Most businesses have processes in place for handling functions customers rarely know about, but which they benefit from when certain circumstances arise. In the hotel business, one such process is storing items that guests have left behind.

Now, losing things as I travel is one of my most enduring travel habits. When I leave my hotel room — or for that matter, the hotel restaurant, the fitness room, or a meeting room — I check carefully for the items I brought with me . . . and then leave without one or more of them. Travel alarm clocks are my best leave-behind item. Shops that sell travel alarm clocks remain in business because of the frequency with which I need to replace mine.

Fortunately, it's only been trivial items that I've forgotten, and usually I just shrug my shoulders (after chiding myself for being so careless). But after one trip, I realized as soon as I got home that I'd left my cosmetics case in my hotel room. As I thought about exactly where I'd left it, I had a clear recollection of seeing it on the bathroom counter and then of . . . leaving it there. And I wanted it back.

I called the hotel and reported my plight, feeling a little foolish because I couldn't imagine that they'd care. After all, just because I was foggy-headed enough to forget to pack it didn't mean they had to become its official caretaker.

I was transferred to the head of the Housekeeping Department, who asked for my room number and a description of the item. She said she'd check on whether it had been found, and she'd call me back. I figured she meant tomorrow, or maybe next week.

Not 10 minutes later, she called back and told me it had been located in my guest room and was now in storage. I was relieved — but since my schedule doesn't allow for cross-country trips for the purpose of retrieving overlooked cosmetics cases, I figured I'd have no choice but to replace it and its contents.

"Might you be able to send it to me?" I asked, already knowing that the answer would be "Don't be ridiculous." But it wasn't. Her reply: "Absolutely!" All I had to do was supply my address and a credit card number so the hotel could bill me for the shipping charges. I asked when I could expect to receive it. She said probably three or four days.

Two days was more like it. Just two days later, the UPS man arrived with a neatly wrapped package. In it was my cosmetics case, protected by layers of bubble wrap. It was like receiving a gift!

I'd never thought about it before, but I now realize that hotels deal with quantities of items guests have left behind. I picture a room three times the size of a guest room, piled high with all manner of forgotten objects, some familiar, some unusual, some puzzling, some amusing. And probably some that are unmentionable in a family website!

So, in addition to all their other responsibilities, hotel personnel go to the effort of cataloging these items, storing them, talking with guests (some undoubtedly frantic) about them, retrieving them from storage and ensuring they match the guest's description, packaging them, charging for them, shipping them, updating their records — and probably also discarding items no one has inquired about after the requisite period for retaining Absently-Minded Overlooked Articles. An entire business within a business!

I greatly appreciated being on the receiving end of a service that I didn't even know existed before this experience. And it's good to know that my many travel alarm clocks are in such good hands!



About the Author
Website: www.nkarten.com

Naomi Karten has always been fascinated by human behavior. Her background includes a B.A. and M.A. in psychology and extensive corporate experience in technical, customer support and management positions.

Since forming her own business in 1984, she has presented seminars and keynotes to more than 100,000 people internationally. Her services, books and newsletters have helped organizations and groups

• Manage customer expectations,
• Enhance their communications and consulting skills,
• Provide superior customer service, and
• Establish successful service level agreements.

She is the author of several books including:

Communication Gaps and How to Close Them, which provides strategies and guidelines for improved communication in such contexts as building strong relationships, delivering superior service, fostering effective teamwork, and managing change

Managing Expectations: Working With People Who Want More, Better, Faster, Sooner, NOW!, which offers a serious, lighthearted look (yes, both!) at policies and practices for successfully managing expectations in the workplace

How to Establish Service Level Agreements, a handbook based on more than a decade of experience providing SLA consulting and seminars internationally and which is designed to help you avoid the flaws and failures she encounters so often

© Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com