I remember an episode of Hotel Impossible that contained a wonderful little marketing lesson.
The host, Anthony Melchiorri, would visit struggling hotels and experience them through the eyes of a guest.
In this particular episode, he arrived at an old Art Deco hotel in Miami.
There was no onsite parking, so he pulled up in front of a sign that said:
VALET
Then he waited.
And waited.
At first, you assume the valet is parking another car and will be right back.
But after 12 or 13 minutes, Anthony finally went inside and asked the person at reception:
“Is the valet on duty?”
“Oh yeah. Just leave your keys with us and we’ll park the car.”
That was the process.
But there was no way for an arriving guest to know it.
Imagine how many people had started their hotel experience exactly that way.
They’ve been traveling all day. They’re tired. They want to get to their room, unpack, shower, and relax.
Instead, their first experience is confusion and frustration.
And once that happens, the hotel is already working from a deficit.
Anthony’s solution was beautifully simple.
He put another sign under the valet sign:
LEAVE KEYS AT RECEPTION
Four words.
That was all it took to eliminate 12 minutes of frustration.
These are the kinds of things to look for in your own business.
Every experience has a series of checkpoints…from the moment someone says yes until the moment you’ve delivered the result they came for.
At every checkpoint, one of two things can happen:
You can create a WOW.
Or you can create friction.
The trouble is, when you know how your process works, it’s easy to overlook the moments that confuse other people.
You know they’re supposed to leave the keys at reception.
They don’t.
The secret is to walk through your entire process through the eyes of your guest.
Where are they waiting?
Where are they wondering what happens next?
Where do they have to ask a question that could have been answered before it occurred to them?
Sometimes creating a dream come true experience requires something extraordinary.
But sometimes it just requires four well-placed words.
But sometimes it just requires four well-placed words.