Customer Service Requires Critical Thinking

I've spent the last few days in a hotel in Asia where the prevailing low labor rates mean that the hotel has plenty of staff.  I know hotels in the US that would be astounded at the number of staff members deployed in the lobby, restaurants, and for housekeeping.  Even when I checked into the hotel at 3 a.m., there were three people at the front desk!

Hold on a second, though.  Don't be too envious of the ability to deploy squadrons of staffers to improve customer service.  It isn't just about the bodies - it's also about how the bodies are trained and about how they think about service. 

Here's what hit me. 

I was in the lobby waiting to meet some colleagues for breakfast.  One of the housekeeping staff was assigned the task of dry mopping the terrazzo floor.  He has super-task-oriented and focused on the job ... so much so that he didn't notice a McDonald's bag full of trash sitting in plain sight on one of the coffee tables. In fact, he carefully mopped under the table without noticing or disposing of the bag.

The lesson here is that customer service isn't just about completing set tasks with rote skills.  Like so many things in the service business it requires customer service training and critical thinking.