Great Expectations

Having mentioned my glorious new phone previously I proceeded to lose it... excellent!

The result has been instructional in the ability of expectations to define customer perceptions of service. I lost my phone in Dublin, it was (I am willing to admit) my fault, nothing to do with anyone else and definitely nothing to do with the hostel I was staying in. On the coach home I may have used some industrial strength language (unfairly) to describe whoever had profited from my loss. The gentleman who had organised the holiday received a phone call to tell him (and me) that the phone had been found and that if I paid the postage it would be returned to me by post. At this stage my opinion of the hostel was sky high, they had found my phone then gone to the trouble of contacting my mother and my friend to get details to return my phone to me.

I expected to be reunited with my phone over the easter weekend. I have however only just had an email from my mother to say the phone has been delivered to her house. I am still grateful to have the phone back but having expected it sooner I don't feel the same advocay for the hostel I initially did. Moral of the story? Keep customer expectations realistic.