When it comes to the travel industry, how often do you hear words of praise? Sure, you’ll hear accolades about a luxury hotel room or a serene mountain retreat. But how often do you hear words of praise for the people in the industry?
Not very often. It is usually words of dismay, irritation and complaint. The rude gate agent. The cab driver that was trying to rip me off. The room service waiter who could not have been any slower.
As a strong believer in travel karma, I trust that the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to recognize a person will come back to me in many positive forms. Plus let’s be honest, there are many ways that those in the travel and hospitality industry can make or break your trip (giving you that complimentary room upgrade, quickly rebooking you on another flight when your’s is canceled, helping you with your luggage after a long day in transit…or not doing any of those thing), so promoting that posiive behavior will ultimately benefit you as well.
Here are a few tips for providing positive feedback for someone who helped you in your travels:
* Put it in writing. Most companies have a customer service for you can fill out or an email address that you can write to. Just look for the “Contact Us” link or something similar on a company’s website. For example, the other day I apreciated the help from a United Airlines gate agent. I found United’s customer support form here. It only took a few minutes to fill out the form and explain my positive experience and that same day I got a response letting me know they’d received my feedback and that it would be shared with the employee and his supervisor.
* Do you use, Twitter? If so, send a tweet and add the twitter handle for the company. The company will appreciate the instant feedback from a real life customer (not an ad agency) that goes to a huge audience in no time flat. Even if the company does not have a Twitter presence, use their name in the tweet with a hashtag (#CompanyName) so the message will still be associated with the company. Also check for a company’s Facebook Page – this is a great way to publicly recognize an employee as well.
* Get as many details as you can about the situation. For example, flight number, hotel stay confirmation number, the helpful person’s first and last name, time/date of the interaction.
* If you can do so, let the person know that you are going to file a compliment. That way, even if it never gets back to them, they know you appreciated whatever they did to help make your travel a little easier.
For you frequent travelers out there, can you think of a recent incident where someone made your travel a little more pleasant or a little easier to get through? If so, take a few minutes and figure out a way to say thank you for what they did.
