I’m going to Hinckley Minnesota on Sunday.
I tried to book my hotel room online but apparently their reservation system hates MACs. So I called their 800 number.
It went down like this:
Gertrude: Reservations.
Me: I’d like to make a reservation for the evening of October 11th.
G: You gotta coupon?
Me: No ma’am.
G: Why not?
Me: I’m just there for one night, to speak for a credit union.
G: Oh. You smoke?
Me: Nope.
G: One or two beds?
Me: One please.
G: You bringin’ anybody with you?
Me: No ma’am.
G: Didn’t think so. You gonna be here by 6:00?
Me: Um, no actually I won’t be in till after 10pm. Is that okay?
G: Chuckles. We’re a casino, someone will be up. That’s for sure. But I need a credit card if you’re not gonna be here by 6:00.
Me: 3739 609 *** ***** (for security reasons)
G: When you get here, park your car and go to customer service and get yourself a coupon. It’s free and it’ll save you 5 bucks on your room. Right now the rate is $54.00 a night, but we can get you in for $49.00 with that coupon. Okay?
Me: Yes ma’am. I’ll see you on Sunday.
G: Chuckles again. Good bye.
I have no idea if this casino is trying to build a sales and service culture. But G nailed it. She genuinely cared, albeit in an abrupt way. She was authentic. I loved it.
You can’t teach caring. You either do or you don’t.
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4 comments
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October 8, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Todd S.
Ya, sure, you bet. I never realized Minnesota makes you weird until I became an ex-Minnesotan.
We do care, and we are a little strange. I watched the movie Fargo and said “I know those people” (well, not the murderous and sociopathic ones).
October 9, 2009 at 5:44 am
Glenn Coble
I love this quote. Can I use it… with attribution, of course? “You can’t teach caring. You either do or you don’t.”
I don’t think the HR people have come up with a metric to measure this.
October 9, 2009 at 5:55 am
Denise Wymore
@Glenn,
Absolutely. I think some HR people think they CAN teach people to care.
October 14, 2009 at 2:43 pm
nicolle
I agree that you cannot teach folks to care. I believe you can foster caring by giving employees the tools and freedom to take care of the customer at the first interaction.