This is now the second time I’ve stayed at Casa Polanco in Mexico City in nine months.
And I honestly don’t know if I keep going back because I love Mexico City, or because every single time I stay at this hotel, I walk away so inspired to be better for my clients because of how my family is treated and thought of.
And then I’m sitting there thinking: how do I take care of my clients the way they just took care of me?
I’ve only been there twice, but it’s the same people both times. And here’s why that matters more than ever right now: in a world of personalized emails and CRMs, personalization has started to feel inauthentic.
It doesn’t feel real, it doesn’t feel honest. Everybody’s radar is up for it now. So when a person you don’t actually know or recognize suddenly “knows” you, it feels weird, it’s the same reason so many people who prep for a call with me will drop in these little personal details they clearly looked up, and it just doesn’t land. It’s like, you don’t know me like that.
One of the things I think has been critical to our “growth” is that we’ve concentrated our client relationships around the team with our highest retention, our client engagement team.
Deep down a client wants access to the nerds, like me. But they want to know the nerd isn’t going to geek out so hard on the newest algorithm update that they forget the whole point is growing a business.
That’s Seer’s attempt of having the same person greeting you every time, they get to know you in an authentic way.
The “CE team” has a job and that job is making sure the relationship never gets lost in the work, the deliverables, the reports.
There are so many small things they do that are otherworldly to me.
The Mini Bar Stress Out
“Take whatever you want, whenever you want, we’ll refill it and anything in your mini bar.”
The real thing they’ve done is make it easy for people to enjoy without thinking.
So often at a hotel you’re sitting there doing math in your head, I’m not paying six bucks for this Coke, and $10 for a bag of popcorn.
The ask of money is friction. How can you say, unwind and relax, we’re here for you, and then be like “yo $10 bux for that fiji dog?”
They just remove all of that, that thinking and convincing yourself.
The small things are big things lesson at 7:30am
The picture above was taken at 7:30am, after a run. Look at the ice cube bucket, it is completely full. I’m looking at it thinking: this hotel is checking that the ice in an open bar hasn’t melted at 7:30am. That ice is going to melt in an hour or two regardless. Didn’t matter to them.
If someone wanted a drink at 7:30am, they shouldn’t have to ask for ice.
What’s the equivalent test at Seer, the thing I’d want our people doing for a client even in the moments where the client would genuinely never know either way?
Will Guidara writes about something similar in Unreasonable Hospitality the host would spot a table paying their check and quietly send someone to move their coats up to the front, so by the time the table finished paying, their coats were already waiting by the door.
He called it a magic trick. Nobody asks for that. Most people don’t even notice it’s happening, they just pat their pockets for the coat check tag, look up, and their coat is already there. That’s the same instinct as the ice tray. Nobody’s watching. Do it anyway. How do I build that?
Cleaning a room, nope, Wolverine battle
When they cleaned the room, they took my kids’ action figures and set them up in battle positions around the room. It was wild that they took that kind of care while cleaning sitting his little army men up in different poses.
And since it was one of my kid’s birthdays, they’d found a piñata that day and attached it to a balloon for him. They’d just found out.
I keep coming back to this through the lens of how it makes me want to be better for my clients. It really does. When you feel like somebody is taking care of you at that level, you can’t help but want to be that for the people you work with.
Making Mistakes in client relationships
There’s a book I love called Setting the Table by Danny Meyer, and one line from it has stuck with me for years:
The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.
It’s not that Polanco doesn’t make mistakes. It’s not that Fasano doesn’t make mistakes. It’s that when they do, they handle them well, and they hold themselves to a standard to keep it from happening again.
When Seer drops the ball with a client , and every agency does , what would “handling it well” actually look like if we were holding ourselves to a Polanco-level standard, rather than just an apologetic-email standard?
Danny Meyer has another thought from that book: write the best final chapter. Your client can leave, you can make mistakes, but you always have a chance to write a great final chapter.
Mistakes are going to happen. The question is how you write the final chapter.
I’m in the middle of writing one right now. An alum of Seer hired our company to help their new company, and for whatever reason, we didn’t live up to the standard they needed from us.
I emailed them and said: I don’t know if you remember the book I shared with you when you were here, Setting the Table, but in it, Danny Meyer reminds us to write a great final chapter. That’s what I’m going to do. Even though you’ve executed your out clause, I’ll make myself available to help you or your executive team in any way possible. Because that’s just what we do.
Watching us leave
It reminds me of leaving Casa Polanco. When you get into the car to drive off, one or two staff members typically wait outside watching you and your family until you turn the corner and are out of their sight.
They keep an eye on you until you’re no longer in view, looking for one more chance in case you need help.
Forgot something? They see you out until they no longer can directly influence the quality of your stay. That is what i want to build.
Not the biggest, not the most profitable, the one that made people feel like you know what…this was personal to Wil and his team at Seer.
