The case of the missing check in

A recent trip to a time-share resort provided an example of poor customer service.  It was a case of neglect and lack of awareness.  The resort is in a small town and this is off-season.  Our arrival was on the eve of a holiday and so we called at 5:30 pm knowing that we would be late and wanting to make arrangements with them to pick up our key and get directions on how to complete our check-in.  Despite having posted hours of  9 am to 11 pm and a check-in time of 4 pm, there was no answer on the phone.  In addition, there was no mention of closing early for the holidays on their phone message.  Concerned about being able to get in after a 5 hour drive, we called a couple of more times, each time leaving a phone number where we can be reached.

Once we arrived, we did find the front desk closed, but a note on the door directed us where to find a key.  The cottage turned out to be lovely and the stay relaxing.  After two days in our cottage, we got a phone call in the middle of our lunch asking one of us to come to the front desk to check in.  When we got to the front desk, there was no mention of closing early or the phone messages that we left as we were driving to the resort.  In fact, the young woman at the front desk asked for a cell phone number that she could use to contact us, despite us leaving it in the phone message previously.  It showed that she either didn't listen to the phone messages or she didn't care.  In neither case did she acknowledge the issue.

Although this is not a major problem, it shows how a lackadaisical approach to customer service can affect customers.  This lack of attention to detail will affect how we will choose which of the resorts in the area to use next time.  It will also cause us to mention it to friends and family and it will cause them to think twice when making a choice of places to stay.  While it wasn't horrible, perhaps there are better places that value their customers more.  If we find one, then this resort has lost a customer that could have easily been kept from seeking out other accomodations.

How could this have been better?

1) Attach a paging system to your voice mail.  This will alert the manager that there is a phone message so they could have called us back right away and told us they were closed and let us know where to find a key.  That would have made our trip less stressful and made us feel more valued.  It also would have taken the manager less than a minute to deal with.  If a paging system wasn't available, forward the phone to a business cell phone that the manager could carry.

2) Once the damage was done, the front desk clerk should have acknowledged the difficulties relating to the check in.  She should have apologized at the very least and done something to make it better.  Instead of making us walk across the parking lot to have her ask us 5 questions including the license plate on the car sitting outside her window, she could have made a phone call to ask the questions and obtained signatures by walking over to the cottage herself.  Instead she was found playing on the internet when we walked in.

There is no need for financial compensation here because there was no cost to the customer, however, good customer service would have required an apology at the very least.