Part of my day job involves organising the annual conference for my organisation. It's a small affair with about 30 people from our 10 sites across the state.
For a number of years we've returned to the same venue. The price was great, the location was good, the staff had been helpful and organised and the rooms were comfortable and tastefully appointed.
This year... the rooms were the same, the price was the same, the location was the same.... but I won't be booking them for our 2009 Conference.
Someone in charge seemed to not be particularly interested in our function. Information hadn't been communicated to the floor staff. Discrepancies in the run sheet were not questioned - so no one rang me to check, and they just made an assumption about what we wanted (which was wrong). Details that I'd organised via phone or email hadn't been added to the run sheet, and so the catering staff didn't know.
Information just seemed not to get passed on, the staff attentions seemed to be elsewhere some of the time (I had to frequently go to the kitchen and ask for things like milk or coffee to be refilled).
I found this a useful lesson
a) On my part - don't assume that just because it's gone smoothly for two years, that the third year will be the same. I could possibly have avoided some of these issues by being more annoying and calling the conference organiser to double check and confirm every detail with her.
b) The importance of customer service and open communication.
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