FINAL THOUGHTS

Syenna’s Corner

I often think how much better our lives would be if service-based companies were to apply systems thinking and systems engineering to their service systems. In illustration, I share a series of true stories from a single hotel stay.

True story 1 On my way back out after checking into my hotel room, I notified the front desk of two faults in my room: the sink drain was almost completely blocked, so it drained slowly; and the drain-stopper didn’t fit the drain-hole, so if they cleared the blockage, I would have a different problem. (A rare example of two faults that are partially self-cancelling) The receptionist said that they would move my belongings to a new room during the day. When I got back, they said that I had been allocated a new room, but that they had not yet relocated my belongings, because my new room had some unresolved problems. I saved time for all, by complaining pre-emptively. After a wait, I was told (with a glow of pride) that I could now go to a completely refurbished room. The improvements from the upgrade: • The different type of drain-stopper (chained to prevent theft) still didn’t fit the hole; • The light switches were relocated to be operable from the bed (one good thing); • The large-screen picture-tube TV was replaced with a tiny LCD TV.

True story 2 I got into the lift (elevator) on the ground floor. A lady got in, just before the doors closed. “Hello,” I said, “which floor do you want?”

“2nd floor, thanks very much, ” was her reply. I pressed the button for 2, and the lift started rising. When it stopped, the doors opened, and the lady started to exit. I observed, “I think you need to go another floor; it’s showing that we’re on the 1st floor.”

“I know,” she said, “but this is actually the 2nd floor, despite what the display says. I told the management about that, and they told me that that’s just the way it is”.

True story 3 I needed to get onto the hotel WiFi to check my emails. The paper instructions in the room read: “If you pre-paid for your WiFi, you will have received your password by email. ” I thought to call the front desk, but there were no phones in the rooms. The instructions gave the landline number for the front desk, which I phoned from my mobile – four times over the next hour, each time ringing repeatedly then hanging up without opportunity to leave a voicemail. Eventually, I walked down to the front desk and showed them my call history on the phone. “Oh yes,” they said, “it’s been like that for a while now. Our phones here don’t actually ring when people call them. ”

True story 4 The slogan printed on the room key-card was: “Communication is key”

If you are still reading, then thank you for your sufferance.

Yours faithfully, and ever grateful that my parents named me after your splendid newsjournal, Syenna

Syenna Margaret Puck is a free-lance journalist, social-media influencer, and figment of some overactive imagination. She lives and works in Europe.