It’s the putting right that counts

Being on the wrong side of 50 and having grown up in New Zealand, my formative years included Television ads for the electronic retailer LV Martin and Son. LV Martin a long-gone institution in New Zealand was a family-owned chain spruiking everything electronic – from heaters to hi-fi, fridges to foot baths. It was big-box retailing before that was actually a thing in New Zealand.

LV Martin’s ads were also a quaint and old-fashioned message to consumers. They were fronted by Alan Martin, the scion of the family standing in front of the camera in a suit saying “it’s the putting right that counts.” LV Martin was all about customer service and like all old-fashioned retailers from another era he believed that the customer was always right.

I’m fairly certain Alan Martin has been dead for decades and I’m also fairly certain he would have been spinning in his grave if he could have seen what was going on at a certain hotel in Auckland last week.

I was up north for a board meeting and staying at the Four Points by Sheraton, a nice-enough small hotel just off Queen Street. After checking in I found a note in my room explaining that due to some maintenance work that Vector needed to do on the electricity system in the CBD, the power would be off from 11pm till 6am.

I was pretty relaxed about that – I go to bed early and, while I get up at 5am to go for a run, I can always do that using the torch on my phone. I headed out on my run expecting the power to be back on when I got back.

Upon my return, the hotel was in shadow and the individual at reception told me that the power would be back “some time.” Now I totally get that the situation is out of the control of the hotel. They are simply a customer of the supply authority and like every customer, have to deal with supply disruptions from time to time.

But as Alan Martin used to say, it really is the putting right that counts. I was interested to see how the hotel would react to the continued power outage as the 7am rush for breakfast began.

I walked down the stairs (no lifts) to the reception, pulled up a pew and started to observe. A young couple with a child approached the staff at the cafe (for some inexplicable reason, despite the power outage, the espresso machine was still working. They explained that they had woken up to darkness and were keen for a morning coffee to start their day. They were assertive customers (ten points for guessing their likely country of origin) and pointed out to the wait staff that their room had a coffee machine that the power outage had rendered unusable. As such, it wasn’t outside of the realms of expectation for them to assume the coffees they ordered would come complementary. In return, they received a blank stare from staff, and a simple “that’ll be $11, thanks.”

Another customer ordered an espresso and an orange juice. 15 minutes later they were presented with an espresso (win!) and grapefruit juice. Said customer mumbled under their breath and commented to the other customers, but didn’t bother complaining. Perhaps waiting another 15 minutes wasn’t worth the effort. Or perhaps the grapefruit juice tasted better than the OJ they’d actually ordered.

I’ve worked in hospitality and know that it’s sometimes a thankless task. I’m also well aware that it is continuously getting harder to hire and maintain decent staff. Economic conditions paired with demographic and attitudinal changes mean that staff don’t tend to have the same levels of loyalty that they did a few decades back. 

But notwithstanding these genuine challenges, the onus is still on those in the service industry to… serve. In the example I gave, the hotel knew there was going to be a power outage, if I’d been the manager, I would have arranged for each guest to have a small credit at the nearest cafe that still had power so they could have a nice morning coffee and croissant despite the lack of power int he hotel. And I would have assuredly told all staff to go above and beyond to “put it right” for affected customers.

Alan Martin built and incredibly successful business all those years ago by focusing on the fact  that “it’s the putting right that counts.” We can all learn something from his example.