A Humbling Experience

Thinking back on my years in the hospitality industry, I don't think I've had a more humbling experience than I did tonight.

When working in the afternoon, my shift ends at 11:00pm.  I start closing out the shift around 10:30 so I can leave on time.  Around that time, we also get antsy to leave and it's possible we may not be on our best behavior (All of you normal schedule people, think of how you are at 4:30pm when your day ends at 5:00pm).  So here's the story...

A gentleman walked in tonight around 10:30pm when I was in the middle of counting the cash drawer.  I hate dealing with guests when I have the money out.  I don't know who I can trust and who's going to try to rob me.  I quickly scoop the money into the drawer so it's out of sight as I hear the sliding doors open.  I think to myself that I'll breeze through this check-in so I can get back to counting my money and end this long day.

As he walked up to me, I go through the usual check-in shpiel.  "Good evening, checking in?"  Instead of answering me, he pushed a paper in my face, pointed to the handwritten confirmation number that I had to decipher, and grunted at me.  I immediately got frustrated with him and said "I need your ID and credit card".  He looked at me blankly and started motioning with his hands.  I had no clue what was going on so I stared back at him and said louder and impatiently "Sir, I can't check you in without your ID and credit card".

As soon as I said it, he pulled his paper back and wrote "I can't hear you I'm deaf".  My heart dropped and I felt so bad.  I was too annoyed to realize he was using sign language when he was making those hand motions.  I didn't realize that maybe he wasn't being obnoxious and snobby, but just couldn't talk.  After I got over the initial shock of how stupid I was, I proceeded to mime all the actions I could so he would understand everything around the hotel.

I'll tell you, it's not that simple to come up with a hand motion for "free wireless internet", "vending machines" or "check-out time is 12:00pm" on the spot.  Finally, I got everything across to him through miming (and some writing) and walked him to the elevator.

When I got back to the desk two thoughts hit me.  First was "wow I need to learn some sign language, just in case this happens again."  I've learned to deal with people from other countries whose English is not that great, but they know the key words because they looked up our hotel online and familiarized themselves enough to know what I'm saying.  Someone who is deaf may be able to do the same thing, but I can't say the word slowly to them so it registers.  I have to either use sign language for those words, or use the method I used tonight.

My second thought was "Holy crap.  What if I acted like that towards a guest who could actually hear me.  That would be really embarrassing".  I realized that even that late at night, I still have to be cheery and welcoming, even if I don't mean it.  Good customer service can go a long way, and you never know who will give a good or bad review.  You never know what kind of day that person had and just smiling and welcoming someone at the end of a long day might be a big help to them.

As usual, leave comments with your thoughts, stories or experiences!