This was a refreshing picture that I watched on OWN. The President of Choice Hotels went undercover for one week to see what was going right for the hotels and to see what needed improvements. It was amazing to see the employees reactions when they discovered that he was the President and not just another co-worker.
There had been numerous complaints regarding the first hotel that he visited. He wanted to know what the actual problems were. He discovered there was no free coffee in his room. He seemed shocked. He made it clear as he spoke to the camera in his room, “This is unacceptable.” In fact he had to go back downstairs and pay for coffee. He was not to happy about that. He was used to having free coffee in the room. He did observe dust in the room. He noted that there needed to be some changes made.
He posed as a person learning the sales prospective of the business. The gentleman that was training him was very good. Steve Joyce was very impressed with him. I Also was very impressed. This young man showed so much initiative and had only worked for the company 2 months. I am sure this undercover boss was glad he went undercover. The outcome was that Steve Joyce wanted the young man to come and work for their Choice Sales Program. The young man knew what he was doing and showed great concern regarding the hotels. Steve Joyce later offered him $5,000 to buy his new suits after he started working for him. He liked the way that the gentleman dressed and wanted to help him with that.
He really got to know some of the people at the hotels. While this undercover boss was at a third hotel, the young lady he talked with basically worked nights and did nearly everything, cleaning, making coffee, and serving the customers. She was very pleasant and very humble. She talked about how her mother said that she would not amount to anything. I thought that was so cruel. She had a little girl. She stated that she had surpassed everything that her mother said about her. He asked her about going to school. She was not aware of online classes that were available for the Choice Hotels. He seemed surprised that this had not been made available to her. When he finally revealed himself he offered her a week vacation all expense paid. He also offered to pay 6 months rent for her for. This was a very caring act on behalf of Steve Joyce.
The next hotel he visited was different. He visited the Econo–lodge. He met some great employees, but was concerned about the property maintenance which needed attention. He was impressed by a gentlemen that was working 2 jobs, 7 days a week, to put his son through medical school. How many parents would do this? As a result Steve made him aware that they offer scholarships and he was to offer his son one of the scholarships. He also offered to buy the employee a cart to help him travel around the lodge to get his work done.
I thought this was just great. Later after revealing himself, Steve Joyce, met with the manager of this lodge and expressed that the property needed attention. The manager agreed it would be taken care of. He said some things were just unacceptable. There were roofing problems, a hold in a wall, and various other problems. The manager noted that he had just taken over the facility and they were working on correcting the problems.
This program was very interesting. It made me recall when I was mystery shopped at my previous place of employment. Our department attended a meeting the day before. During the meeting we were told to treat our department like it was our home. Because it was high security we were suppose to treat it that way. So the next morning a President and 4 managers came to my department and wanted to come in. Before I could buzz them in I needed to know why they were coming even though I knew all 5 of them. So after they told me, I allowed them in. Afterwards, they told me that I was mystery shopped by all 5 of them and I passed with flying colors. Talking about “Praising the Lord.” I did that day. I was happy and thankful too.
Source: Television
Personal Experience
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