24 Star Service found!
This traveller had more millage than any airline could handle. He has vowed to travel the world to explore and report his findings to the #1 travel channel 1000th episode. They needed to uncover the best of the best in everything worldwide.They wanted him to travel freely and explore everything everywhere money was not an issue. He had been to the fanciest of places first to uncover the realities on these over marketed destinations.
In many cases he reported and pictured countries that were once the pinnacle of tourism that finally came crashing to their knees, and in other cases discovered new countries on the rise, He was one of the first to discover the beauty of the Croatian coast line and the tourism fever going on there. He also pointed out how the foreign fidiling and seminar business ended Budapest’s rich culture with all the fake fancy hotels.
He also pointed out that Dubai was the best, the largest, the fanciest, the spendiest, the trendiest new thing in the world, but astonished his viewers when he said its got that FAKE feeling attached to it, unlike the utter magnificent european heritage and history feeling it gives any traveller.
His mission this month was to visit to a new country that has surprised many travelers, both business and passerby’s with its uncanny levels of service that was simply shocking for that region in the world. He decides to get over with this country as fast as possible as his next destination is Uzbekistan where he will take the silk road all the way to China.
He arrives on the countries national air carrier. He cannot complain on his 12 hour flight he was pampered like a baby. His smallest details in economy class were taken into consideration. His seating was larger than the normal airlines by the exact width and length, I wonder what first class is like he thought to himself. The food was just as if his mother was cooking it( that was there secret). The attendants were not only smiling, they were making the whole plane crack up in humor! ( Their previous jobs were stand up comedians and a 2 year intensive training program in service and sales).
As the plane landed he was wondering why the flight had to end so fast?
“ Ladies & Gentlemen, thank you for letting us serve you. You have been a great company, and we enjoyed every minute of our time together. I have delivered to each one of you a thank you card with the flight details and your picture with me for your diaries. You are all getting a 50% discount for choosing us on your next flight to wherever you may wish and it is valid for 3 years. Free auto transport in the city is available for all passengers. If you are not satisfied with our flight or service at the airport, you can email me or call me for a full, no questions asked refund of your ticket. We hope you enjoyed you flight, Have a wonderful stay” “
He laughs out loud! is this a joke?” “No!” say’s the guy next to him. “its real i had my tickets redeemed when a guy at the airport called me by another name last month”.He leaves the airport without checking in at the customs, he is greeted with smiles and more smiles from the men at the gates, they are in uniform, but all smiles? he asks someone at one of the every few desks that has a sign that says “ please ask me something, anything, anytime” it had 4 people as if waiting to jump at you in enthusiasm, “ why don’t I need my passport stamped?” “It has sir, as soon as you landed, we have you on our systems, stamping is now optional as a souvenir if you may”
His bags are held by a man dressed in a suit and his name is clearly printed on a large LED sign on the baggage trolly. He rechecks his eticket to make sure its economy?His large black 2010 mercedes drives up his 5 star hotel, the doors open and he is welcomed by a senior manager looking man, he looks around him and everyone arriving at the hotel is getting the same treatment. He is fascinated by the smiles :-). He starts to look around him in all directions to find an angry looking
individual, no one in sight. The front desk ask him his preferences, he is asked if he has been here before? No, is the answer, he is upgraded to a suite and executive level on the spot. He gets in, takes a shower in an amazing display of oriental oils and soaps, everything is brand new, but as if at home. he finishes, gets dressed and decides to have lunch at a local restaurant which he walks to, he is walking in a desert country and the weather on his iphone reads 16 degrees? how come the weather channel said 36 today? he realizes that the walking path is air-conditioned with the right mix, the area is well landscaped and he has been walking for a few miles now!
The people in the street look familiar to him, the faces seem to be smiling all along, some even offered to help him by stopping their cars. He could not help but notice the parked lincoln taxi’s that read FREE on top all parked every 500 meters or so. he was looking at the clean roads, the marble floorings, the neat little shops, the endless bluetooth messages to guide him through the city. What is this place? how can they do this, how did they manage?
He gets to the place, has lunch, wonderful food, amazing people, it just gets better. At night he manages to get to the local mall. There he wonders if these people working here are from earth or part of an experiment in service standards. He actually tried finding a face not smiling or waiting to serve him?
He tried so hard to make an argument with one shop, then gave up when the person in the shop felt he was not happy and decided to hand him a 100 dollar gift voucher, the irony was he was bargaining on a 30 dollar item.He tries to get more involved and starts a mission to visit Banks and government agencies, hospitals and other food outlets.
He finds that a battle for service excellence was going on between the whole service industry. The target was to go beyond pleasing the normal customers, the target was to find real service measured in decency and honesty, real versus fake, the fastest efficiency versus fast, WOW versus thank you’s. This place was going places he thought.
As he drives to the airport he remembers his month in SAUDI ARABIA and wonders why other countries can’t copy what this amazing new world number one service provider? He loves his tan, his desert adventures, the food was impeccable and achieved full marks by any standard,
“Boy do I have a story to tell the rest of the world” he sinks into his first class upgrade bed, closes his eyes and thinks when he can bring his family here?
He who serves is the master of the game.
mamdooh al-radadi