problem and work to provide a solution for you. Tall order yes? Who ever said being in customer service was an easy job?

On the other hand, us customers have to be reasonable. We should communicate our needs clearly and more importantly, be reasonable. We cannot expect to pay ridiculously low sums and still expect service providers to bend over backwards for us all the time. People still need to make a living and companies need to make a profit to stay in business.

No point listening and then not acting or when one acts on it, one often gets it wrong. That is, if you ask me, bad service. It is just like a restaurant which has the widest variety of wines available yet their waiters keep sending you the wrong bottle, recommending a wine which does not go well with your food, or worse, recommending the most expensive wines just to increase their sales figures. I would much rather go to a restaurant which may not have a wide variety of wine, but the waiters observe and pay attention to my order, offers suitable alternatives if my choice of wine is unavailable and gets my order right.

This willingness to listen, act on it and pay attention to your customers is what makes service good and the experience memorable in the right way.

I am not a customer service specialist. The above is my opinion, as a consumer, on what makes a service experience a good or bad one for me.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines before submitting.

Welcome to Bouquets & Brickbats

Welcome to Bouquets & Brickbats, a website dedicated to sharing experiences on customer service with people. This site looks at good and bad service experiences you may have had in Singapore.

As Singapore has no natural resources, we rely on our people a lot. One of the core industries that our nation depends on is the service industry.

This site was started as a way to share my experience as a consumer with everyone out there and I will be putting up posts and reports on my experience as a customer. Whether I have experienced good service, bad service or just no service at all, I will share my stories here, no holds barred. It will be civil, but I will not pull punches when it comes to service.

However, let's be fair here. I won't be putting up reports on issues such as buying food at a supermarket chain and being given bad "service". This blog is more relevant to the items where one would expect some form of service, like when one buys an electronic device, a tour package, dining at a restaurant, shoes, a piece of property or even a car. Basically, if the service level goes as expected, there's little need to write about it, but if things go beyond the expected, or even below the expected, than it is safe to assume, one can share their stories.

I look forward to constructive feedback and as time goes on, would like to be able to do more with this site so that users can use this as a reference point. If you want to share your stories here, I welcome them but do email me, bouquetsnbrickbats@gmail.com for details on what information is required when sharing your story. I would like to be fair to consumers as well as service providers as well. There's always two sides to a coin.

So do feel free to give suggestions on how to better improve this site.

Gareth Phua
Bouquets & Brickbats

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.