Page 90 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Never a Customer, Always a Guest 71

the concierge volunteered, “One of the waiters is off today, and I know he
would not mind if you wore his tuxedo.”
When the two men went to the locker room, they found a clean shirt but
the tuxedo had been taken to the cleaners. The CEO thanked the concierge for
his trouble, but the concierge refused to give up. “You can wear my tuxedo!”
he offered as he began to disrobe.
Not deterred by the fact that he was two sizes larger than the CEO, the
concierge attempted to staple the arms and legs to make them look presentable.
And when that didn’t work, the concierge called the hotel tailor who came
immediately and fixed the tuxedo on the spot.
The CEO took his place in the receiving line and no one was the wiser!
To top the whole thing off, when he returned from the event, he found
that his business suit had been pressed and hung neatly on a hanger. The
CEO, wishing to express his gratitude, began pulling out all the cash in his
pocket plus his checkbook. But the concierge refused to accept any payment,
insisting that he had only been doing his job, which was to serve the guests
and solve their problems.
“But I’m not even a guest,” the CEO said. “I just walked in off the street.”
To which the concierge replied, “Well, maybe someday you will be.”
The CEO was sold on Four Seasons, of course, and decided that the hon-
ored guest at the first dinner of the retreat would be that concierge. The CEO
presented him with a brass clock, which he graciously accepted while reiterat-
ing, “I was only doing my job.”
Another well-known name in the hospitality business with an equally
well-known reputation for providing stellar service is Marriott International.
In our work with one of the Marriott hotels, we got an immediate sense of
the company’s motto: “Go beyond.” Go beyond what your customers expect
and surprise them with your ability to solve their problems. An incident at
one of the company’s smaller hotels outside Seattle illustrates how this value
is lived every day at Marriott.
A guest checked into the hotel and began to prepare for the first big speech
of her career. When she unpacked her laptop computer to retrieve her speech,
she realized that she had forgotten to bring the computer cord and the bat-
tery. The hotel management quickly located compatible replacements, but this
guest’s problems were just beginning.
As she booted up the machine, her hard drive crashed. Any computer
user can imagine her panic. But once again, the hotel came to her rescue by
allowing her to use a desk and a computer in the hotel’s accounting office.