A Tale of Two Cities

Let me first set the stage: I grew up in the Midwest and moved to a major New England city back in the mid-90’s. The cultural, geographic, and political diversity of New England remains a primary reason why we love the area. But the one thing that also remains constant is the stark differences in the people from the two regions.

My passion for the customer experience should be no surprise to people given my past posts. Often times I am witness to the good and the bad, usually born out of a company culture that either embraces or rejects the customer experience as a key driver for success. Attention to details that optimize the customer experience is definitely something that can be taught.

But for some people, that kind of passion just comes natural. Case in point:

I was in Indianapolis this past weekend for the Final 4 Men’s Basketball Championship and stayed at a very nice Sheraton hotel in the downtown area. Monday was a beautiful day and with much time to kill before the championship game that night, my travel companion and I spent the morning and early afternoon seeing the sights of downtown Indy.

In the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel with the plan to find a place to sit in the sun, do a little reading, maybe take a nap before the late game that evening. We knew the outdoor hotel pool was closed but thought maybe we could find some chairs to relax in.

Having difficulty finding which floor the pool was located, I ran into one of the Sheraton’s maintenance staff and asked. He told me it was on the 9th floor but was closed. Typically, he said, the pools in Indy don’t open until Memorial Day. He then asked me “If you’d like to see it, I’d be happy to show it to you”. Taken aback by his offer, I told him our true desire was to find some chairs to sit in outside to soak up some sun.

He looked me square in the eye and said “I think I can scrounge up two chairs for you, would you like that?”. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with two lounge chairs. He then proceeded to take them out to the pool deck and put them in his favorite spot where we could see the downtown circle and have the optimal people-watching view. He winked at me and said “I may start something by doing this with the other guests” but you could tell he was only mildly serious.

After he left us, I sat and thought “Would this have happened at a hotel back home?” The answer was easy “no”. This wasn’t a Sheraton thing; this was the values and good nature of the Midwestern people I was experiencing. Everywhere I go in New England, simple requests like the one I made are routinely denied. Rather than trying to delight a customer, people seem more interested in doing only things “by the book” to delight someone. It’s a pervasive “can’t do” type of attitude service staff in areas like New England have that makes traveling back to the Midwest a delightful experience in and of itself.

You can teach “customer experience” but for some, like the maintenance man at the downtown Sheraton in Indianapolis, it’s just second nature!