You might be tired if hearing about my travels; bear with me just this one time. The ensuing content is relevant to all of us.
The story I’m about to share is one that you’ve all experienced numerous times in your life. It’s the story of selecting a brand because of a specific event or experience which, in turn, yields a lifetime of revenue to the brand chosen. My experience has been that the selection has little to do with the brand strategy or the facility, and has everything to do with people, often a single person, who made al the difference in your experience.
We arrived at COMO Paro with no expectations. It was a new resort to us. Fortunately, the hotel assigns a single person to de your contact with the resort. We connected on WhatsApp and I started with my litany of things I need: my weights; the recumbent bike; a hard mattress; lots of fruit; more apples; etc. etc. Those who know me would not be surprised by this abbreviated list. The person, Kinga, hid her surprise well. Instead she handled these requests gracefully and expeditiously, two qualities I admire. The hotel facilities were nice. But not over-the-top nice. At the same time, everything worked – the heating, electricity and outlet availability, the fridge to house the scones that I carried with me and so on. Equally importantly, the kitchen was willing to accommodate my unreasonable requests with a smile. My history with Bhutanese food is checkered. Their favorite foods are Cheese and Chilis that are hotel than the Towering Inferno, washed down with a truly undrinkable Yak Butter Tea. My palate can’t stand up to these delicacies. The chef understood and made for me thrice a day steamed veggies we bought at the market, cut up apples from Paro’s Sunday open air market, a fantastic salad made of countless vegetable types and more. I loved their food. I was grateful for their flexibility. And a relationship was formed.
By contrast, The hotel in Bumthang was magnificent, as was our abode. It couldn’t have been more spacious of gorgeous. But it was challenging to charge all our communication devices, the heat didn’t work (it’s a big deal in near-arctic temperatures) and the management was not helpful. We felt so unwelcome that we departed early despite the beautiful facilities and the excellent beetroot baked in pine needles. We found refuge back in COMO.
Epilogue: we’re going next to COMO in Bali. We have a hotel we enjoy in Bali and have stayed there for years. Now we are trying COMO, all thanks to Kinga and her manager.
Similarly, the kindness of a single person in the entire peninsula franchise many hears ago cemented our relationship with that uber-luxurious hotel chain in a way that works for them and works for us. Their consistent brand promise delivery makes a huge difference to us, and we pass on newer and better properties as a result. One act of kindness by Rainy Chan in Hong Kong many years ago yielded roughly $500,000 of revenue over many years and around the globe, including Forums at the Peninsula Chicago. It’s a meaningful return on a relatively small but highly impactful investment upfront by a customer-facing person. It happened there, it happened at COMO and it happens in so many other places: your favorite handyman, a trustworthy contractor, a cleaning person you‘ve known for years etc. We tends to aggregate our business in places and vendors that provide us with a positive experiences, and we are willing to pay a slight premium for that. Everyone benefits – we have the peace of mind and no anxiety about trying a new provider, and the vendor c a count on a certain income stream from us. A fair and pleasant exchange.
I hope these stories will inspire you to continue your differentiation on the human level in this age of AI and remote communications. Technology matters a lot – but people matter more.