Last week I escorted my young niece to Montreal to support and encourage her on a big interview in Montreal.  I decided to make the trip worthwhile and take a day or two in Montreal to enjoy the pulse and energy in the most cosmopolitan city we have east of Ottawa;)

I think the whole reason I love travel, hotels, window shopping and dining out is to experience service.  Or to have an experience as a customer.....Having been work raised in high end, exceptional, service oriented retail businesses, I am always curious about who is doing what and who is the best.  So when I am away, I delve in and look for those service moments.

Truthfully, I have fallen in love with Montreal and it was the experience after experience over 48 hours with everyone we met.  I was wowed!

But really, I fell in love with Pierre Beauchamp at the Hotel Omni, Mont Royal.  Pierre has been their ambassador from the beginning when it opened as a Four Seasons to its present ownership as the Hotel Omni.  Thirty nine years of making guests fall in love with him, the experience and the hotel.  He had me at the front door with his first hello and his first giggle.  And I thought I had a laugh!

Pierre is the epitome of everything we all strive for in customer service.  He knows its the experience, the little things, the genuine love of what he does, the genuine pride of who he represents.  He knows he is the one who can make the guest feel like a million, like the only one.  He makes a difference.  He didn't just do it with us, he did it with James Brolin and Barbara Streisand, with Super Tramp, with Stevie Wonder.....Really?  He is even more special because it doesn't matter who you are, every guest is equally important. 

I came back to work today with a renewed sense of purpose.  A quest to always look for more ways to make the selling and buying experience better than the expectation.  To make it an experience, not a transaction.  I know we genuinely care and our clients truly get that sense, but I believe we can always do better, always strive for more.  Sometimes, you have to step away, get that personal experience, in order to remind yourself, of why you do what you do.  And to keep looking for new moments we can create for our clientele, who we care so much about.

Kudos to Montreal, kudos to Hotel Omni and super kudos to Pierre...it is because of you, that I will return!  You are a one of a kind, an exceptional gentleman, a superlative role model for everyone who works at the Omni...and may I say, your service is an art.  And there are not enough artists out there!  We all need to strive for this level of execution.   

I love you Pierre!