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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Vegas could learn a few things about customer service
Saturday, June 5, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
I recently returned from a week in Maui, Hawaii, and read the Las Vegas Sun’s Sunday article on customer service, “Friendly and clean sure beat out mean.” You want to learn about customer service, then just spend a week in Maui. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency and ate at top restaurants.
You can’t compare the service we got there with what we get in Vegas. As a local, we stay at the top hotels and eat at the top restaurants and the service is not even close to Maui’s. They get it. They take aloha to the max. We need to take Vegas to the max. It should not matter what the economy is, service should always be the top priority.
I would suggest that all of the top executives here enroll in Disney University, an incredible program run by the Walt Disney Co. that teaches how to give great customer service to tens of thousands of people around the world every day.
One of the things I learned when I attended one of their courses to increase my customer service is that they look at each person who goes through the turnstile into one of their parks as worth $50,000 over the life of the visitor. Great motivation? You bet. If the customers keep coming back, the employees know they will still have a paycheck.
The bottom line is the service culture that is instilled in the workers. At Disney, the employees are there to please and seem to get great pleasure pleasing.
Las Vegas, take note.
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We have had excellent service at many of the hotels in Vegas. I wonder if the MGM Grand employees attended the Disney University because every one of the people we encountered from the registration desk to the housekeepers, the hosts at KA and all of the waitstaff were wonderful.
uddeboda...Bear meat is too strong unless you get a really young bear cub. Get it before it's weaned off his mama's milk.
I agree Rough. It's so tender you can taste its sadness.
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Good Point Neil
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One additional suggestion would be that the city itself make your point a creed ... let's say something like .... 'Las Vegas, A City Where Customer Service Is Champion' - something along those lines would be fine ... and it should be discussed in all the meetings at the hotels and casinos and with all the dealer's meetings, too ... it seems Wynn and Encore and Bellagio have a good system already at work - the city could create jobs by hiring a few hundred workers to go around checking up on the local businesses to make sure they are following the creed, too !!
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One area that needs some eyeballing is the transportation system including taxi - they may have the occassion to utter out a gross word here and there forgetting that someone could be in the back seat !!!!!
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Thanks For Reading My Post
As a regular visitor to Las Vegas, I am never looking for any special customer service, and I rarely become offended when the service is downright bad.
Basic service is fine with me, although I agree with the statement in the first paragraph of the letter that "friendly and clean sure beat out mean".
What is the point of letting small things spoil a vacation?
We tried to cash out a pocketful of coins at the Wynn on our last trip and the cashier made us load them in the tray ourselves, indicating cashiers don't have the time to load the coins. While it only took a few minutes to do so, it felt wrong as the cashier was not busy so she just stood and watched. This did not feel like good customer service.
Otherwise, the drinks were promptly delivered during the day at the Wynn, and all of the staff seemed dedicated to customer service.
I'd say the Strip casinos and hotels match those in Maui for service. Vegas Strip personnel are superior in service. Once you leave the strip, you're back in a New York City environment for service. Rude, obnoxious people who expect 50% tips.
The Native American Casinos are doing a good job too...we should look at New Mexico training people right and left for movie and solar jobs, Oregon's tax and spend training and investment is showing signs of paying off -- there is no over-all vision in Nevada