Comments

Happy Birthday, Tom! Just think, in 11 years, you can be his mirror again.

Posted by Dante M. at November 7, 2005 11:00 AM

Hi
Happy Birthday to you!
one hundred more days like this.
jam

Posted by jamshid at November 7, 2005 11:02 AM

Happy Birthday Tom...
I hope you have many more returns of the day.

Warm regards,
Arun

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at November 7, 2005 11:11 AM

Happy Birthday!

Posted by David Russell at November 7, 2005 11:11 AM

Tom another great example of customer service. Can you please start rounding up people who do such things and ship them over to England?! I'm yet to see much action on the "bend over backwards" customer service in the US.

Happy birthday, and may your endless wisdom continue endlessly.

Regards,

Matt

Posted by Matt Drought at November 7, 2005 11:48 AM

It's great hearing stories like this when most of the time people (including me) are complaining about horrible experiences.

Another great example - last week an associate of mine, with a brutal cold, was traveling all week and staying at his usual Hilton hotels. One evening he felt so bad he phoned the Concierge and asked for a thermometer to check his fever. They brought one to him right away and then proceeded to send up some soup and checked-in with him periodically to see how he was feeling and if there was anything he needed.

Posted by David Paull at November 7, 2005 11:51 AM

David, very nice!

Posted by tom peters at November 7, 2005 11:59 AM

Happy Birthday Tom. The amazing thing is, most of the truly rewarding experiences in hospitality come at very little expense. They're just little attentions to detail. When I managed a castle hotel in Ireland, my team and I would regularly run local errands for people, drive them to the clay pigeon shooting grounds, pick up newspapers, toothbrushes, playing cards, etc. Making the experience personal is worth everything and costs very little. Wouldn't it be great if more hotels were truly homes away from home, beyond the tag line. Thanks for sharing a positive example of warm fuzziness that is unfortunately so absent in today's service environment.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at November 7, 2005 12:15 PM

Happy Birthday Tom :-)

Thanks for your contributions to management thinking, really ...

... just wish you were on the syllabus of MBA programmes (or maybe that's getting a little wild)

Daniel

Posted by Daniel M. Harrison at November 7, 2005 12:25 PM

Happy Birthday Tom... Today is my brother's birthday as well. November is a great month. I have had some great kindnesses in my travels and I always pen a note to thank those special souls who make life worth living on the road and I also let their supervisors know as well. Then the next time I pass by, they remember me even more. Have a great day.
Suzanne

Posted by suzanne.g at November 7, 2005 12:32 PM

Happy Birthday Tom! I wish you continued luck in your new year.

I'll let you off the hook on the Four Seasons example. Particularly because the coolest thing about this wow feat was that it in no way required a Four Seasons budget, the only cost was to care.

Posted by jeff lang at November 7, 2005 12:40 PM

I'm not on a Four Seasons budget, but I stay at a lot of Residence Inns around the US and I have always had the same kind of service and attention. This is a great chain (owned by the Marriott group) designed for the business traveler who doesn't want the regular all-in-one-room hotel, eat take-out or in restaurants 3 times a day travel experience. From the clerk in Asheville who gave me great directions to the liquor store, to the wonderful housekeepers in Ft. Wayne--the same goes as Tom's Four Seasons experience. (And there are at least three hotel chains I will never, never, never stay in again, even for free, but I will let them go bankrupt in peace.)

Posted by Mike at November 7, 2005 1:08 PM

Happy Birthday, Tom. I was 39 on the 5th. Another Scorpio!!

Just checked ino the Crowne Plaza in Brussels to find similar greetings on my desk. Doesn't take much, but it makes all the difference.

By the way, the Brussels Crowne Plaza (Airport) staff provides great service. As good as any five star I've stayed in.

Regards

Matt

Posted by matt at November 7, 2005 1:18 PM

Happy Birthday Thomas!

BTW, What are your thoughts about last night faux debate between Vinick and Santos?

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at November 7, 2005 2:55 PM

Happy Birthday Tom!! -- From Toronto

Posted by Wilson at November 7, 2005 9:48 PM

Firstly, happy birthday!

Secondly, I was wondering whether they 'up' their service level for you (and not everyone enjoys that level of service?). I'm just making an assumption here as I have never stayed at a Four Seasons Hotel in my life but pretty soon I will.

Posted by D S at November 7, 2005 10:43 PM

Happy birthday young oldy! =)

Posted by crazyShame at November 8, 2005 2:39 AM

Happy Birthday Tom!

God Bless your family. Have a gr8 year ahead. Jus wanted to tell u that inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened!

Also, I remember a famous quote by John P.Grier which goes like "You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime"....so true right?

Posted by K.Sriram at November 8, 2005 5:52 AM

This type of service is not limited to Hospitality organizations. A colleague of mine had a customer who had to be in Houston, TX in meetings and would miss the last episode of Seinfeld due to a dinner meeting. I taped the show and drove it to the hotel (20 mins from my house) and left it for the customer with a note from my colleague. We left the customer speechless.

It really is the little things: being interested in others, sending someone a formula for their MS Excel spreadsheet, etc. that make a difference every day.

Posted by Rachel Gulen at November 8, 2005 7:19 AM

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Happy Birthday Tom,

Belated best wishes on your brithday!

Tum Jiyo Hazzaro Saal, Saal ke din ho Pachas Hazzar..(You live for 1000 years and each year have 50000 days..)

Shah I

Posted by Shah I at November 8, 2005 8:05 AM

Happy birthday, sir!

Posted by Dau at November 8, 2005 8:50 AM

Meanwhile I'm doing battle with a Brooks Brothers phone rep who keeps telling me what I can't do so she can sit at her desk and read the Sunday paper ... pesky that I am though I found the right rep and got the 35% discount [online thru Nov 13] we are entitled to.

Posted by Sean at November 8, 2005 9:24 AM

Belated Birthday wishes Mr. Peters. What a grand little detail those persons at the Four Seasons hotel had with you; quite on target also given that this year has been "different", let's say.
All the best to you.

Posted by Omara at November 8, 2005 6:13 PM

Happy Birthday.

Smart hotel staff.

Posted by Olivier Blanchard at November 8, 2005 11:47 PM

63 going on 33. Tom - what do you think of the letter below in the latest BusinessWeek [about their Boomer cover story] - any truth to it as you reflect on your Happy Birthday:

"There may be many 50-year-olds like myself who have found a way to feel like 25, with plans to live energetically to 150 -- God willing and given progress in biotech. Therefore, 10% or so of the boomer wave (8 million) may be extremely young investors, with the opportunity to accumulate incredible international wealth in the next 100 years. That's my theory, anyway, and I'm sticking to it -- 25 and holding.

Thomas Jirgensohn
East Wenatchee, Wash."
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_46/c3959031.htm

Posted by Sean at November 9, 2005 9:50 AM

It's amazing what a little emphasis on customer experience can do, not to mention just hiring nice people who actually want to be where they're working.

If only the wireless phone companies would react the same way when you walk through their doors and pick your number :)

Posted by Stephen Hunton at November 9, 2005 12:09 PM