Think Piece: How Firm Do You Like Your Strawberries?

Do you think that when you do something a lot you become more fussy about it? Like, if you eat loads of strawberries do you become super obsessed with their juiciness to firmness ratio?

I bet that’s a real thing with a scoring system for it like the scale they use for heat in chilli peppers! As an aside, what kind of fool eats those? Like there’s some kind of kudos to be had from sweating from your eyeballs. Seriously, what does it achieve? Fools.

If the only book you’d ever read was The Da Vinci Code you’d be sure that the prose and wordsmithery were a pure delight to your senses. Read 10, 20, 30 more books form a variety of authors and there is a decent chance that you may reappraise your decision. (NB – I do actually like Dan Brown books. I am no literary snob!)

Actually, as I think further, maybe fussiness is the wrong word. Maybe you become more discerning. Yes, I like that more, but I’m not back tracking to the first sentence, so fussy will stay there.

I hadn’t really thought this through when I started writing as it just popped into my head, but I definitely do think there is something in this.

A couple of weeks ago I rented a really stylish suite on the top floor of cool looking hotel. I had a photo shoot the following morning for a really exciting project I’ve got coming up soon. Great views, lovely décor, perfect location – it all seemed ideal. It was quite expensive  but I saw it as an investment, because of the value I’d get from the shoot.

So I rocked up there late afternoon, looking forward to a chilled evening before the fun and games in the morning.

At this point, rather than carrying on in my usual, slightly verbose, storytelling style, I’m just going to write a list of what happened next – it’ll save time in the long run.

1. Check in took 40 minutes. They weren’t overly busy, and just someone acknowledging I was there or a little update that it might take a while would have helped. But I had no eye contact, no smile, no apology – nothing. Not a good start then.

2. Once ensconced in my very lovely suite, I tried to call down for room service. 10 times. No answer on any of these occasions.

3. So, I tried to call reception, which took 90 minutes to get an answer! (To clarify, I had just had a bath and was in my robe, so the thought of getting dressed and going down to reception didn’t fill me with joy either!)

4. When my room service eventually arrived, there was no bottle opener for my coke. This then took an hour to arrive.

5. On check out I was assured that the bill would be emailed over. It wasn’t. It took three calls to get it.

So you get the picture. This establishment had not made the greatest impression on me.

I’d been home a few days when I got a call from the hotel manager. I was pleased about this at first as he said he wanted to get the full report on my stay, and talk about the above issues, which I had now added to a Trip Advisor review.

I ran through them all again, expecting an apology and a chat about what they could do to fix things.

His suggestion? They would give me the cost of the coke and the discretionary service charge (that I didn’t even know I’d paid!) back as long as I took down my Trip Advisor review!

I had discovered during my increasingly unbelievable phone call with him, that this was the sole purpose of the call. To get the review removed.

“But you said you liked the suite” he said with exasperation. “Yes I did but that doesn’t make all the other rubbish stuff ok though does it?!” I replied.

Needless to say, the call was ended and the review remains.

So, back to where we started, I guess I am super critical of this kind of thing because of the amount of hotels I stay in, but there is no excuse for this level of bad service and then for it  to be compounded by someone who is paid to resolve these issues being so incompetent.

If you make a mistake, hold your hands up. We all make them. Work with the client to understand their frustrations, learn from what went wrong and adapt your services to make sure they don’t happen again in the future.

This confirms in my mind that despite being a “discerning” customer, there will also be times when something is just rubbish. Simple as that. No matter how many times you’ve done it or seen it or experienced it or tasted it, and this will have nothing to do with how many times you have done it before or your encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject matter.

And this has nothing to do with the cost of the product. I have had amazing service at Premier Inn, Primark and Wetherspoons!

Speaking of strawberries, anyone fancy brekkie?