I am a
Starwood, Marriot, Hilton member but it gets me almost nothing to be honest, I
have been a United Mileage plus member twenty years, and I even have a frequent
parking account. But what really frustrates me about a lot of these programs is
that they don’t know who I am and many organizations are not leveraging them
for competitive advantage. When I arrive at hotels they never upgrade me, and for
the most part I never hear from these programs anymore. I remember a time when
we got monthly statements about our activity and then they were moved to
quarterly and then disappeared completely! Why because they forgot about us,
their most loyal customers.
I expect
more for my loyalty, don’t you? What many companies don’t understand is that
they no longer control their brand, the social customer does. All of us should
become social customers; this will enable us to drive up the overall quality of
products and services in many companies and industries globally. Most
importantly companies need to know who their social customers are; here is a
real world example of how social customers are impacting business today. I am a
social customer and now hundreds of people are reading my Trip Advisor hotel
reviews. Here is my most recent post read by 100 people in less than a week,
and so far the poor reaction to my comments about this hotel from its
management.
Sheraton
NYC Towers Trip Advisor Review
This was my second stay at this hotel in less
than a month and I have to say it needs a major overhaul, all the way from the
rooms down to the bell desk and into the club lounge. What was most scary about
this place was the overall lack of security especially at 1-2am when no
security people were at the elevator entry areas. I did really like the club
level and the breakfast is fun and coffee nice along with the overall
environment. The bar at the club was missing the martini stirrer and didn't
have absolute vodka, a woman next to said “it’s always like that here.”
But let’s start at the beginning, we arrive late
its 85 degrees and humid as we enter our stuffy room on the floor twenty and
the air conditioner doesn't work. I call down to the desk and they say they
will send up maintenance, thirty minutes passes no one arrives. We pack up our
stuff and head down to the front desk this time pissed off. We ask for another
room and I complain about the room assignment, the front desk attendant says
"what do you expect me to check out every room to see if the air
conditioner works?" I ask for a manager and he is even ruder, and guess
what? I am a ten year Starwood member and our company recommends this hotel, I
remind him of that, but he doesn’t care. They assign me a room above the club
level, make sense? I don't think so, the next day I ask for the day manager,
Zoe Cohen and she is nice and gives me 12,000 Starwood points.
Two days later it is raining and we attempt to
go out for dinner, the cab line is long and the bell captain is nowhere to be
found, so I jump the line and get my own cab. The next morning we leave at 5:45
am and guess what? There is no bell person to help with anything? What is up
with this? Overall a great location and it is unfortunate that all our European
visitors are treated to the same level of poor service. I noticed many Italians
during my two visits. The good news is our maid service was very good, but I
don't think I will stay here again, because as a Starwood member I expected my
room to be ready at 1AM. On my previous visit my colleague’s room wasn't ready
either and we checked at 6:30PM.
Sheraton’s
Response to my TripAdvisor Review
Dear Paul,
Thank you for taking the time to provide the
feedback and recap of your visit here in NYC.
The content, although some of it painful is
critical to our performance and garnering guest loyalty. I would like to
discuss your visit in more detail if you have the time. During this
conversation I will also update you on our direction for renovations that are
coming soon.
We look forward to hearing back from you on how to
connect.
Sincerely
Mark Sanders
Net/Net
Identifying and managing
your social customers is paramount in the social media landscape of today and
it can be a clear differentiator in many industries, in this case especially
hotels as they are very vulnerable. I think it is great that Sheraton at least
corresponded with me but the same lack of sincerity and thoroughness about
their product and services was reflected in their response. First of all they got my name wrong, they did
not address one of my issues and a security lapse in NYC is serious. They did
not recognize me as a Starwood member or even say we are making sure that the
club bar is stocked an appropriately appointed with martini stirrers. I pulled
the latest statistics off TripAdvisor and although the site says that 67% of
travelers recommend this hotel, the number is actually closer to 57%.
The general manager was
nice enough to offer the opportunity to talk with me, but to be honest; I am
not too interested in communicating with you if you can’t even get my name
correct. The power of social media today is the power of the community, not the
power of one. If I was the manager of a large iconic hotel in the most visited
city in the America I would be shocked that only 2/3rd s of the
visitors to my hotel could recommend it. TripAdisor, Yelp and many others are
now the voice of the people and their voice travels globally at Internet speed.
As a business, know these communities and leverage your customers loyalty in
new and exciting ways that can keep them loyal and provide you with the
opportunity to find new loyal customers that can enhance your brand.
Sheraton NYC Towers Reviews All (1,464)
67% of
travelers recommend this hotel
·
·
Very good 484
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Average 275
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Poor 222
·
Terrible 138
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