Great Service

Earlier this week I railed on Barnes and Noble for their confusing website. Rather than be accused of being curmudgeonly in my old age I thought I would share my great experience tonight at the Annapolis Westin. I spend well over 100 nights on the road a year, and while I am not very picky about where I stay, I am somewhat picky about the service whether it’s at a luxury hotel or at a Holiday Inn Express.

When I first started staying at the Westin I was less than impressed. The service was a little cold, one night in the shower I discovered the maid had forgot to stock the bathroom with bath towels and the food in the restaurant was hit or miss but the bellmen Rick and Larry where top notch and the facility was beautiful and I attributed it to the new hotel working out the kinks. However, the hotel is across the street from my office and it’s surprisingly affordable in the winter.

Tonight when I checked in to the Westin my reservation was messed up, it could have been my fault as I check my email I don’t seem to have the confirmation number. However, in comes Brian Johnson, the night manager who took care of everything. Which is exactly what I would expect. but here’s the differentiator. First he got me a better rate then I thought I would get being that their was no proof of  He gave me a card with his name and the card of the front desk manager if I had any additional needs. He also offered to do his best to take care of anything special I might request (A mini bar with a ham sandwich and a Starbuck’s Frappucino maybe;). Anyway Brian left a lasting impression, it inspired me to detail that experience. The old saying is that 100 happy customers will not say a thing about a good experience but an angry one will tell ten others. 

Now for the open source software tie-in. When it comes down to it most open source software companies give away a large chunk of the software and sell a service offering. That’s a difficult thing because for that service to inspire someone to plunk down their cash they should feel they get an exceptional value in many cases that’s expertise and service. Since many of these businesses count on renewals the onus is on them to keep re-earning your business. I think that the software industry as a whole suffers from the impersonal write it once sell it a million (or a billion) times model that has made Microsoft and Oracle the giants they are today. I wonder if the reason for the traction that is being gained by commercial open source software isn’t a function of flexibility or price but the promise of good service, in an industry that’s almost devoid of it. 

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Technorati Tags: Annapolis, commercial, Open Source, Westin

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