In what quite honestly seems like it was in a former life – and in reality was only 8 years ago – I went to work for a (no longer in existence) credit card company as the manager of that location’s training department. Good customer service – what it is and how to provide it – was a key cornerstone to that training.
When I actually had the opportunity to be in the classroom when the customer service piece was facilitated, I would ask each class to share their examples of the best and worst customer service they had ever experienced. Examples of bad customer service were bountiful, examples of good were harder to come by. Which makes sense; negatives tend to stick out more than positives do (sadly that often goes for our day-to-day lives, too. Remember to thank your spouse for bringing you a diet Coke and not just giving them a dirty look for forgetting to take out the trash).
I would always tell them the story of how one night while I was in college some friends and I were celebrating the birthday of one of the girls in our group. I was an RA (Resident Adviser in the dorms) and I had to be back on campus at a specific time to start duty. Keeping this in mind we left in what we thought was plenty of time, especially considering it was a week-night.
We arrived at the restaurant (a casual sit-down chain) and spoke to the hostess to add our party to the wait list. We specifically noted that we were celebrating a birthday and also that we needed to leave by a specific time. She assured us there would be no issue and informed us we would be seated in 20 minutes. At this point, in retrospect, I’m fairly sure she, being able to tell that we were clearly college students and likely poor tippers because of it, pretended to write down our names and then forgot about us.
20 minutes came and went and when groups that had arrived after us were being seated ahead of us I stepped up to the podium to inquire about our wait. She apologized and said she had accidentally given our table to another large party, but if we were willing to split into two groups she could seat us in 5 minutes. Not ideal for a birthday party but time was marching on so we agreed.
20 minutes after that (and of her avoiding eye contact) I went to the podium again to ask about the wait and being seated. She gave another (lame) excuse and said it was going to be another half hour. At this point we would not have had time to wait, order and eat, so I told her to take our name off and that we were leaving. A manager just happened to be walking by at the moment and asked if there was a problem. I explained the situation and he offered to seat us immediately, but we really couldn’t wait.
The next day security called up to my room and said that someone was down at the security station to see me; he also named the other girls that were in our party the previous night that also lived on campus. I gathered up the ones that were around and we went down to find the restaurant manager there He had roses for each of us plus a gift card for us to come back and eat again. Now that was turning a negative into a positive.
Good customer service is generally not as flashy as that. In fact when polled, most people rate good customer service as the lack of a bad experience. Exceptional customer service, however, will stand out a little. And when you experience it I really feel that you should tell the person who provided it.
I recently experienced really great customer service at the David’s Bridal on Bardstown in Louisville. I went to be fitted for and order my bridesmaid dress for my brother’s October wedding and I have to say that I was really impressed. From the second I walked through the door I was warmly greeted and promptly assisted (and no, I wasn’t their only customer; it was quite busy, actually). The person who greeted me was so perky that it actually caught me off guard a little. It’s nice to see people who appear to love their job. The girl who helped me find the dress on the rack, fit to the correct size and then place the order was also super-nice. Very friendly and outgoing and shared some tips on the dress that I was going to be wearing as she had just worn it in a wedding a few weeks earlier.
This is my “shout out” to the crew at David’s Bridal and a thank you for making what could have been a challenging task (I had Baby C with me, it was hot and she was tired) a very positive experience.
Do you have any “shout outs” of recent great customer service? Or a tale of woe that you want to vent about?
