Customer service? Yes please...

Today we went on a mini cruise to the small Maltese island of Comino, to check out the beautiful beach of The Blue Lagoon and to swim with the fishes up at Chrystal Lagoon. But before seeing any see at all, we had to go through quite a bit of travelling and walking. We left our own hotel, The Palace, at around 8.00 am. We had to take a bus to St. Julian's to look for the "Corinthia Hotel, St. George's Bay". The bus however, didn't stop close to the hotel, so we had to walk about 20 minutes. Eventhough the trip shouldn't have taken so long, we did arive only 5 minutes to 9.00. Only to find out we were 35 minutes early instead of just 5.

A very friendly employee (I'll keep the name private) of the Corinthia St. George's hotel, took us to the harbour and showed us the pools of the hotel. Though we're very happy with our hotel, The Palace, I must say the pools of this hotel did make us drool a little. After telling us where to wait the employee told us to come by the desk on our way back so we could be given some brochures of the hotel.

After having a great time in Comino, at the Blue Lagoon and Chrystal Lagoon, we took the powerboat back to the hotel and met the employee again. We were then shown what customer service is all about, eventhough we weren't actually customers yet, we had only taken a boat trip from their hotel. The employee asked us to wait a couple of minutes to be shown the hotel (450+ rooms) and the facilities. We were amazed by the splendor of the hotel and definitely know where to go next time we visit Malta (hopefully next year?).

At the end of the tour, we were shown how real customer service (with a smile) works. Some Russian dude, about 30 years of age, came towards us at the end of the tour and started a tirade about how the employee should be at the front desk. He continued saying "open this door for me". Aparently the Homo Neanderthalensis had forgotten his key. The employee excused himself to us and helped the rude Russian after which we were accompanied to the hall again.

We were amazed by the grace and friendlyness of the employee after having been treated like dog droppings. Lots of respect for this kind of attitude. Something we can all learn a lot of in the sense of customer service!