Gifts of "Thanks" for Staff Leads to Enthusiastic Service to Your Customers
Leaving Las Vegas..literally...last week after attending our industry's biggest show, it was hard to ignore the change since last year. The mood was decidedly subdued. Clearly, this is not the best time ever for the advertising business as the relatively uncrowded show isles testified.
Restaurants with no waiting lines. Complaints from every taxi driver about how slow business is. Grumbling still going on about the big drop in attendance at the prior week's Consumer Electronics Show.
Our hotel, THEhotel at Mandalay Bay, gave us a $500 voucher to use if we'd come back. Mandalay Bay slipped notes under the room doors offering special rates if folks extended their stays. I would imagine other hotels were pulling out all the stops as well to get more business.
One thing that did stand out was how noticeably glad our hotel staff appeared to be that we were there. Not once did we encounter a grumpy THEhoteler...quite the contrary...they seemed genuinely happy that they had customers choosing to stay with them.
I couldn't help but think about our business and the comments I get every day from customers...like the one today from Lisa McBee of WICT suggesting that her MARCO rep, Eric, did such a good job that we should give him a raise and a promotion!
As we all know, if we don't take care of the troops, they will not take of our customers...at least not with the enthusiasm that will create the positive memorable experience we want all customers to have.
What does this have to do with promotional products? Well, as we all know, it's pretty hard to say "Thanks" to the staff too often. Little reminders of how much we appreciate what they do can go a long way.
Guess it's no surprise that right behind 'gifts to customers', the #1 use of promotional products, comes 'gifts for staff'. No surprise at all.
Posted by Dick Nelson on January 21, 2009 at 1:27 PM