Crazy customer service takes many strange and interesting forms. If the Fairfield Inn that I was staying at last night near LA had great customer service, I would not have been standing on the desk in my hotel room at 1:00 in the morning.
Let me explain. I had gone to bed early since I had to be up at 5:00 AM to catch a flight. At 1:00 AM, I was wakened by a chirping sound. I had a sinking feeling when I realized it was the exact sound that fire alarms make when their batteries go bad. Now when this happens in my house, I know where they are and I have batteries to replace them. Not a big deal. It is part of home ownership. Needless to say, I was not familiar with this room and I do not carry spare 9 Volt batteries with me. Instead of calling the front desk, I took matters into my own hand. I very groggily located the faulty fire alarm, climbed on to the desk, unscrewed, unplugged, and wiggled the alarm down from the ceiling. I removed the battery, place the alarm in the refrigerator and until “Residual Chirping” resided. I went back to bed but was not able to sleep until the adrenaline drained from my body.
What does this have to do with good customer service? If the hotel had been checking their fire alarms regularly and replacing the batteries on a consistent basis, I would not have been standing on the desk at 1:00 in the morning. Sometimes it is the smallest things that make the biggest impact in customer service.
