Last Thursday, my wife, daughter and I went to Dallas, TX to attend the spring Ace Hardware Convention. Our flight left late in the afternoon and arrived at about 10 p.m. Once we arrived, we were surprised to see it had snowed! The temperature was in the 20's. We picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel. Upon arrival, we were advised that several of their guests had been forced to stay another night since so many flights were canceled (guess they don't do airport snow very well in Dallas). Unfortunately, we were told they'd made arrangements for us to go to a different hotel down the road.
Upon arriving at the replacement hotel, we checked in and carried our bags to the new room. Imagine our surprise when we opened the door and found the room already occupied! Fortunately for us, the folks were from an Ace store in Morris, MN and had been ejected from the same hotel as us. Understanding our plight, they invited us to come in and use their phone to call the front desk.
Once I got customer service on the phone I told them how happy I was with the room but wondered if they could send us 3 roll-away beds since the room apparently included ANOTHER COUPLE! 40 minutes later, a bellmen arrived with a new room key. We got our luggage to the new room only to find it was a "conference type" room. Big table, chairs, wet bar, and one queen sized bed that folded out of the wall! Obviously that wouldn't do for three of us. About a half hour later, a roll-away bed arrived. I got 5 hours of sleep.
I left early Friday morning for the Ace show. Lori and Savannah ate breakfast, schlepped the luggage to the rental car and returned to our original hotel to check in...... but they still didn't have a room. Back to the other hotel they went. There, they checked into a different room (and weren't too happy about it either!).
Saturday Morning I got up early and went to the Ace show and once again Lori and Savannah hauled the luggage to the car and went to check in at the original hotel. It was about 11 a.m. This time, luck was with them (sort of). The hotel actually had our room but the desk clerk advised them that "check in is not until 3 p.m." Obviously, this was the wrong thing to say to a lady that just moved her luggage for the forth time. After a bit of negotiating, they found a suitable room and allowed her to check in. Although we finally got the room we wanted (for one night), we weren't exactly wowed by the experience.
When I think about it, it was a lot like how I've been treated at other businesses. Some times things don't work out exactly as we plan but we always try to do the best we can for our customers. Sometimes it's hard to explain how unexpected problems arise, but I've always said, "problems are really opportunities to exceed our customers expectations". Solving problems is what sets us apart from all the other retailers. It seems that many people have come to expect mediocre resolutions.
When dealing with problems, our staff is empowered to "error on the side of generosity" and to treat our customers as they would want to be treated themselves. It seems like common sense to me.... but if it was common, everyone would get it. Fortunately for Dave's Ace, too many other business simply don't!
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