Augustus, almost age 4, decided to do a good deed.
When a deal isn’t
When in Cambodia, I love to get pampered. It’s easy to do since you can get a 1-hour massage for $8. So the first few days of my recent trip I tried various massage places, spending as little as $3.50 for a 1-hour massage during its “happy hour” afternoon special.
Do you allow customers to have it their way?
On my recent 2.5-week trip to Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, I had the blessing of staying in 5-star hotels. However, there was a notable difference in how each treated its customers.
Do your client gifts go awry?
Many companies like to show their appreciation for loyalty by adding extras to their repeat customers’ experience. It’s common in hotels to upgrade their loyal customers with in-room treats. While I never expect these, I appreciate them even if the item isn’t to my taste.
However, it’s rare that these gestures actually backfire. I know this is the exact opposite of the intention of the hotel management, but it can happen.
Have you taken a bubble break lately?
While on a 10-hour layover in Hong Kong, I cooled my jets in the Cathay Pacific business class lounge. There are rarely kids in these lounges as families with kids don’t often travel in business class. But today there are 3 little ones ages 2-5 belonging to one couple. Sensing they needed a distraction, I … Read more
Hospitality lessons learned from an unusual source
“Hello! What is your name?” the young man greeted me as I entered the facility.
“I’m Rebecca.”
“I’m Brian” he responded with a broad smile.
“I’m glad to meet you Brian.”
The longing for connection
I believe a fundamental human longing is for connection. Most of us get this need met through friends and family, and sometimes we look for connection through brief interactions with strangers.
I guess I was wanting to connect with the elderly Japanese couple seated near me in the shade at an ancient temple in Ayutthaya, Thailand. It was warm and we all apparently wanted a respite from the heat. I gleaned they were Japanese from their son’s talking to them when he deposited them near me.
Are you being helpful — or hurtful?
Sometimes our friends and colleagues ask us for feedback. Other times we think our feedback will help them see a blind spot that we think they should know.
But no matter if the input is asked for or not, we’re never quite sure how it will be received.
Been inspired lately?
A few weeks ago I visited some projects our Together We Can Change the World foundation supports with SE Asian disadvantaged women and children in Myanmar (Burma). In addition to visiting several schools, we visited an inspirational group called Women for the World.
In their small village outside Yangon (formerly Rangoon) a group of 30 women started a savings club several years ago. Tiring of their inability to escape squalor on their husbands’ meager $5-$8/day earnings, they played the lottery as the only way they thought they could rise out of poverty. All of their money went to rent and food and they had nothing left over to save to invest in their own homes. The banks wouldn’t loan them money as they made too little.