I would rather fly with Virgin Atlantic than with British Airways, and I would rather ski at Mammoth than at Heavenly. That's not necessarily because Virgin have better timekeeping (we were mighty delayed last week, for example), nor that skiing is better at Mammoth than at Heavenly. It all comes down to accurate and full customer information.

At Mammoth, there's a clock on every ski lift to tell you the time; at Heavenly, timepieces are few and far between. Lift information at Mammoth has tended to be accurate ... but here at Heavenly, the online web site seems to tell us what they wish they could be running rather than what they are running. Yesterday, one of their few on-mountain report displays beside "Groove" chair told it was shut down ... no one had told the operators, and it was running!


"What shall we tell the customers?" was an often asked question at the place I used to train under contract when they were cancelling a course or had rescheduled dates. "What's wrong with telling them the truth?" was my reaction. Customers deserve the respect of full and honest information.

I'm off in a few minutes to Heavenly's Gondola station. Signage there is very limited, and the web site tells me that all the lifts (bar one) are open today. Sorry, I don't believe the web site. Experience over the last couple of days tell me that I need to seek out one of their staff and chat with him to find out what's really happening. What a silly system!

And we disagree with it. Hence...

Well House Consultants information updates:

Headline news digest on our news page
Daily update via the Horse's Mouth
News flashes on our home page
Customer support via the Opentalk Forum
.... and course availability on our booking system and in our diary is dynamic.
(written 2006-01-02, updated 2008-06-10)

 G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service
  [72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)
  [91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)
  [126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)
  [150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
  [189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
  [195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
  [233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
  [265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
  [327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)
  [350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
  [393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
  [440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
  [482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
  [566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
  [569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)
  [609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)
  [621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
  [628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
  [650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
  [717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
  [725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
  [841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
  [852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
  [944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
  [961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
  [966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
  [1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
  [1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
  [1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
  [1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
  [1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
  [1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
  [1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
  [1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
  [1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
  [1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
  [2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
  [2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
  [2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
  [2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
  [2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
  [2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
  [2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
  [2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
  [2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)
  [2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
  [3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)
  [3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)
  [3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
  [3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)
  [3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)
  [4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)
  [4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)
  [4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)

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Colour doesn't have to mean colourful
Hotel novelties
What backup is adequate?
Keep that image small
Keeping Customers Informed
2006 - Making business a pleasure
2005 - Come as a student, leave as a friend
San Francisco
Taking the dog for a walk
The relevance of the hairy woodpecker