A good friend of mine, Bill Packard, fellow speaker and small business consultant, recently shared with me a “Magic Minute” experience. I loved it and thought it would be great to share with all of you. It tells a wonderful story about how a particular business made a decision based on good will towards a customer by looking at the bigger picture for future possible business.
It seems that Bill was hosting an event and had booked a meeting at a particular Hampton Inn hotel. The conference room was set up for his event and the hotel staff spent a few hours getting it all ready. Unfortunately no one showed up. Obviously, according to the hotel contract, Bill would still have to pay the costs of reserving the room and having the staff set it up. However, Bill was surprised at the outcome. Here is part of Bill’s story. What would you or your business do?
What’s The Value Of Good Will?
The meeting room for the event was booked on my American Express card and I only use that infrequently, so the only time I deal with it is when the statement comes. There was no charge for the room on my statement this week. I emailed Shelby thinking that they may have lost the number or forgot to put the card through and shortly after the email, she called to tell me that because no attendees showed up, they decided to credit the room charge back to me. I didn’t cancel. I didn’t ask for anything. On the phone, I shared with Shelby that they had set the room up and blocked it off and that should be worth something. She said they appreciated my business (I’ve had the room before.) and felt bad that nobody showed.
The Hampton Inn looks at the big picture and it’s often difficult to get small businesses to do the same. Many small businesses only look at the small snapshot of a situation and look at their costs, etc. without looking for marketing value by doing the right thing. In this case I feel the hotel went well beyond doing the right thing and did an exceptional thing, but let’s look at what they got for their investment. This newsletter goes out to a lot of people including some speakers from all over the country. They’re all going to read about what the Hampton did. The newsletter is also shared on Facebook and Linkedin, so there’s several hundred more people. I’d say they’re getting a pretty good return on their investment. You can do the same thing in your business. If you have a return, cancelation, or other situation where there is an immediate cost to you to make something right for the Customer think of that as a marketing investment, not an out of pocket operating expense. By doing things that others in your business don’t or won’t do, you set yourself apart and make your business stand out.
Many small business owners look at these situations from a “It’s not my responsibility. I had nothing to do with it.” perspective. While that’s true, it’s small thinking. These situations are opportunities to get Customers talking about your business and that will put you and your business front of mind when they need your product or service.
A big THANK YOU to Jamey and Shelby and the Hampton Inn & Suites, US Route 1, Thomaston, Maine. I’ll keep spreading the word.
Bill provides us some great insight and tips for any small businesses to digest. Again, what would your business do in that situation? They were certainly not obligated to do that. However, they looked at the bigger picture and because of their good will decision, they have a gained a loyal future customer for life. Not to mention all of the good publicity on social media and word of mouth that they will receive. How much will that be worth to their business in the long run? This particular hotel surprised Bill with a kind and thoughtful act of kindness to create an experience that he certainly appreciated. Thank you Bill for the tips and for sharing your “magic” experience.
If you are in the New England area and looking for an ideal speaker for an upcoming event, team training or need help with your small business, I strongly suggest you contact Bill. He is an awesome speaker and will help make any small business more successful. He can be reached at www.bpackard.com. Tell him I said hello.