Other than the guilt of leaving Cathy to deal with the clean-up crews from our flood, it was actually good to escape the chaos at home and to be heading back to the airport for my final trip of the month.  This trip was especially exciting as it represented my chance to reclaim another of my “A list,” “poster child” clients from my past, which was Hershey Entertainment and Resorts.  As a kid I was always intrigued by this destination, and when we landed the account for the first time in 1996 it was one of my greatest career moments.  Now it was time to get them back from the competition and onto my growing client list. 

Of course there’s always some glitch when it comes to travel, so when my flight to Philly was delayed and I missed my connection it was all par for the course.  But when they told me I’d need to wait 6 hours for the next flight to Harrisburg, I pulled out my trusty road atlas and quickly calculated that I could drive there in 2 hours.  After talking USAirways into dropping that leg, thus ensuring my return wouldn’t cancel, I almost panicked when I started calling rental car companies to find there weren’t any cars available for one-way rentals!  But thanks to my Hertz #1 club I was able to get a one-way rental, and thus arrived by 3:30pm to the Hershey reservations office. 

How wonderful it was to walk into such a progressive call center environment.  In meeting with Michelle Fisher, their training and Q/A manager, I was so impressed to see that they still were actively embracing the “best practices” we had recommended over a decade before.  My original training content, terminology, and sales strategies were still actively evident everywhere, and they were primed for my new programs to take them to even higher levels. 

After a nice dinner with Michelle and getting caught up on e-mail, I enjoyed a cocktail in the lobby bar as I sat by the fireplace watching the little ones run amok in the lobby.  It was easy to close my eyes and remember chasing my own little ones when we had brought them here on vacation in 1999 when they were still babies too.

Next morning I began the first of four half-day workshops for the reservations agents, a few of which were seasoned veterans who were still there from my first round of training.  But most had not been through my training, and instead had participated in numerous other workshops by other training companies.  So it was especially rewarding to receive positive comments from some of the “new” people who didn’t know what to expect.  Here’s a note I was honored to receive from one of the participants:

Hi Doug. I would like to compliment you on the wonderful job you did with us today! Honestly, I was expecting the typical boring seminar that I have been to before, but I really had a good time and I learned a lot too. I am also glad to see that you have had experience in our field, so it is easy for you to relate to us with those certain guest situations! Anyway, thanks for taking the time to visit Hershey and good luck with the other training groups!...