I’m often asked who my greatest influence in customer service is. The answer might surprise you!
Jen and I frequent LUX* South Ari Atoll in the Maldives on our scuba trips, and have developed a close friendship with Afeef Hussain, the man in charge of Quality and Training at this amazing award-winning resort. Listen to why a COVID-19 outbreak cemented his place as one of my greatest influences.
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Below is an Autogenerated Transcript
First, let me answer the question about who in customer experience has influenced me most in the past year. It’s a gentleman I’ve known for many years. He’s one of our certified workshop leaders, but he’s much more than that. His name is Afeef Hussain, and he is a Maldivian, and he is in charge of quality and training at a resort in the Maldives where my wife and I love to go. We’re scuba divers. It’s called Lux South Ari Atoll. We’ve been involved with this group for a decade and helped them develop the brand and the culture. The culture is so strong that, when new people join the company now, they say in the orientation program you need to be “luxified” like sheep-dipped into the culture deep enough before you can actually join the team.
They had a situation occur recently where there were 400 staff on the island, who were covid positive and didn’t know it. It spread into the island into the staff and this gentleman had to lead the entire experience from the front on the ground, on the island with his team and his guests to get them safely off the island to get the staff members tested, and the medical care for those who needed it, to shut the island down, quarantine the island long enough and then very gradually where they are now opening it back up.
When I reached out to him, we spoke. He and I have become good friends, and there were tears just as he was recounting what occurred. I know how deeply emotionally this impacted him. But he said something to me that I’m now sharing with you. He said “I learned something that every iota of investment we made over years and our staff members when it was really the toughest it could possibly be, all of them were there for us doing everything they could.
He was so proud of the fact that when this whole episode had passed on social media, there had been not one single negative comment from any staff member or any guest. Wow! and that gentleman Afeef Hussain has been responsible for building that culture over years and then leading from the front during a very difficult time and that kind of guy really uplifts me.
