While I was pouring over the recent hotel reviews and intelligence that our meeting planner members have shared my mind wandered from the “the good, the bad and the ugly” of hotels and meetings to “In-N-Out Burger.” Not because I was hungry for a double-double, but because I was reminded of a terrific success story.

For those of you who don’t spend a lot of time in California In-N-Out Burger is well know for their grilled hamburgers, basket of fries and tasty chocolate shakes. Driving along Highway 101 you are bound to encounter one.

They’re open late but on this night (after leaving a San Jose Sharks vs. Calgary Flames hockey game) we realized weren’t going to make it before closing.

So we did what any group of hungry guys would do to ensure a good snack. We called information from our smart phone and asked them to connect us to the closest In-N-Out Burger. Our phone must have been smart because it connected us to In-N-Out’s Corporate Headquarters. And yes, even minutes before midnight a live person answered the phone. In the world of automated greetings and voice mail hell who’d have thought?

We explained our dilemma, four hungry guys driving home and likely to miss closing time by a mere 15 minutes, could they stay open for us?

Here comes the unbelievable part.

They didn’t stay open…they did one better.

The operator took our order and told us to drive up to the front door of their store (which is 300 miles north of the corporate office operator we were speaking to) and pick up our food.

At 12:15 am we pulled up to the front door, picked up our food, paid the bill and gave them what had to be their biggest tip of the night.

Talk about over delivering and exceeding expectations. They earned four customers for life.

So as I return to “the good, the bad and the ugly” of hotel reviews I smile knowing that someone at In-N-Out Burger gets it.

If you know someone else who “gets it” please share it in a hotel review at www.meetingsintel.com.

To your success,

Tim Ryan

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