Listening to: Vacation - The Go-Gos
Writing this: In my cousin Andrew's basement
Weather: Sunny
Ok so this story is a little dated but I thought I'd post it anyway in case someone from the Tampa Hyatt reads these things. (fat chance)
Way back when I worked providing AV support to meetings and conferences I travelled to Tampa in April 1990 and was placed in the Hyatt Regency because the convention I was serving was there (Tupperware International). When I arrived I was informed that there was a mixup in the reservation and they didn't have me arriving until the following day and all rooms in my class were occupied. Not to worry though, when they realized their mistake they gave me a suite for the night (hell, yeah!) but told me that I would have to move to a standard room the next day (no problem!). I went about my business.
The next day I had off and it was my birthday so I decided to treat myself to a day at Disneyworld. I brought my bags down very early and checked out. Of course, my room wasn't ready yet. It was, after all, only about 6 am so they were probably still sleeping. No problem, I was told to leave my bags at the Bell Desk and they would bring them to the room when it was ready or I could retreive them when I got back. Off I went to see Mickey!
Upon my return I checked in with the Bell Desk with the little tag they gave me and was informed that my bags were not there. They told me that they must have already been moved to my room. No sweat, off I went. I got to the room and... NO BAGS! (uh, oh, Tampa, we have a problem...) I have nothing but a sunburn, the sweaty shorts on my butt and filthy strap t-shirt (with the chocolate ice cream stain) on my back and I have to look business-presentable at 1:00 the next day.
After frantic calls to the Front Desk and Security the hotel provided me with toiletries to get through the night and immediately initiated a search. After searching all the common areas of the hotel that night they informed me that they would begin a room-to-room search the next morning (by now it's after midnight and nobody's up to waking 1000+ guests...).
Search they did, and kept me in the loop with half-hourly updates of their progress.
When it became apparent around 11:30 the next morning that they might not be able to locate the bags in time for me to look spiffy by the appointed hour the Head of Security came to my room with $500 petty cash and personally drove me to a local Department store (Maas Brothers) where I quickly bought a shirt, tie, pants and such to get me through the day. (that's a story for another post, upon request)
By the end of the day we were all satisfied that they had searched the entire hotel (they even told me they used it as an opportunity to practice their 'lost child' scenario) and had not turned up the bags. In the effort they went as far as to telephone the airport baggage departments, the bus station and anyplace else they could think of.
Nada, zip, zilch, the big fat goose egg.
The Head of Security (and boy, how I wish I could remember his name) then sat down with me and helped me fill out the insurance claim form, going so far as to suggest and remind me of things I hadn't thought of (the BAG for instance... LOL)
This might have seemed a hellish experience and could well have been but let me tell you that the worst experience gets better when the people involved know their customer service. It happened, to be sure. The bags were missing and they didn't deny it (didn't even attempt to, especially since I still was in possession of the crumpled stub testifying to the fact) but they also didn't dwell on HOW it happened at the time, they just did everything they could to help (and made sure I could see that they were working on a solution. That may be the key... transparency.
I think it was Business guru Brandon Lee that said "Mess up, Fess up, Dress up"
In business (as in relationships and life in general) we're going to mess up. It's inevitable. The key is how we deal with it afterwards.
I found an explanation of this concept on the web in an article about PR in Alabama school systems (of all things) https://www.alsde.edu/other/PROS/Jan2003/Personal%20Web%20Page.htm
"Messing up is easy. That usually happens before you hear about it.
‘Fessing up is about getting ALL the bad news out as quickly as possible. Every piece of bad news you withhold in hopes it won’t become public is potential fodder for keeping a bad story alive for another news cycle. Each time the media pull a piece of information out of you that keeps the story alive you lose credibility. After a few such disclosures you’ll have no credibility and no control over the story.
Dressing up is about fixing the problem, making amends and taking steps to assure the rest of us it won’t happen again."
Let me try to summarize:
Mess Up - Gonna happen, believe it.
Fess Up - Immediately and completely admit what happened.
Dress Up - Go one step better to resolve the problem. (Give them more than they expected in the first place)
Tampa Hyatt's response to my issue (two issues really if you count the earlier reservation SNAFU) shows this philosophy in action. Have I been back? Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity but you can be sure that if I'm ever back in Tampa and need a hotel they'll be the first place I call.
And whatever became of the bags? No-one knows. They just, literally, dropped off the face of the earth. The only credible suspicion that anyone had was that they got mixed up with someone else's bags (in a departing bus tour for example), nobody knew what to do with them at the far end and they're still sitting in some lost luggage department somewhere in the US of A.
BTW, if anyone finds a dark suit bag with miscellaneous clothes that might have fit me 17 years ago can you let me know? A really old address and phone # was on the tag.
A guy can hope can't he?
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