What exactly is the difference between a landlord and a concierge?
Both offer the use of accommodations with a varying number of appliances and amenities, for various lengths of time in exchange for your money.
But, one seems to have the mindset that they are providing you the privilege of renting their space.
And the other, has the mindset that they have the privilege to offer you their space to rent.
I had a landlord once. I had been renting the home for some time when there was an issue with one of the appliances. While I will say that the timeliness which the problem was attended to was pretty good, it was the attitude that concerned me. It all started with the phone call…
ME – Hi Pat! It’s me Chris, your tenant?! (upbeat – so as to soften the coming bad news – inflection)
PAT – Oh. (Downward “frowny-face” inflection)
ME – I hope things are well with you. Have I caught you at an alright time?
PAT – Uh huh. (I can almost “hear” the scowl now)
ME – Uh…yeah, so, I was calling about the dishwasher. It seems that it isn’t completely draining after the wash cycle; I’ve tried several times to drain it, but no luck. It’s a little out of my knowledge base; do you think you could have someone come take a look at it?
PAT – *SIGH* I guess so… (Now, I could be wrong, but I think they were hoping that I’d say to just forget the whole thing if it was too much hassle.)
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only difficulty I had with this landlord. There were electrical problems with the basement lighting sparking, taps that need replacing and railings that came out of the walls, which were within my knowledge base to repair. (This is good because although I informed them about it, no repair person ever arrived.) There was even a time during the winter when I had to replace the heat sensor on our furnace because they had gone on vacation without telling us. Luckily, with the aid of Google and a friendly furnace company 24-hour emergency hotline operator, this is now within my knowledge base!
Now don’t get me wrong, there are many worse “bad landlord” stories out there and that is not the point of this post. The point is, to consider the difference in mindset between a landlord and a concierge.
Have you ever had to call the front desk of your hotel to discuss an issue?
It’s late. You’re in your hotel room on the 6th floor and it’s hot. You need to be up early, so you turn on the air conditioning to cool it off and get some sleep. Unfortunately, the sound that comes out of it resembles the squealing brakes on a freight train. Rough night. In the morning you call down to the front desk to explain the situation.
YOU – Hi, it’s me in room 618; I think there’s a problem with the air conditioner.
FRONT DESK – Oh, I’m sorry about that. What seems to be the problem? (at this point they’ve probably already pulled up your room and call you by name)
YOU – I’ll spare you the anxiety of actually hearing it, but it’s making quite the high pitched squealing sound. I wasn’t able to turn it on at all last night and it got pretty hot in here. It’s looking like it’ll be just as hot today, any chance you can get someone to come take a look at it?
FD – Absolutely. I’m terribly sorry about the inconvenience, why don’t you come down and have breakfast in the lounge, on us?
Now of course, not all hotels are this accommodating, but most are pretty good.
So, is there really any difference between what a landlord and a concierge offer?
They both offer accommodations to rent. Most hotel rooms come with some form of appliances. There are often equal amounts of competitive choices available for both. Sure, landlords do tend to rent their spaces for longer terms but wouldn’t the extended relationship warrant better customer service?
Now I’m not saying that all landlords are bad or that all hotels are good, but I’m sure we can agree that the general consensus regarding landlords and concierges is that the customer service is not comparative between them, and it all starts with the mindset.
So, regardless of whether you’re in the accommodations business or not, what’s your mindset?
You are providing your customers the privilege of your products/services.
OR
You have the privilege to offer your customers your products/services.