Customer Service:
It's Not Just a Department, It's An Experience - April 2011
Welcome to the April 2011 issue of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience." Thanks for sharing some of your customer service experiences with me. I'll be dissecting them in future issues of this newsletter. The first one I'll share came from my boyfriend when he was doing a good deed and buying me new windshield wipers.
While we are all providing products and services to OUR customers, we are also customers too. The experiences that we have when we are the customer often leave us with a bad taste in our mouth. Read the article entitled, "A Tale of Two Restaurants", to see just what kind of taste one experience left me with!
Welcome to our many new subscribers and new clients. Our goal is to help you improve the experience you are providing to your existing customers as well as prospective customers, increase customer retention and generate additional revenue through cross-selling, up-selling and referrals.
Enjoy this month's newsletter!
In This Issue:
A Tale of Two Restaurants | I'd Like to Make an Exchange | Where's Randi?
A Tale of Two Restaurants
Last week was Restaurant Week in the Hudson Valley. Any opportunity to eat out in the Hudson Valley is a treat so we made reservations at a restaurant we've been wanting to try for Friday night.
Restaurant Week often attracts diners who might not ordinarily frequent a particular restaurant. The restaurants participate in the event because they hope to attract new diners. Participating restaurants assume if they get diners in the door during the promotion, diners will enjoy their experience and want to come back to the establishment after Restaurant Week is over. That's a great concept WHEN the diners enjoy their experience. However, when diners don't enjoy their experience, they may NEVER go back. Oh, and did I mention they probably tell a lot of people about their bad experience? Read on to learn what happened to me.
We had heard great things about a restaurant from friends, and it was highly rated (26) in the Zagat guide, so we thought Restaurant Week would be a great time to try the restaurant. We made reservations for 8pm. We arrived at 7:50pm. The restaurant was crowded when we got there. A waitress approached us, took our name and told us it would be a little while for our table to be ready. We were able to get a seat at the bar and have a drink while we waited for our table to be ready. We sat at the bar with our drinks and were there for about 30 minutes (8:20pm), when the waitress came to tell us our table was ready. By then we had finished our drinks so we ordered another round of drinks when we were seated. We noticed that the people next to us had just finished their appetizers. The waitress came back with our drinks and took our appetizer and entrée order. A busboy came over with bread and water (and thank goodness he did as you'll soon find out!). We sat at our table drinking our wine and nibbling on the bread in the basket. After about 25 minutes, we started wondering where our appetizers were. We noticed that the people sitting next to us still hadn't gotten their entrees. We were beginning to get nervous.
We were finally able to get the waitress's attention. We asked how much longer our appetizers would be. She replied, "The kitchen is backed up" and walked away. Not a good sign. After another 15 minutes of waiting (did I mention we were starving and it was now almost 9pm), we decided we couldn't wait any longer to eat and were going to leave. The people next to us, who STILL didn't have their entrees, commented to us that they considered leaving too but felt they couldn't since they had already gotten their appetizers (almost an hour ago!). We got the waitress's attention again and told her we couldn't wait any longer for our food to come out and were going to leave. We told her this was our first time dining there (or should I say ALMOST dining there) and we wouldn't be back. She gave us a "Sorry", but she didn't seem to care too much. We left money on the table for our drinks and walked out.
About six blocks from that restaurant is another restaurant we go to frequently. It's where we are greeted by name, given our favorite table, poured our usual wine and treated as if we own the place. Within ten minutes of being seated, we were eating our appetizers.
Restaurants only have one chance to make a good first impression. Restaurant number one failed at doing so. They lost my business that night. They also lost my future business. And they lost any referrals I would have made to my friends.
What's the lesson for YOUR business? And if you're not in the restaurant business, don't think this doesn't apply to YOU! It does.
Here are some of my suggestions:
Be prepared. Make sure you have enough employees scheduled to take care of your customers.
Hire employees that care.
Keep customers informed.
Go above and beyond.
What suggestions can YOU add to this list?
I'd Like to Make an Exchange
My boyfriend Rich takes good care of me. He went to Pep Boys to buy me new windshield wipers. After he purchased them, he decided to buy a set for himself. He purchased them as two separate transactions. When he tried to put the wipers on my car, they didn't fit so he went to return the wrong size wiper blades to the store where he bought them.
While at the store he found some additional items he wished to purchase. When he went to the register to purchase the items and exchange the wiper blades, he realized that he had brought the wrong receipt with him. He told the cashier that he only wanted to exchange the wipers for another size. The employee said he couldn't do anything without a receipt. Rich acknowledged to the cashier that he took the wrong receipt with him. He asked the employee to look up the transaction in the computer to verify his purchase. The cashier said he couldn't do that.
Again Rich reiterated that all he wanted to do was exchange the wipers for a different size. The cashier restated that there was nothing he could do without a receipt. The cashier then dismissed Rich and started helping another customer, leaving Rich standing there unsatisfied and with blades that he couldn't use. Rich was pretty upset about the cashier's unwillingness to help and indifferent attitude. He said he knew if he stayed in the store and asked for the manager he would have made a scene so he decided to leave.
I'd like to make an exchange, along with an additional purchase, turned into "I'll never buy from you again". All because one employee wasn't empowered or didn't care enough about the customer.
Is anything like this happening in YOUR business?
Where's Randi?
Here is a list of upcoming speaking engagements. It would be great to see you there! E-mail me for more details.
Wednesday, 4/14 at 11:30am
Key4Women Seminar
Poughkeepsie, NY
Thursday, 4/15 at 5:15pm
Twinco Product Expo & Seminar
Douglaston, NY
Wednesday, 4/20 at 7:30am
Fairfield Business Network
Riverside, CT
Thursday, 4/28 at 7:30am
Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce Seminar
Poughkeepsie, NY
Thursday, 4/28 at 1:00pm
Expos Your Business
Hauppauge, NY
Thursday, 4/28 at 7:00pm
Long Island Entrepreneur's Meetup
Plainview, NY
Wednesday, 5/4 at 9:30am & Thursday, 5/5 at 1:00pm
Atlantic Region Energy Expo
Atlantic City, NJ
In Conclusion...
Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience". It is our hope that you not only get the customer or client, but that you also hold onto them! If you have clients, colleagues or friends who wants to hold on to their customers too, do them a favor and forward them this newsletter.
Until next time, take good care of your customers, or someone else will! See you next month!
Sincerely,
Randi Busse
Call us today to set up a free consultation:631-598-5598
Our Services:
Sign Up for Our Newsletter
WDG Social Media Links
Connect with us on your favorite social media site for the latest customer service updates!
Testimonials