Last week I shared a little bit about my vacation in Jamaica, but I didn’t really go into too much detail about the actual vacation. Even though I had an amazing time and the weather was beautiful, and even though you’re in an incredible place and don’t want to complain… the experience still matters. While I was in Jamaica, I had one of the worst experiences of my life at a luxury resort all-inclusive stay.

As a business owner and a part of the luxury service industry, I feel like I need to be an advocate for what the experience is like inside of a luxury business. This particular resort was brand new—it had only been open for about 2 weeks. We were not told in advance (or at all) that there would be places not open on the resort, that the staff would not be trained, that there would be rooms without hot water, and that there would be flies all over because nothing had been treated yet.

The whole time while I was having this horrific experience I was trying to talk to the manager on duty or get ahold of someone in some capacity. It was clear the manager was completely overwhelmed and irritated from all the people staying in the resort. Whatever you want your culture to be, it comes from the top. Even though the entire facility was beautiful, the experience is just as, if not more, important than the appearance. Throughout this experience I found myself just wanting to sit the entire staff down and say if you all are unhappy with how things are being handled, you need to give feedback to corporate about what’s happening.

Overall, it was such a big lesson that when I returned home I wanted to take an outside look at my own business. I wanted to really evaluate things not as the owner of the business, but as our guests see the entirety of Garnish. I looked at what people see walking in, how guests are communicated with after the service, how complaints are handled, and all the little details that can easily get overlooked.

It took a lot of digging, but because the experience hits home so much for me, I knew it was important to look through every aspect. Even with the experience being such a high priority for me, there’s always room for improvement. I did find a few things on how we can elevate the experience even more and will be sharing more about them in the coming months.

If you are looking for an amazing experience inside of hair extensions, I want to invite you to visit Garnish because it’s something we hold near and dear to our heart. Unlike my Jamaican vacation that was beautiful on the outside, but definitely needed some work on the inside, one thing you can always expect at Garnish is for everyone to love what they do and for it to really come from the top.