Not so random acts of generosity

In this week’s CONSUMED column in the NYT magazine, Rob Walker writes about Hyatt Hotel’s new program of ‘random acts of generosity’ aimed at making its customers not just pleased but grateful. The result of months of consumer research, the initiative will mean that staff will randomly delight customers by unexpectedly picking up the tab your hotel-bar drinks or hotel-spa massage.

Walker quotes Robert Palmatier, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Washington and author of a paper on the role of gratitude in human relationships and in marketing.

Here’s a link to Walker’s column.

The Hyatt program is interesting but, as Walker points out, has one potentially major flaw; the hotel chain went public with it. “Hyatt is walking a fine line in generating buzz about a program that it doesn’t want customers to actually expect. What if a Hyatt guest reads this column and wonders why he didn’t get any free drink?

Quebeckers want respectful service.

I have no doubt that gratitude can be a powerful emotion in marketing but recent data from Ipsos Reid suggest that feeling respected could be the real key to customer loyalty in Quebec.

The survey conducted in April 2007 on behalf of TD Canada Trust asked Canadians to rank the following six features of service in order of importance: respectful, friendly, knowledgeable, accurate, quick and provides peace of mind.

‘Knowledgeable’ was the feature most likely to be ranked first among all Canadians. Quebeckers however stood out from the rest of the country ranking ‘respect’ significantly above other service features.

This reminds me of the Ritz Carlton’s service credo: ‘Ladies & gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen’.

That’s respect without random free drinks.

Comments

[Software companies]

Hey, that was interesting,

Well lets hope that things soons change...

Keep up the good work