Imagine having nothing more than a one-day contract with each of your customers. Welcome to the hospitality business and the passion for customer service that has made our Courtyard by Marriott® of Wausau team #1 out of 853 Courtyard hotels nationwide. Courtyard Wausau guests have a 97.5% satisfaction rate with our staff service.

The secret to our success is best said by motivational speaker and former Porsche CEO Peter Schutz:  Hire character.  Train skill.

In the words of Dan Burg, General Manager of the Courtyard Wausau Hotel, “I can train someone how to make a bed, but not to look up from vacuuming the hallway to tell a guest ‘good morning.’  I can train someone how to make Starbucks specialty coffee drinks, but not to bake cookies on Valentine’s Day for their favorite business travelers spending the holiday away from home.  I can train someone to run the front desk, but not to run out the door after a mother to hoist her stroller into the trunk.”

In addition to having the highest score for staff service, the Courtyard by Marriott of Wausau has the lowest score for problem incidence in the entire brand network.  This accolade is another nod to the Courtyard’s outstanding staff and also highlights the benefit of being locally owned and operated by Ghidorzi Companies, a design build construction and real estate development company.  The hotel was built for quality and long-term ownership with building maintenance supported by the company’s property management team.

One guest recently raved in a TripAdvisor review, “During my last stay there was a bowling convention staying on the 3rd floor, I was on the 2nd floor and not one time did I hear a single foot step from the floor above me.”

The Courtyard ranks #3 for Arrival Experience with a satisfaction rate of 96.1% and Friendly and Attentive Evening Service with a satisfaction rate of 95.6%.

The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott® of Wausau, another Ghidorzi Companies hotel, also ranks at the top of its brand with the Platinum Award for being in the top 5% of all 692 Fairfield hotels in guest satisfaction.  The Courtyard by Marriott of Wausau holds the Platinum distinction as well.

Our final word on customer service is proactive.  Similar to the one-day contract we have with each of our hotel guests, we take customer service one day at a time, actively managing what went right and what didn’t in the spirit of constant improvement in our guest satisfaction.

The antithesis of great customer service is ambivalence.  Micah Solomon, a Forbes contributor and customer service expert, recently published an article titled, What if Your Customer Service is Bad on Purpose?  He argues that “certain actions, or inactions, indicate a company that, by my definition, provides bad customer service on purpose,” citing these examples:

• If you say you want to treat customers in a warm, caring manner but you don’t hire employees who are naturally warm and caring…your customer service is bad on purpose.
• If you hire warm, caring employees but too few of them to properly serve your customers…your customer service is bad on purpose.
• If you hire enough caring employees, but don’t invest in the training they need to serve customers properly…your customer service is bad on purpose.
• If you hire enough warm, caring, properly trained employees, but make them suffer with obsolete technology and facilities…your customer service is bad on purpose.
• If you hire enough warm, caring people and properly train and equip them, but then work them to the point of burnout or fail to involve them in designing their work and workday… your customer service is bad on purpose.  Customer service is an active everyday encounter no matter what your industry.  At Ghidorzi Companies, our hospitality team sets the standard for our organization.  With smiles like these, isn’t it easy to see why?