It all started with a simple tweet “@Kvanbeeck is wondering if he will get an upgrade for his wife’s 30th birthday @ #Westin #Venice tomorrow.” 30 minutes later I got a new follower @Starwoodbuzz and a kind tweet reply “Hi Kenny. We’ve informed the hotel and they’ll do their best. Have a fantastic stay and happy birthday to your wife!”
Wow that’s customer service.
Starwood hotels is actually monitoring Twitter to get an insight on their customers’ feedback in social media. Not only that, they were doing it within the hour. My next thought was “Yeah right, it’s easy to reply this on Twitter, but are they actually able to translate it in real on-site delivery. The next day would tell.
Arriving at the check-in I noticed that together with my personal voucher there were also 2 email print-outs in attachment. Of course I couldn’t say something right on the spot as my wife wasn’t aware of my twitter-post the previous day, but as you can imagine , I was actually really getting curious. Certainly since we arrived early and still had to wait for the room, which would be ready at three in the afternoon.
And yes … they managed to actually give us an upgrade! Not just ‘an’ upgrade I might add, but the penthouse with a fantastic outdoor terrace and view on the Canal Grande.
And it wasn’t over yet, some minutes later some knocking on the door. Room service with a bottle of Prosecco, an excellent cake and a personal note of the hotel director with his personal compliments to my wife for her birthday. Now that’s what I call customer satisfaction. So I decided to thank them and post a picture of us enjoying the Prosecco on our terrace. Again, 3 minutes later, a nice Twitt reply.
Apart of having just an overall great hotel, I was immediately impressed by the service of personnel and staff. And let’s not forget that having breakfast at the hotel terrace on the Canal Grande with its uplifting water views just gives you the perfect start for a day in Venice!
Now wait, you thought it was over? No sir, not yet … without asking for it I got a felicitation email to welcome me at the Starwood preferred guest program and for my convenience all expenses (incl. the hotel stay that had been booked in advance) had been automatically added to my points system.
I must admit. This is one of the best customer experiences I had in a long time and it all started with a single Twitt post. This company is doing great! Thumbs up guys and thank you again for all the extra’s. This will certainly not be my last stay at a
Starwood facility.
Kind regards,
Kenny Van Beeck
… and Dafnee says hi ;-)