Arnold Beekes

Especially in the Hospitality industry it is crucial that you love to help and serve other people. Of course you can learn how to do this. But if you really want to be good at ‘being of service’, then it needs to be a mindset, an attitude. The enthusiasm should be derived from your heart and not only from your head. That is the difference between cognitive enthusiasm and emotional enthusiasm! With emotional enthusiasm you ARE the message. With cognitive enthusiasm you (just) have a message. Let me share an example. At the golf club I do have my bag in a locker room. On Saturday’s I do play at 8.00 AM and then they should have unlocked that room. Last Saturday it was still locked, so I could not play. The man in the reception had no key and also the lady at the restaurant had no key. I had to wait for more than half an hour to get the locker room unlocked. This was not the first time this problem occurred. But making mistakes is human. Later I did see the manager and I...

It seems like a no-brainer, but I still encounter many leaders who are ‘jailed’ in conference rooms and hardly ever see a real customer. Yesterday I was playing golf and the director of the course passed us by in a buggy. You could tell that it was even hard for him to say hello. He made sure that there was enough distance so we could not talk. However, this was an excellent opportunity for him to ask us how we (the customers!) were doing and maybe even ask whether we had some suggestions for improvement. It was not busy, so he could have easily done this. The response from my golf-buddy was that this director clearly doesn’t understand his business. Instead of creating goodwill and receiving valuable feedback, the director ‘escaped’ and left us with a rather negative impression. A missed chance for learning, connecting and building a true relationship with your customers. Are you, as a leader, meeting directly with customers on a w...

Last week I wanted to buy an album from Ana Tijoux, as a MP3 file. So, I did go to the Apple iTunes store in The Netherlands. However that album was not available there. Then I did go to the iTunes store in the US. They did have the album, but I couldn’t buy it because I have no bank account in the US. That was also the limitation while trying to use my credit card. Then I did go to Amazon in the US and there was the same story. The album was available but I could only buy it with a US based bank account. A year ago, I did read about the fact that you could use your American Express membership rewards points to get books from Amazon. I thought that was a super deal, so I immediately tried to use my points and exchange them for books. I won’t bother you with the nuisance; but is took me and their customer service staff several weeks, to find out that this program was only available in the US. This shows that even these well-known global companies are not truly global in thei...

Recently I did switch from a glass fiber provider (for tv, telephone, internet) to another cable provider. I must admit that the reason was a slight dissatisfaction with the original provider as well as a cheaper offer for similar services. The first nuisance is the time that they are planning to visit you. They said that they would arrive between 8.00 am and 1.00 pm. Even when asked a day early they could not give me an exact timing. This is really annoying and inconvenient, as I could not even go to the bathroom in the waiting time. Then the (subcontracted) engineer did install everything. Your house looks like you haven’t cleaned in weeks, when he is finished. He did check for himself, whether everything was working. Apparently it did work (to HIS satisfaction) and that is what he said, “it all works fine”. And then he left as his job was done. He did not give me any advice on how to use the stuff. E.g. I had no clue how to install my new voice mail (which number to ca...