Dee-lighters

My friend Peter had to be in NYC recently for a wedding, and decided to stay at a Marriott.

He’s a member of whatever the guest program is at Marriott, although he hasn’t stayed in one of their hotels in some time.

When he checked in, he was welcomed back with a room upgrade - larger room with windows on two sides - and a fruit tray.

Smart call on Marriott’s part.

Not only will Peter be looking for a Marriott next time he travels, but he’s spreading the word among friends and colleagues.

The cost to Marriott is marginal: the few minutes extra it takes to clean a larger room, and the price of a fruit tray. Money well spent to make a so-so customer a loyal customer.

And something for all of us to think about.

No, we don’t want to get into the habit of giving our products and services away for free, because this can devalue them. Marriott, after all, didn’t give Peter a free room, it just gave him a better room. And it did so on a cold winter post-holiday weekend when the hotel wasn’t very full.

In B2B technology, we don’t tend to have bigger rooms to upgrade someone to. And - at least in software and in many services companies - we’re already so accustomed to sales operating with major flexibility when it comes to structuring contracts - so the 5% field discount is unlikely to be viewed with all that much delight by a customer.

Maybe the delighter is adding in a new module at renewal time. Maybe it’s a special invitation to spend a bit of quality time with your guru-viest in-house tech guru. Maybe it’s a subscription of some sort. Maybe it’s a copy of a new book that everyone in the industry’s talking about. Maybe it’s just an e-mail with a link to an article that you think might be of interest.

What worked in the case of Peter and Marriott was the element of surprise, the unexpected nature of the upgrade. Sure, he knows that they’re doing it to all of their lapsed customers. Still, it did tell him that his business is important to Marriott, even if it is only occasional. And, what’s more, it felt personal.

In times like these, don’t we want all of our customers to know that we feel that way about them?

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