Words cannot describe the level of professionalism that was bestowed upon me, my family and my friends last month.

In October, my wife and I went on a marriage retreat with a group of friends and family (about 50 of us) to the Sterling Inn & Spa in Niagara Falls.

We have been there before so we already knew that we were in for a great time.

Upon our arrival, a gentleman by the name of Andre X Plouffe who is the Chef Conciege of this fine establishment, immediately assisted us with our bags and directed us to our room. We came early, so Andre was kind enough to show us a couple rooms that would best suit our needs. (We brought our newborn daughter and needed her crib to be in a section of the room that was away from us and more quieter.)
After selecting a room, Andre reminded us that if we needed anything, to simply ask him.

Throughout the day, I noticed that as other guests were checking into the hotel, Andre’s superior customer service skills kicked into play and treated everyone with the same level of expertise that he served my family with. I was amazed.

My wife and several other friends were discussing the level of customer service this man was serving everyone with.
This caught my attention as I work in the high-end design field. I approached Andre and asked him if he was familiar with the “Service Design” industry. He was not.

I explained to him that service design was the high-level planning of superior interaction and care of a service provider to their customers. I challenged Andre to study this field to help give him the edge and broaden his knowledge of the customer service industry. To my surprise, Andre humbly accepted my challenge and I gave him a few links to look at.
It has been my experience that when you show people things or try to give them insight, they usually get offended or brush it away, especially if they are older than you. Andre didn’t do any of this.

The next day (Saturday) my wife decided to take our newborn out for a walk around the hotel. No sooner had she stepped outside, that my cellphone rang- it was my wife, and I knew something was wrong. She was out of breath and in a panicked state. She rambled quickly to me that she and Ava (my newborn daughter) were cornered by a big scary dog.
I instantly threw my phone down and flew downstairs through the main lobby where Andre’s desk was.
I yelled out “Andre I think a dog is attacking my wife” and ran out the front door. Andre immediately ran out behind me.

When I came outside, sure enough my wife was standing in front of the stroller, visibly frightened while the dog was directly in front of her, barking and staring her down. I jumped over the stair rail and ran towards her.
As I grabbed my wife’s arm and the stroller with my other hand, Andre situated himself between the dog (which was actually a Rottweiler) and me and my family. I rushed my family up the path and into the hotel while Andre maintained his position.

A dog catcher came running up to Andre, apparently this dog catcher had been chasing this dog for sometime.

After 5 minutes, Andre came inside to see if we were alright and told us the dog had ran away with all the comotion.
We thanked Andre for his swift and selfless actions.

My Point
So why am I writing all of this? Simple. Although Andre is not a CEO or a marketing executive who plans service design methodologies, he is the man who enforces them.
Remember, what is planned at the top, needs to be implemented at the bottom.

Andre is a master at what he does. He is the man in the trenches who calls out orders, but more importantly, leads by example and puts his life on the line for his troops (as we saw with the dog illustration).

I will definitely being going back to the Sterling Inn & Spa knowing that not only do I love the place, but that people like Andre will be working there. The series of events that took place while we were there challenged me to step up my game in regards to customer service and look for areas that I can best serve people in.

As designers, our work goes beyond our creativity, it is sealed with the golden touch of customer service and how we treat our clients and our end users.

Lesson and Conclusion
After checking-out at the front desk, I turned to Andre and thanked him once again for his tremendous service and labours. I also asked him if I could take a picture of him to remember him by. He said “sure”. As he posed for the picture, he adjusted the two pins to the left and right of his service vest. He then asked “Are my pins straight?” (with his usual and charming smile).

While driving home, I thought to myself, while taking his picture, Andre didn’t ask me “How’s my hair” or “Do I look good?” rather then putting the emphasis of the photo on himself, he was more concerned with the professionalism and legacy of the company. He put the legacy of the Sterling Inn & Spa before his own personal appearance.

What a man.