In my January travels, I had the good fortune to try out 2 different Kimpton properties in Washington DC - the Hotels Rouge and Helix. Because of our more frequent visits to DC and my intention of staying at these properties again, I took the time over the weekend to fill out their lengthy follow up customer survey. Many of the things about the Rouge are far beyond expectations (early check in, service, size & furnishing of the room), but the room service, spotty Wi-FI and hotel gym situations were sub-par so I let them know.

I almost deleted an email today from the Front Office Manager of the Rouge, assuming it must have been a form letter. It was anything but:

Thank you for the scores you gave the hotel and its staff in the survey, I will pass this on to the departments. We greatly appreciate your feedback. I am glad that we were able to get your into your rooms early. That is the level of service we try to provide for our guests. And there is no problem about the wireless we have that upgrade scheduled for completion this year. Perhaps we will have it for your return trip! We are looking at changing our F&B operation. Some additions to the breakfast room service include a parfait, muslei with apples and bannanas, freshly made waffles with a choice of toppings, revised bagel lox and fresh juices. We are also looking at the lounge menu’s for dinner as well. Can you suggest anything that you would like to see on the menu or changes to be made regarding service? I do apologize about the location and style of our exercise room.

It would be helpful if you could offer any further comments or information about your stay so that I may be of more assistance in the future. Your comments are appreciated. Thank you for your time and support as a Kimpton In Touch member. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Have a great day and thank you for responding to our electronic comment card!

This note did a couple of things for me:

1. Proved they read my feedback
2. Engaged me by asking for my suggestions for hot item additions to the room service menu
3. Apologized for what they realistically can’t fix - the crappy gym.

They want to have a relationship with me and have met me more than halfway. We will be back to the Rouge on our next trip - bad gym or no.  What do you do to engage customers who offer suggestions on how you can improve?  Do you treat them as a nuisance squeaky wheel, or a potential evangelist?

I just returned from a hotlap to Atlanta. And the people we went to see there were downtown and had one of those elaborate security processes where you had to check in at the gate, park your car and then a shuttle comes and takes you to the front door a couple blocks away where you check in again.

The meeting went great and the people there were very smart and cool, but I have to tell you that the highlight of the visit ” and of my day ” was the shuttle driver. What a piece of sunshine. She was vibrant and joyful -  coming and going - and had us laughing (and laughing hard) with her the whole time. The two times I got off the bus I was chuckling and smiling from the experience. She clearly loved life. And she made me love mine.

I wonder if the people inside the building know what an incredible touch point that one woman is outside of their doors. I have a feeling they do. It just goes to show the power of ’surprise and delight.’ And how people can turn a seemingly unremarkable touch point into something remarkable.

Last week I attended the Greenville Chamber annual meeting where our own Courageous President was up for the Athena Award. It was the usual hoopla, but one of the bright spots in the evening was the keynote given by the editor of USA Today, Ken Paulson.

Ken had a lot of great things to say about the changing landscape of newspapers and reporting, but the one that stuck in my head was his comments on transparency. It seems that he encourages his reporters not to quote ‘anonymous’ sources and when someone asks them to be off the record, his reporters say, ‘Nope. We don’t do that.’

The reason being is that with all the recent newspaper scandals (where reporters made up sources), people don’t trust newspapers anymore. So Ken preaches ultimate disclosure. He said that they make sure and print all the mistakes they made the next day and that the guy in charge of that task loves getting the emails and calls. And it’s a great example of a company listening to their customers and acting on what they say.

The newspaper industry has a lot of mountains ahead of them. But Ken has already planted a flag in the peak of this one. Transparency is so easy. And so freakin’ scary at the same time. But if one of the largest papers in the nation can do it, maybe you and your company can, too.

This weekend, Geno, Spike & I had the pleasure of working with intimate groups of marketers from around the world who had convened in Los Angeles for a trade show. We shared our experiences of building movements in the US in great detail with folks from Australia, the UK, Canada, and Mexico. While the dynamics of their particular industry (major players, distribution models, profit pools, etc) differ dramatically by country, the interactions between customers and the way they share their passion with each other seemed to be quite similar. Talk of the tenets of building communities and rules of transparency elicited enthusiastic agreement and stories of how this has played out for other companies in their country.

For us, it was greatly encouraging that the lessons we have learned about inspiring consumers to reach out to each other would not be lost in translation.  Is your business working as you expand geographically?

*There will be some self-promotion here… but I hope to bring it around to a constructive point by the end of the post… so bear with me.*

I am a co-founding member of a theatre company here in Greenville called The Distracted Globe. We specialize in classic comedies and comedy about the classics. While we do scripted shows more and more often, our most known local work is improv - you know, like Whose Line is it Anyway? Most of our improv evenings are built around a theme that relates it to the larger season of The Warehouse Theatre, where we perform. For example, we’ve performed “Suddenly Romeo & Juliet” using improv games to re-tell the much beloved, though far-too-depressing tragedy. We’ve also done “Suddenly Tennessee Williams,” using themes, characters and situations from Tennessee Williams’ plays to propel us through the evening.  You get the idea.
So what does all this have to do with anything?

Well, last night we were rehearsing (yes, you rehearse for improv… much like you practice for a football game) for this weekend’s offering - “Suddenly Angst-Ridden Modern Drama” - and I started thinking about what it takes to be able to achieve successful parody. You have to know not only the truth of the thing you’re representing, but also what people perceive to be the truth. What are the landmarks that people use to reference that particular genre? What will people recognize when it’s reflected back to them? Because they’re not going to laugh as much if you’re not rooted not only in what is authentic, but in what your audience recognizes as authentic.

I think parody can be a valuable tool as you examine your brand and your audience. It brings to the front the most obvious characteristics of your brand. And it explores the connections those characteristics can forge.

Comedy is hard. Really, really hard. Because it’s about simple, essential truth. So try taking a look at your company or your organization or your product through a pair of groucho glasses… and find the nuggets of truth that will have your employees and your audience laughing with you… not at you.