Tom Wolfe
Chief concierge
Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco
As told to Joseph Manez
"I was in Italy at a little bed and breakfast in Tuscany -- Marina de Massa to be precise, not exactly on the circuit and not at all a fancy place. My wife and I went out for the day. My wife was in the fashion business so she is very meticulous about setting everything up. She hung the shirt I was going to wear that night on a hanger. I guess when she buttoned the buttons, one of them came off somehow.
When we got back, there was this little note on the dressing table, ‘Dear Senior Wolfe, your bottone broken, is fixed.' I had to look at the shirt for a minute, and then I understood. I could see where one button had been repaired. The thread was the right color, but it was a little different. I said, Bless her heart. I hadn't even seen this gal; we went out in the morning and when we came back she was gone for the day. I made a point of looking her up the next morning to say multa gratzi and giving her some worthless American dollars.
People have forgotten teeny tiny things that really make the difference. It doesn't take a six-month course in hospitality to do that. You can do it from the goodness of your heart, just by looking for what people need and responding to it."
Carol Henderson
Flight Attendant
Southwest Airlines
As told to Joseph Manez
"My sisters and I went on a girl's trip. It's a weekend, we're in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, never been there, doing a day trip. At the end of the shopping day, I get in my car, and it won't start. It's the alternator. All the stores are closed. I call AAA and the mechanic they sent out impressed me with his customer service so much I'll never forget it. There were no cabs in the town so he had to give us a ride. We just piled into his car, never met him, going, "OK, we've got to go to K-Mart, get some toothpaste and stuff, and then we have to find a hotel." So he helped us with all of that. The next day was Saturday, his day off. He had to go in and fix my car. He fixed my car, and I called in after it was done -- we were at a hotel -- and asked him how much he was going to charge me. He's like, "Lady, I worked on a Saturday, my day off. I charge time and a half." But he didn't charge me time and a half, because he put himself in our place: "Here's four females stranded, if it was my family I would want to take care of them." He brought the car to the hotel and just charged me straight rates and made sure we got on the road okay. Well, the alternator's a part that can just go bad. Well, it went out again and the mechanic met me halfway and brought me a new alternator.
I think of that experience every time I'm on the plane. I get a lot of people in wheelchairs and the elderly and kids traveling by themselves. A lot of times we're their only contact. I want to really give them great customer service. I'll make sure their wheelchairs are there. I try to really do anything I can -- whether it's drink refills or extra snacks -- to make their trip easier the way that mechanic in Rehoboth Beach took care of me and my sisters."
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