Earlier this week I attended CCCA's annual leadership conference, HighDef09. The event this year was held at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs. To say this hotel is nice would be like saying Jimmie Johnson is an ok NASCAR driver (I'm not a big NASCAR fan, but I hear JJ really is a pretty fair driver.).
For those of you not familiar with The Broadmoor, it is a 5 star resort located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Since it's the only 5 star resort this old Holiday Inn guy has ever stayed in, I don't really have anything to compare it to other than to say it's well beyond nice.
As you would expect, the hotel itself was beautiful and my room was probably the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in. I especially enjoyed the flat screen TV built into the wall above the bathroom vanity. (Never had to miss ESPN!) I also enjoyed the nightly turndown service, the well equiped fitness center and simply having to call Housekeeping when I was in need of ice (explained why there were no ice machines on the guest room floors).
All of the facilities and amenities were what you would expect when you're paying to stay at a 5 star resort, so no real surprise there. What was a surprise to me was the overwhelming friendliness of every staff member I came in contact with. It wasn't really until the end of the second day that I really began to take note of this.
As I was walking to that evening's general session, I passed four different room attendants heading into the tower I was staying in. Each one smiled and spoke to me as we passed each other. That's when I realized these guys obviously take customer service training very seriously. In many hotels and conference centers the primary emphasis of customer service training is directed at the front of the house employees (front desk clerks, bell staff, wait/banquet staff, etc) and not much attention is given to training back of the house employees (housekeeping, maintenance, kitchen, etc).
Based on what I experienced, this is certainly not the case at The Broadmoor. They understand that many guests have more interaction with housekeeping and maintenance staff, in and around the hotel, than they do with front desk clerks and banquet waiters. I have no doubt they spend a significant amount of time on customer service training with all their employees.
The end result is a very friendly hotel where service is done right. The really cool thing is that you don't have to be a 5 star hotel to provide friendly service. All is takes is dedication to training all employees in providing excellent customer service.
Hopefully, when you visit Ridgecrest or Glorieta, you will experience friendly service from all of our employees. That's certainly our desire. If that's not the case, please do not hesitate to let us know.
My experience too Byron. The Broadmoor staff definitely went above and beyond in this area. When you see so many people who don't get good customer service it's a delight to stay at a place where they really get it. Great post.
Thanks Mike. And, speaking of getting it right, you guys did a great job with the program for HighDef09. Definitely the best CCCA conference in the past several years.