Does customer service matter?

Customer service clearly matters. Companies like Kwikfit are more about customer service than mending cars and are more successful as a consequence. McDonalds is about service, as are most fast food companies.

What about hotels?

Somewhere in the list of "why we buy" is enjoyment, rather than convenience or necessity. Sometimes we stay in a hotel because it is in a nice place, nice building, and we can do things we like. A comment got me thinking recently.

We stayed in 2 hotels - in one they got our booking wrong, the UHT milk was off in the coffee, it always took 10 minutes to serve, and nothing matched. In the other, everything matched and service was almost like Pizzahut, timely, friendly, and very organised. A straw poll was taken and the first hotel was chosen. We felt able to relax, and actually we were able to overcome two small issues.

In the first hotel it was probably no accident that there were only 3 people staying. In the other, it was full. If that was the pattern - then customer service matters.

The question is why do we as customers go for the better marketed, more easy to find, better serviced offering? Are we always that lazy? Whilst both hotels were in the same village, both lovely buildings, and similar locations. What if the choice had been between one of them and an "express" chain? Similar price, similar everything, other than one building would have been functional and process orientated, and the other traditional English.

Then the answer is more about risk avoidance. e.g. If abroad - would you go to a McDonalds or a local restaurant?

Something to investigate.... As individuals are we in the business of limiting our disappointment, even on holiday? (its not about delighting your customers - is it more about the perception of risk)

If this was your project to investigate how general this was - and then how it applied to individual cases... what would you do?