Customers Included Award of the Blizzard

The “Customers Included” Award of the Blizzard goes to these two housekeepers who knocked on my Boston La Quinta Inn hotel door today (and all the other staff at hotels, restaurants, hospitals).

They *walked* through the blizzard more than 30 minutes in the snow to get to the hotel to clean guest rooms. I told them that from my perspective this was beyond the call of duty and completely unexpected.

We had a lovely conversation. I gave them a large tip and thanked them.

They deserve a lot of credit – but I’m not as happy with La Quinta’s management for asking them to come in.

I would have preferred that the hotel operate with a skeleton staff (that slept overnight at the hotel) than to require staff like these to walk through the blizzard (and, btw, they should have still paid those that did not come in).

The hotel could have asked us guests to be understanding that on blizzard day we don’t get cleaning service (or maybe only a few do where there’s perhaps a major spill or mess).

But, this important issue does not change the fact that these two women deserve our thanks and support. I only hope that other guests also gave them hearty tips and heartfelt thanks.

About the Author

Phyl Terry

Phyl Terry, Founder and CEO of Collaborative Gain, Inc., launched the company’s flagship leadership program – The Councils – in 2002 with a fellow group of Internet pioneers from Amazon, Google, and others. Thousands of leaders from the Internet world have come together in the last 15 years to learn the art of asking for help and to support each other to build better, more customer-centric products, services, and companies.

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