5 ms·

> For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice ha

> For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. I'm not doubting that this is nice, but in a lot of businesses this could be all or most of their margin. You can be nice all day long but at the end of the day there has to be something left to run the business. There are plenty of ways to exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

JohnFen 7y ago
> this could be all or most of their margin. For that particular stay, yes. But it increases the likelihood that the customer will come back and, perhaps more importantly, tell everyone they know about how awesome the place is. It's hard to see how this wouldn't work out to a net positive in the longer run.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  Depend show much utility you offer and how much money your clientele have. For some businesses, the customer doesn’t value anything other than the price.
setr 7y ago
I somehow doubt this is the case. When a business is described as low-margin, it’s on a per-sale basis; they make $.02 on every bolt sold kind of thing. If its a functioning business, then they still make reasonable total profit due to volume of sale. So yes, if this were an additional $20 per sale it might deeply cut into their margins if they aren’t a luxury product. However, I struggle to imagine that every, or most, or even many, of a hotels sales are anniversaries, or similar kinds of events, that would deserve such additional servicing. If the total profit is $200k, a single $20 (or relatively few) instance is nothing, regardless of high or low margins. Specially servicing these rare, one-off events, is exactly how you exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.
- hnick 7y ago
  Generally I'd expect these kind of expenses to be tracked under Marketing, which often has a lot of leeway.
  - cwkoss 7y ago
    Exactly. Word of mouth marketing is authentic, advertisments are impersonal and deceptive.
billforsternz 7y ago
Whilst checking into Hotel Sir Albert in Amsterdam we mentioned it was the fourth time we'd stayed there. When we returned to the room later in the day there was a charming card featuring a hand drawn Kiwi and a note, something like "Welcome home Mr and Mrs Forster". My wife has kept that card, even though she hates being called Mrs Forster (that's not her name). Total cost, maybe $0.5. Customer loyalty delta, very positive.

JohnFen 7y ago

> this could be all or most of their margin. For that particular stay, yes. But it increases the likelihood that the customer will come back and, perhaps more importantly, tell everyone they know about how awesome the place is. It's hard to see how this wouldn't work out to a net positive in the longer run.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
Depend show much utility you offer and how much money your clientele have. For some businesses, the customer doesn’t value anything other than the price.

setr 7y ago

I somehow doubt this is the case. When a business is described as low-margin, it’s on a per-sale basis; they make $.02 on every bolt sold kind of thing. If its a functioning business, then they still make reasonable total profit due to volume of sale. So yes, if this were an additional $20 per sale it might deeply cut into their margins if they aren’t a luxury product. However, I struggle to imagine that every, or most, or even many, of a hotels sales are anniversaries, or similar kinds of events, that would deserve such additional servicing. If the total profit is $200k, a single $20 (or relatively few) instance is nothing, regardless of high or low margins. Specially servicing these rare, one-off events, is exactly how you exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

hnick 7y ago
Generally I'd expect these kind of expenses to be tracked under Marketing, which often has a lot of leeway.
- cwkoss 7y ago
  Exactly. Word of mouth marketing is authentic, advertisments are impersonal and deceptive.

billforsternz 7y ago

Whilst checking into Hotel Sir Albert in Amsterdam we mentioned it was the fourth time we'd stayed there. When we returned to the room later in the day there was a charming card featuring a hand drawn Kiwi and a note, something like "Welcome home Mr and Mrs Forster". My wife has kept that card, even though she hates being called Mrs Forster (that's not her name). Total cost, maybe $0.5. Customer loyalty delta, very positive.