By Dan Polimino
OK, I’m guilty. Maybe I threw in the towel too fast. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve uttered the phrase, “can you get me your supervisor,” because I was getting nowhere with Customer Service. I really thought customer service is completely dead in this country. That no company, no small business, no restaurant, no vendor was remotely interested in giving the consumer, the slightest bit of service. And then it all changed, and I had hope.
You see I went on a father-son vacation this summer. My son Micah has graduated from high school and as a gift my wife and I gave him a boys-only trip. We started in Denver, Colorado rented a car and drove to Anaheim, California. We spread it out over 14 days and along the way we stopped at some terrific hotels, played on some amazing golf courses and caught three major league baseball games. We took our time, enjoyed the scenery, had some epic meals, and saw parts of the great west that we’ve never seen before, like the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
One of the stops along the way was at the Arizona Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. If you’ve never been to this grand hotel, I highly recommend it. It’s awesome, and one of the things it’s known for is their incredible service. I can tell you, from the moment we rolled in we had an amazing experience. The people at that hotel just don’t know how to say “NO”. Everything we asked for, the answer always seemed to be “yes” and many times the staff anticipated what we were going to ask for before we even did. Now that’s service!
The night we arrived my son and I had eaten a late lunch and we were still a bit full. But you know the feeling – you could probably eat a little something. It was 7:30 at night and I didn’t want anything too heavy before bed. We were sitting at the sports bar outside the hotel watching a preseason football game. The waitress came by and handed us a menu. As you would expect, it was a lot of heavy bar food, and I just didn’t feel like having that this late at night. She came back and asked us if we wanted anything to eat and I told her no, I had eaten a late lunch, and I was hoping for something light. She asked what I had in mind. I told her I was hoping that maybe they had a nice fruit platter or something like that. She didn’t say anything, she just took the menus and walked away, and I thought that was the end of it. Five to 10 minutes later she walked out with a beautiful platter of fresh cut fruit. I was blown away. She said, “I spoke with the chef and had them prepare this for you!” I may be exaggerating a little, but in the moment, I think I had my hope in mankind restored. These people cared about me, my son and our experience at their hotel. Why can’t everyone operate like this?
And then I got to thinking; you know this type of service from the Arizona Biltmore is the exact type of service that I used to build The Hawai`i Team. A lot of times people will ask me why we are so successful at helping people buy, sell and invest here in Hawai`i and I tell them it’s because we don’t know how to say “No” to our clients. For my entire 17-year real estate career we at The Hawai`i Team, have always had the same philosophy with our clients, “if it’s legal… then the answer is yes.” We built this company and this team on an Arizona Biltmore style of service. We believe in going above and beyond and exceeding your expectations. We also believe we need to earn each and every client, one transaction at a time, to become your realtor for life. It’s the number one thing I think of when I wake up in the morning and when I go to bed at night. Do our clients know and feel how much we care about them and their needs. I hope they do and if ever they don’t, I pray they will reach out and tell me so we can be a better version of ourselves every day.
Dan Polimino is the owner of the Hawai`i Team in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i. He and his team are the luxury residential experts for the Big Island. If you are thinking about buying or selling in Hawai’i, then please reach out to us at team@thehawaiiteam.com or call 808-913-0899.
