Blame Canada!

I was in Vancouver Canada over the Easter long weekend. Which leads me to a very unique experience that I hope you all will take note of if you are in the service industry.

The reason for my visit to Canada was an International Association of E-Business conference. My father was publishing two papers at this conference and so my mom and I tagged along. Thanks to the University of Dayton fitting the bill the hotel was free, the rental car was free, and we stayed in the swankiest place in town: Robson Street. Right up my alley and all I had to do was pay for a plane ticket.

We found this very unique restaurant called The Bread Garden that served excellent breakfast food and we found ourselves visiting this place again and again for breakfast. We loved, and still love this place. I do not want our experience to negatively reflect on the quality of the restaurant. In fact, I wish we had one in Dayton. Our third visit led to an unexpected result. As we were eating breakfast my mom went to get something from her purse only to find out it was not there. We searched the entire restaurant only to find it had been stolen. Of course everything in her purse had been stolen as well: Passport; Cell phone; wallet (a few hundred dollars); and medication. We called the police, filed a report, and the Constable was amazingly helpful. After this terrible experience I have come to have nothing but respect for the police system in Vancouver. In 2010 when they host the Olympics I feel confident they will protect everyone with the same professionalism that we experienced. Kudos to them, they were more than helpful.

We did all that we could do including canceling cards, getting legal paperwork to get across the border, and changing our keys to the hotel room. So, as I was explaining the situation to the hotel manager to my surprise she actually showed a great amount of sympathy. She apologized for our loss and said that she hoped it did not reflect poorly on our experience in the city. She gave me numbers to all the major credit card companies and the police department. I did not have the heart to tell her we just spent the entire morning already calling them. After this my family then made sure our new keys worked at the room and went to lunch to try and forget about the purse. Upon our arrival back at the hotel room we found that the hotel manager had made us a visit. She had placed a tray on the table with M&M's in a champagne glass, popcorn, beverages, and a hand written note expressing her sorrow for our loss and that all of our local calls we had made would be complimentary.

This bears repeating: She was not the restaurant owner where we were robbed. She was the hotel manager. Talk about impressive customer service! Granted, our hotel was fantastic, but this is going above and beyond. Complimentary phone calls which we did not ask for, complimentary candy and popcorn, and a hand written note (almost a thing of the past anymore). It was completely unexpected, and actually made my mother cry. For all of you customer service professionals: When is the last time your service made someone cry?

Bravo. If I ever come back to Vancouver, and the chances are likely, The Pacific Palisades is the only hotel in which I will stay. Please see the pictures I took of the tray and the card.

What a lesson I learned: Your customers problems are your problems. If you can help solve problems for your customer that you never created, you are looked upon as a hero.