08 Nov
I recently went to Fiji for a well-needed break after celebrating my daughter’s big fat Indian Wedding. Yes, it was just as colourful, loud and exhilarating as you would expect!
My partner and I had booked ourselves into the Sofitel Fiji via booking.com.
We had stayed in a Sofitel hotel the week prior and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Our expectations were high.
We arrived after having had 7 days at Lomani Resort which was just heavenly. A smaller, boutique island with just 30 bures, 60 guests, all expenses paid for upfront and the beach was literally outside my front door. The service was incredible from everyone at the resort and a big drawcard for me was “no kids”.
Obviously, the Sofitel is a very different type of resort to Lomani Resort, however, with the buzz of a previous stay in a sister Sofitel, we arrived with great expectations.
Those expectations were smashed as soon as we checked in.
We asked if there was an adults-only area we could use.
“Oh, yes we do” was the response. “However it will cost an additional $199 per person per day to access the pool area and lounge. However, if you pay an additional $300 for your standard room you won’t get a room upgrade but you will have access to the adults-only area”.
All of a sudden, I felt the harsh reality of an upsell. It felt like we were simply a commodity, a way for the hotel to make more money.
What struck me was when they came up with this deal they probably didn’t even consider how their clients would feel, especially their returning customers.
The end result was that we will never stay there again.
Customers can be very unforgiving.
This experience made me reflect on my own business.
Every process we have in our businesses must be designed from the point of view of all of our customers. Not just a select few, and certainly not from the agents’ or property managers’ perspective.
There also needs to be consistency in the experience. My first stay with Sofitel only a week earlier was awesome. As a customer, I felt as though the hotel had thought of everything I could possibly need or want in order to leave the hotel with a strong sense of brand loyalty.
How wrong they were.
Gaining and retaining clients for life is hard, which means we need to be hyper-focused on their experience and everyone in our business needs to be on the same page.
Something to consider the next time you and your team are dealing with your next customer.
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