At the moment I think most businesses are looking for ways to save a few dollars. The problem is that some businesses embark on such crazy cost cutting exercises that they actually send themselves broke by upsetting their regular customers.
I stayed at a hotel in Brisbane the other night and my experience seems the perfect way to illustrate my point. This is a big hotel, five star and a brand name that we associate with excellence. Upon arrival no one was there to help with luggage, it took thirty minutes to check in because there was one poor lady on reception and she had to answer the phone for general enquiries whilst trying to check a long line of frustrated business travellers in. Room service took an hour and a bowl of $40 soggy lettuce turned up. In the morning I had two phone calls and four staff knocking on my door to find out what time I was leaving (two staff walked into my room without knocking – which could have been very ugly for them had I just got out of the shower). I think you get the picture. The place was in total disarray.
Upon checkout, and following another long wait, I asked the staff what had happened to the hotel since my last stay? They said a pile of staff had been laid off to save money. I won’t be staying at this hotel again and that was the general concensus of everyone standing in the line.
My point here is that by all means cut costs, but don’t do it at the expense of your existing and hopefully loyal customers. Now more than ever we need to be doing whatever we can to keep our customers satisfied. As an added incentive our competitors are hot on our tails. Providing lousy service will make it ridiculously easy for them to pick up our customers with very little effort. So cut costs in a smart way.
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