by Patrice S

Created on: July 29, 2008

Hmm, customer service? The concept of taking time to help your customer, making them happy they decided to patronize your establishment. Pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, it's become almost legend in some places; a myth of people going the extra step to make the customer happy or at least satisfied. A lot of us have horror stories about rude restaurant servers, obnoxious telephone representatives. It makes me wonder sometimes if I missed the obituary in the newspaper and customer service is truly dead.

Then something happens to restore my faith in the future of humanity. I remember when my boyfriend (now husband) and I went to an inn in Ontario for a romantic weekend getaway. It was shortly after 9-11 and the border between the US and Canada was incredibly slow. We waited on the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia for over an hour. Combined with bad weather and even worse directions, it was no surprise that we were three hours late for our room reservation and our seats in the dining room.

When we arrived at the inn, soaked to the skin from the walk across the parking lot, the desk clerk looked up and called us by name! They said they were wondering what happened to us, and then they checked the details on our reservation. When they saw we were coming over from the States, they figured the weather and border difficulties had delayed us. Wow, someone actually took the time to check on things and think! What a concept!

Then they apologized that the dining room had closed for the night. I expected to hear that the pub down the street was still open and we could go there. Instead, they went on to say, "but we saved you a couple of chicken dinners if you'd like. We can bring them to your room in a few minutes to give you a chance to relax. You bet!

So there we were, walking into our room, a chance for a quick freshening up and there was room service. Hot chicken dinners and even a couple pieces of cheesecake for dessert! What stunned me were their apologies that this was all they had at the late hour. Are you kidding? This was a feast considering all that we'd experienced in getting there!

Did I mention the fireplace log they brought over as well? Our room had a fireplace and they supplied us with one of those three-hour logs to help us get comfortable. It did the trick. What I thought was a washed-out wreck, turned out to be one of the most idyllic, romantic weekends we ever had, before or after our wedding.

And just in case you think I'm making this up, that no one is that conscientious anymore, I don't blame you for being skeptical. But we encountered this exemplary treatment at the Elora Mill Inn in Elora, Ontario.

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