On a recent trip to Moscow, I needed to exchange Australian dollars into Russian roubles. I was staying at the Hyatt hotel and figured they would be able to do this at reception. I was advised by the hotel operator that the dollars could be exchanged at the fourth floor money changer.
It turns out that this wasn’t the case. They weren’t at all interested in changing the currency, so I headed down to the concierge to ask for directions to a nearby money changer. I was given an address not too far from the hotel and headed off.
Bugger; they weren’t open either. So again, I headed back to the concierge who was more than embarrassed to hear I’d been turned away a second time.
Rather than send me off to a third money changer and risk further embarrassment, the concierge took it upon himself to solve my problem. He suggested they send their own bellboy to a money changer a little further away that they knew was open. And all at no charge to me.
Thirty minutes later the bellboy returned with the roubles and the receipt for the conversion. I tipped him as it saved me time and effort, and both of us were happy.
What could have been a customer service disaster turned out just fine in the end. I was left with a positive impression of the hotel and satisfied with the level of service I received. It’s rare in business to find switched-on people who are happy to take on the customer’s problems. This type of individual will always have a job and be in demand. They are invaluable to customers and therefore invaluable to any business.
– Kym Illman
