The best service I’ve ever received — how overdelivering blew me away
How a cabin crew on a cruise ship showed me how to do a job better than anybody else.
My wife and I were on a cruise for the first time in our lives. It was fantastic, and we saw many incredibly beautiful places. But I remember Katherine and Taro for a long time. These two were responsible for our cabin during the trip.
The theme of this article is why we will remember these two beautiful people for a long time to come.
What we expected
On a cruise ship, the cabins are, of course, looked after by housekeeping, just like in a hotel on land. The beds are made. The floors and bathrooms are cleaned, and towels changed.
The first surprise was that the cabins on the ship are done twice a day by housekeeping. We did not know this from normal hotels.
So we expected our beds to be made and everything to be nice and clean. We didn’t have any higher demands.
In the hotel you almost never see the housekeeping service staff. They come when the guest is eating or on the way. Sometimes you see them in the hotel corridors and greet them.
If you know when housekeeping comes typically, you make sure that you are not in the room during this time so that the men and women can do their work undisturbed.
So our expectations were something like this: We spend our time on the pool deck, on excursions or eating and in between our cabin is cleaned inconspicuously.
What we got
Already on the first day, when we had moved into our cabin, Katherine and Taro introduced themselves to us personally. They were both very cordial and explained to us how the service would work.
Like most of the staff on board, they both came from the Philippines. To our surprise, Katherine even spoke some German, which is why she talked most of the time.
So the first impression was charming. We felt welcome. Of course, you expect friendly staff as a guest, but they were believed to be friendly. They were simply authentic.
In the next days, everything went as you would expect. The beds were made twice a day. There were new pods for the coffee machine, chocolate lay on the beds in the evening as a small gift, and everything was always perfectly clean and tidy.
But from the second day on the two of them started to do much more than they had to.
When we returned to our cabin on the evening of the second day, we found that:
We were completely surprised and thrilled by so much craftsmanship. Later, at one of the bars onboard, we told other passengers about it and thought they had the same experience.
But it turned out that only our housekeeping team provided this extra service.
Also, in the following days, we found such bed linen artworks again and again.
Here is another example:
It goes without saying that at the end of the trip, we both gave an excellent tip. But we didn’t just put it in the envelopes and hand them in at the reception. We wanted to thank them personally.
So I ran off and looked for them on our ship deck. After some time, I found them and got the opportunity to thank them very much.
I gave them the money and told them that they offered us the best service we ever had in a hotel. I thanked them for the warm manner and great artwork they had made out of our bed linen. Above all, I told them that I was inspired by their way of working.
What I learned from Katherine and Taro
They both went the extra mile without knowing if it would pay off for them.
Of course, creating bed linen art isn’t an insanely elaborate thing if you know how to do it, but the effect was just incredible. It’s priceless when you can put a smile on someone’s face. That’s precisely what they did for my wife and me.
When we came back to our cabin in the evening, we saw that someone had done something for us that he didn’t have to do.
I thought about why they would do that. They could not know if we would appreciate their effort and ingenuity. Surely they don’t get a good tip from all the guests because of their extra work, because many people are just stingy. Nevertheless, they give everything and more for every guest they look after.
As an author, I can learn a lot from this, and so can anybody else who has a job. It’s always worth going the extra mile and delivering more than expected. Even if a reward is by no means certain, in the end, you will still be better off than the one who only does what he has to.
Overdelivering is not primarily about the reward. Overdelivering is a principle worth living according to because now and then, you will inspire someone and stay in his memory forever.
Katherine and Taro will surely remain in our memory forever.
Read this also:
https://readmedium.com/why-we-book-hotels-without-breakfast-for-city-trips-7ff44db26a4b
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