{"id":462,"date":"2009-09-24T09:10:31","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T08:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=462"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:31:03","slug":"what-kind-of-pillows-do-you-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2009\/09\/24\/what-kind-of-pillows-do-you-want\/","title":{"rendered":"What kind of pillows do you want?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am very interested in examples of good business practice and exceptional service and I have written on this topic on previous occasions [here<\/a> and here<\/a>]. I think it is particularly interesting when the noteworthy service is delivered by a multi-national company, where they seem to have built the concept into their culture.<\/p>\n

My example this time is a large hotel in central London – just a short distance from Marble Arch. Do email<\/a> me if you want to know the details…<\/p>\n

My initial visit to this hotel was essentially accidental – it was in the right place and had a room available when I needed it. I began to use it whenever I was in London, as the place seemed fine and even featured free on-site car parking. One feature I liked was the health club. After a long day, the steam room, sauna and Jacuzzi offered welcome relaxation.<\/p>\n

One day I went into the sauna and there was an oldish guy sitting in there and we got talking. I learned that he was a member of the hotel staff – a porter – who were allowed to use the hotel facilities freely. He was feeling pleased because he was about to retire and his management had told him that he could consider himself a life member of the health club and come in any time he wanted. I expressed surprise, but he told me that this behavior was quite normal; he said the company treated all the staff like they mattered and made everyone feel that it was their hotel.<\/p>\n

He asked me how I was enjoying my stay and was there anything I needed. I said I was very happy with everything. After a moment’s thought, I commented that I would actually like feather pillows instead of foam. He said that all I needed to do was call Housekeeping and they would happily swap them.<\/p>\n

In due course, I headed off and did not think too much about our conversation – I did not get around to calling Housekeeping. Later that evening there was a knock at my door – it was Housekeeping with my feather pillows …<\/p>\n

I guess that my new friend the porter had checked my name on the health club register [it was quite quiet] and called Housekeeping himself. This was terrific service. He took ownership of my request and acted. His few moments effort resulted in thousands of pounds worth of business as I have told this story to lots of people and I am sure many have taken my recommendation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am very interested in examples of good business practice and exceptional service and I have written on this topic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9791,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}