Sound Off: Customer Service

I have pretty strong feeling when it comes to customer service.  It can make or break a persons time in your establishment.  When my experience in a restaurant was horrible the other day, I'm left with trying to know what the right thing to do is.

The last time I had a bad experience at this restaurant, I told the manager.  She then confronted the waitress we had a problem with right in front of our table.  

I couldn't do that again.  So what do I do?

Just pretend it didn't happen?  E-mail corporate?  Call corporate?  Just not say anything and quit visiting this restaurant?

Let me give you the scenario: 

My parents were getting in from out of town.  We decided that we would meet for lunch.  It was a few minutes after 1pm on Sunday.  I walked in and had to place my name on the list.  I was told that for 3 people, it was a 5 to 10 minute wait.  I saw LOTS of empty tables.  But 5 minutes wasn't that bad.  My parents hadn't even gotten there yet.  

One observation I made while waiting my 5 minutes was that none of the staff had a smile on their face.  No one looked happy and no one was making eye contact with the customers.  This concerned me.

I got to our table and within seconds, my parents walked in.  They saw some friends at another table and stopped to talk.  The waitress was super fast in asking me what I would like to drink.  I told her and she returned with it.  She then asked my parents what they would like to drink.  They told her.  This time it took over 5 minutes for her to return with their drinks.

Once we ordered, our meal took an extra long time to arrive.  We finally got it.  At this point, instead of just refilling our drinks, the waitress asks if we would like refills.  Umm....I have less than a sip left and you just brought my meal....should that have even been a question?

She never checked on us during our meal and never asked how our food was.  Which by the way, wasn't too good.  

In the meantime, I noticed a couple that had been seated at the booth beside us.  They ordered water to drink.  It took this waitress over 15 minutes to bring them their water.  

The main reason we picked this restaurant was because we had a coupon.  The check came and it took her 15 minutes or longer to get the coupon reflected on the ticket.

At this point, my frustration level was at a extreme high.  But I kept my cool.  I didn't want to be rude to her and it affect her other customers.

So how would you handle this?  Or would you just let it go?

Go ahead and sound off!  Tell me what your thoughts are.

Customer Service

Last night at work, we were given conversation starter cards.  We were told that this was because some people need to learn to talk to their customers.  I was puzzled.  How hard is it to just make basic conversation with people?  Have we moved too far into the technical age where people have no idea how to effectively communicate with people other than a text message or some sort of chat that can be done on your phone?

It's not that hard to put yourself in others shoes.  If you were the customer, what would you like someone to say to you?

Asking where you're from?  Asking how your vacation has been?  Asking what all have you enjoyed while you've been in town?

Seriously, this can't be that hard.  Most of the questions come out without even having to think.  At least for me they do.  And most of the time, you're customers make it easy to ask these questions.  

We have a limited amount of time with each person that comes through our line.  Learning the right questions and how to effectively ask them in a timely manner is pretty simple.

Should I engage my customers in facts that they could care less about?  Or should I find some common ground to have a meaningful conversation in just the few minutes (and in some instances, seconds) they are in front of me?

This got us all thinking last night.  And while we made fun of how crazy this idea was, we were encouraged by the fact simple conversation is easy!  And simple conversation is excellent customer service because it shows the customer that you actually care about them and not just the money they are spending!

My customer service tip for the day: