CUSTOMER SERVICE & PEOPLE PR
I am a regular customer and a great tipper at a local, mid-priced restaurant near my office. Today while eating lunch at the small (20 table) restaurant, after being greeted by name and a big smile from the manager, I ordered a salad, and instead of rice with my chicken, chopped cucumbers. When I made the request, the waiter looked at me like I was speaking Chinese and said no, we can’t substitute. (Jean George this isn’t…) I said I wasn’t concerned, they could charge me extra. He said no.
I politely asked for the manager (the same one who gave me big smiles), and asked why they wouldn’t give me cucumbers. The manager explained for 5 minutes, standing not more than 10 feet from the kitchen, why he couldn’t cut the cucumbers for me, the foremost reason being, “I can’t accommodate for all the many different substitutions that people request, because there are too many choices.”
Almost irony, on a block with perhaps 25 restaurants, as I agreed with him and said, “Yes, there are many choices, and there are also many restaurant choices.”
I paid my bill, and left… and as a business owner was sure that the business owner wouldn’t have treated a customer in the same manner. I am sure the business owner would have bent over backwards to please a customer in such a small manner, and would be livid if an employee acted in this manner.
Working in the service industry, I certainly don’t subscribe to the school of thought that says the customer is always right, but to not go the extra mile in customer satisfaction with the basics is simply bad business.
Needless to say, this restaurant, where I dined at least 50 times last year, won’t need to cut me any cucumbers moving forth. I pray that my employees always go that extra mile to give our clients the customer service they deserve.
Tags: Customer Service, Public Relations
November 15th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I agree with your point about this, it’s ridiculous to risk ruining a diner’s experience and losing their loyalty by not adhering to a silly rule.
I do, however, believe that people toss away their ability to use their brains and think for themselves when it comes to working for others. This is a big problem I often find in every workplace.
The best employee is one who can think for themselves but maintains the ability to think what YOU as a business owner would do. One who can actually represent the owner in such owner’s absence – and that employee, is extremely difficult to come by.
Perhaps the smiling manager doesn’t at all know any better. Or maybe he’s so intimidated by the owner that he’s too scared to break the rule. But when the next customer complains about this same scenario, I’m wondering – will the owner scold the manager for not knowing better than to break enforcement of the owner’s very own rule? Or will he/she explain to manager that while he’s just following orders, he should next time break the little rules when they become that much more important to the person dining there. I wonder if the owner is so arrogant if possible, to applaud manager’s behavior of not “caving” in to the simple request of a minor substitution.
Just my thoughts. Feel free to share yours.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I just had a discussion with a friend about a similar experience with customer service.
A friend left his relatively expensive coat in a Las Vegas hotel where he was staying as a guest. He contacted their customer service and asked for them to find it and return at his own delivery charge and even told them where they were most likely to find the coat. The hotel told him they could do no such thing. He argued with them on the phone for at least 30 minutes. Now he became more upset.
Not only did this hotel just lose a paying customer but this now angry customer will begin to spread the word one way or another about his experience with their customer service. With plenty of choices in Las Vegas hotels, his friends will most likely choose a location other than said hotel.
Let’s consider the alternatives…
1) Customer service looks for the coat, can’t find it, calls the guest and apologies for their dead end efforts. The customer understands and appreciates their efforts.
2) They look for the coat and find it! Clean it and return it at their own charge and include a letter that says: “Thank you for your stay. Your coat had a few stains that we took care of for you. We look forward to having you again.” Wow!! Amazing! The guest then goes and tells all his friends about this experience. The hotel just made great word of mouth…Divide the cost for the postage and cleaning by the number of people the guest told and you have an awesome word of mouth marketing metric.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am
After re-reading some of your posts about social networking, I see customer service in an entirely different light. As you explain, social networking (I’m thinking of sites like Yelp and Citysearch) is a way that companies can use to build their brand… But it can also open them up to negative publicity if they don’t treat their customers the way that they should be treated. Because today more people are reviewing customer review sites before making a purchase or planning a trip, I feel that an emphasis on customer service is going to grow quickly. Also, independent businesses may not be as responsive to customer problems as major corporations (e.g. JetBlue and the Twitter fiasco) but as small businesses (and restaurants as your experience involved) begin to see the importance of maintaining a favorable image on customer review sites, hopefully experiences like yours will become less common.