MAGIC Moments at the Wyndham Resort

Last weekend, my husband booked some family time for us at the Daytona Wyndham, under our WorldMark ownership. While he was checking in, I had a few minutes to talk to the bell hop, while he was unloading our vehicle. John was friendly, cheerful and very careful with all our bags and other stuff.

My daughter left a pair of loose flip-flops in the back of the Durango, for example, and my husband did something similar. He left a pair of leather shoes outside of his luggage. While I was wondering why my husband and daughter didn't have their packing processes down, John held out one hand and displayed my daughter's flip-flops as if they were expensive glass slippers, and then asked if we wanted them to go in. There were plenty of other customers waiting for help (with dollars in their pockets too), but John was fully focused on us for the moment.

For some people, this type of good service just comes naturally, but for people who aren't wired this way, no amount of training can make this happen. He rolled the cart inside and my daughter ran with her friend to the other side of the lobby to look out to the ocean. Being the curious person I am, I asked John if the Wyndham provided training for their employees. He answered very politely, "yes ma'am, we have magic moments every morning."

"Magic moments?" I asked, "what's that?"

He went on to explain that every morning, they have about 15-20 minutes of training, and every day, it's a different topic. And very often they have different people providing the training. What a great way to start the day, I thought! Imagine if every day, every company or individual did something similar to this. It doesn't take long to become an expert or very good at something, such as customer service, if you keep studying it little by little, every day.

This evening I did a quick web search on "Wyndham" and "magic" and I discovered a book called How to Talk to Customers: Create a Great Impression Every Time with MAGIC, where MAGIC stands for, "Make A Good Impression on the Customer." I never heard of this book, but now I'm interested in getting a copy.

Wyndham, your bell hop made a good impression on me this weekend!

What I learned about your daily training helped me to overlook, yet feel perplexed about, the spilled ashtray and cigarette butts on our ocean-view deck. Coincidentally, we didn't find a "Your Opinion Matters!" feedback form in the condo like we normally do, but I did take the time to ask for a feedback form at the front desk. When I asked for the form at the front desk, the attendant said that I should have one in the room. I had to coax her and convince her that I didn't find one in the room. When she realized that I was the persistent type, she finally did get up and go into the back room to look for a form. She was gone for several minutes, leaving me waiting while she went on the hunt for the standard Worldmark customer feedback form.

Evidently, not everyone can perform MAGIC, at least not every time. In this case, the bell hop did, but the cleaning and reception staff did not.

What will you do the first 15 minutes of your next workday?
Who was your last customer?
What impression did you make?