Customer Service: Asking for a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

"You never have a second chance to make a first impression."  And for the most part, I believe it's true. But after a recent business trip to Las Vegas which resulted in one of the  -if not the- worst service experiences (note that was plural)  I'd had in my life during my entire four day stay, I was surprised how this hotel ended up handling my situation. And you may be, too. 



It was two weeks before an international events industry conference in Las Vegas I'd been longing to attend for years.  I have been to Vegas hundreds of times on pleasure and business and have always- religiously- chosen a hotel on the Strip.  For this conference, however, I thought I would choose a hotel that was right across the street from the Las Vegas Conference Center, where my conference would be held. I was keenly aware it was not on the Strip but was looking for convenience above all else.

As I made  my online reservation on the hotel's Website, it asked if I would like to upgrade to a room with a Strip view for an extra $4.00 a day.  It was a no-brainer.  I knew I'd have long days in seminars and would have to work in the evenings in my hotel room to keep up with business back at home and the romantic in me wanted a pretty view at night while I worked. I didn't care how far off the Strip view was, I just wanted a view of pretty lights at night. So, I made my reservation, received my eConfirmation showing a "Classic Room with Strip View" and all was well. What transpired upon check-in at this hotel, however,  is a lesson in customer service and communication that continued throughout my stay. 

When I arrived at the hotel I told the front desk agent, "I want to confirm the reservation that I made online was a Strip view and that I upgraded for that when I made my reservation online."  The front desk agent , with a wink in her eye, said, "You don't have to worry about the upgrade fee, if we don't have a full house, we will just give you the upgrade at no additional charge."  She then added "Because you are paying the Resort Fee, there will be no daily Internet use charge, either." I thought they were offering great hospitality and service and was pleased.

View of Las Vegas Strip (not the view from my room).

So, off I went to my room.  When I arrived, my room was a bit dated (and I was ok with that as I did not stay in a renovated room and knew that in advance) but what stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that my room was in no way, shape or form even facing the direction of the Strip.  If I went to my window and smashed my face up against it  to the side, I could catch a glimpse- barely- of the top of a building from New York New York, but no view of any other resorts, the Strip itself, etc.  I did not even unpack. I immediately called the front desk to report what I felt was their mistake.  The person on the other end of the line quickly dismissed me saying, "Ma'am, you are in a room that's considered a 'Strip view'."  I pressed, describing how I can't see any bit of the Strip- not even remotely.  She insisted, "That room is considered a 'Strip view'" and then hung up on me.  I rolled my eyes and chalked it up to a potentially good BLOG post downstream about honesty and ethics in selling and carried on with the reason I was there: to attend a conference and learn.

When I got  on my laptop and it said I would be charged a $13.99 per day Internet fee, did I want to agree to this?  I immediately picked up the phone and called to confirm that the front desk agent had told me that a Resort Fee includes the Internet Fee, so wanted to make sure if I logged on , I would not be charged an Internet Fee.  The operator confirmed that that was correct, no Internet Fee since I was paying a Resort Fee, and I should just accept the terms on my computer screen and enter my last name and room number to get the Internet connected to my laptop.

Fast forward through my stay, which included some mold in my shower/tub, low water pressure, stains on the carpet, one bout of violent food poisoning from one of the restaurants at the hotel, a casino clerk who was less than thrilled to show me how to place my first bet , one amazingly fantastic bartender at the hotel's elegant steak house, darling hostesses in two other restaurants who were eager to help and sweet and welcoming (I had to list some of the positive, too)  to check-out on my last day.  I received my printed up- invoice and headed back home across the Nevada and California desert home.

When I got home and reviewed my bill in detail, I noticed that they not only had charged me the Internet Fee every day - but charged me twice for it daily.  I called immediately to question why I was charged at all, let alone twice everyday.

The woman who took my call at the hotel said that I was incorrectly told about Resort Fee - it never included Internet Fees at all. I told her that not just one, but two people had validated that when I was there.  She also said the reason I was charged an Internet fee twice every day was because I had used it on two devices - my laptop and cell phone.  I told her I was not happy about it being charged twice for my iPhone. Nowhere was I told or was it posted it was "per device".  I felt it was dishonest.  I also used it freely thinking that there would be no charge at all, based on what I'd been told by two different people.  She insisted that was the way it was and did not back down or offer to change it.

It was at that point that I let her know I'd had it and that I felt that the hotel was dishonest and it started with my "strip view" room.  I let her know of my entire experience from start to finish and to me - what appeared to be blatant dishonesty and marketing.  I told her of my eConfirmation showing a Strip View Room.  She became defensive and launched into what sounded like a script informing me that their hotel is not on the strip and never has been on the Strip. I finally had to interrupt her and tell her to please stop, that I never wanted a room "on" the strip and was fully aware that their hotel was not "on" the Strip. I wanted what I signed up for and had an email confirmation confirming:  a Strip view room. I told her I didn't care if the Strip view was 50 miles away, I just wanted, booked and paid for a Strip "view".  She looked at my folio with my room number and when she saw it, she went silent.  Then her tone changed immediately.  She said "The room you were in was not a Strip view room at all.  They gave you a Standard room. I am so sorry."  Then she said, "Those rooms don't even look on anything close to the Strip."  I was relieved to have someone validate what I knew to be true from the moment I arrived to that room and called down to verify.  While she did not reverse the Internet charges, she did see what I'd been through and proceeded to reverse almost every food and beverage charge I'd incurred (and please note: I did not call to ask for a refund of any kind - I just called to dispute the Internet fees).  The total amount of money she reversed was "about" equivalent of the Internet fees, so this was acceptable.

I asked for the email address of her supervisor, which she gave me and I promptly wrote him a similar note to this BLOG and praised the way the last woman to whom I'd spoken with had handled my situation but begging them to please use this as a training opportunity for their staff.  While I didn't hear back from him, after filling out a survey from the hotel on my stay, I received a personalized, amazing letter from their Director of Customer Service stating their apologies.  He said that they were going to use this as an opportunity to address the entire Operational Team for further training and that communication with all departments must always be consistent.  He also used one of his favorite quotes from Donald Porter, which was, "The customer doesn't expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to fix things when they go wrong."  He then extended an invitation for me to come back and stay in one of their suites for two nights at no charge.

At first thought, one may think why would I return to a place that fell so far short in service in so many ways for almost my entire stay?  Why don't they just offer to refund my money for my stay entirely?  The answer really is that refunding money is not always a way to establish customer loyalty or encourage future profits.  While there may be times for it, every customer service debacle is an opportunity to establish future income and by automatically refunding money, it doesn't give a chance to show the customer what you can do and make things right.  Most will take their refunded money, go their own way and continue to slam the service/company online or word of mouth.  But by extending an invitation to say, "please come try us again, we want a second chance to make that first impression", they are investing in establishing customer loyalty, repeat business, and also helping to mitigate any online review damage, which in today's age can be a life-saver to business.

While this may not apply to all aspects of wedding and special events businesses, it can.  We are all in the business of one-shot types of contract work (i.e weddings only happen one day and then they are over). However, there are many creative ways one can establish customer loyalty, help prevent poor online reviews and more in the case of an unhappy wedding and event client.  Even in our industry, you can turn around a "one shot" event complaint into repeat business. We offer tips on exactly how to do this for wedding and special event professionals in our speaking and training sessions. 

For more information on booking  Engaging Inspiration to consult with , train or speak to your event business or association, please contact us off our Website.  Engaging Inspiration specializes in sparkling social media, marketing and training solutions for the wedding, special event professional and venue.