Just got back from driving to the east coast to drop my son at college – Northeastern University in Boston. What a great town! We drove, with my wife and 3 kids so there were plenty of opportunities for laughs, bickering and mini-adventures.
We stopped in Cooperstown, NY, for a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame for my 12 year-old’s birthday. I know I’m an irrational customer (of course, we all are), but my overall impression of the Hall and Cooperstown in general is a 10 our of 10. If there is a community that “gets” the concept that an experience is made up of all the little moments, it’s Cooperstown.
There are no chain hotels in the town; we stayed at the Inn of Cooperstown, a three-story 100-year old former mansion, with a long front porch that accommodated a line of rocking chairs, and a series of unique well-kept rooms (no TVs necessary). We stayed up playing Sorry and Trivial Pursuit, laughing the evening away in the game room. Then in the morning, we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast in the dining room, complete with homemade banana-nut muffins. The staff was friendly and helpful, and we could stroll down the main street to the Hall.
There, my son Griffin received special treatment since it was his birthday, with a special card, discounts, birthday buttons and a photo in the Hall Gallery in front of Babe Ruth’s plaque. Overall, it was a big warm and fuzzy.
Then, off to Boston where we stayed in a larger downtown hotel. As I was nearing our room, a member of the cleaning staff eyed me warily and said, “Oh, no. They did not already check you into this room.”
Chagrined, I said, “They did indeed.”
“Well,” she uttered, shaking her head, “it’s not clean yet. I still have to vacuum.” She then stared at me, wondering how I was going to fix the problem.
Not a big deal, but a glitch in the process that became a little “moment” in my experience. Things got better, but it reminded me of the importance to creating a full customer experience, one that keeps in mind how much it all matters. A cold word, or a warm homemade muffin, are enough to color customer perception, and determine if and when customers will come back.