Hi all,
We talk so much about service - customer service, sales service, after sales service. In Singapore where I call home, the big buzz word is innovation to increase productivity, and the service sector is an area which is being really looked at... basically, we need to up our customer service... we are told.
I agree.
But, wait first. What IS customer service. I am not going to rattle off a whole string of definitions from marketing or management gurus... I will leave you to do your own research. However, from my experience of what people focus on in training sessions, I think these are some of the key ideas when people refer to customer service:
- pleasantness (greeting customers with a cheery disposition, having a big smile on your face, never ever raise your voice)
- good product knowledge
- good grooming
- attentive
I had two very recent dining occasions. Both left me with indigestion.. not from the food, but from really really sad service.
To me, having a positive experience as a customer simply means " I go away feeling like I was listened too, they didn't think I was a dope whom they could try to push away with idiotic explanations, they weren't just interested in taking my money but actually had pride in what they were selling, and they bent backwards for me and made me feel special".
Let me use my two horrid experiences to test what I have just said and to show how customer service training is just not focusing on the right things and why I went away feeling the way I did.
First dining experience.
Setting: Local food, nice cafe-like setting, suburban mall.
Situation: My husband and I were looking for a place to have a nice, simple lunch. Walked past this cafe - recently opened and we had mentioned several times that we should try it.
We stopped by to look at the menu and the gentleman who was standing by invited us in. Pleasant, not pushy... nice enough.
We decided to try out the place.
We ordered... to a rather "stone-faced" young man.. obviously a temp. Gave him chance.
We waited for our food... first dish came after about 7 min or so. Not bad timing, not bad food.
We waited..nibbled at the food but waited for the rest of the dishes (forget to say we had ordered dishes which, as local food goes, is shared)
We waited... Vegetable dish came after another 5 min. Not bad food. Timing started to irritate us.
We waited.. one more dish to go... Waited another 5 min. Nothing. Called the "stone-faced" waiter to check on our order. He asked us what dish we were still waiting for (the place was not that crowded, for pete's sake, and he can't check for himself as the bill was already placed on our table and so were two out of the three dishes!!) We sweetly told him. Saw him walk to the kitchen to check. Turned back. Stopped in the middle of the restaurant, stood there, almost on attention, still stone-faced.
HUH? Isn't he going to report to us his "findings". I looked at him with ever so slight irritation in my face and voice. "So? Is it coming?". "Yes" with a nod. No more from "stone-faced".
Last dish came. Disaster. Worst omelette I have ever tasted. Uncooked? Dish came with rice. Looked like they had dropped th plate of rice, and just scraped it back onto the plate.
With still an ever so slight irritation in my face and voice, I ask the manager (the one who had managed to lure us suckers in) "Is this how you normally serve the rice". He looked at it and said "Normally, we inverted it from a bowl" (basically it should come in a nice round heap). He continues (he should have known when to stop) "it must have moved as they carried the plate". The person that lured us in had suddenly changed to someone who didn't care about us anymore now that he had got us in and given us the bill.
I stared.
My husband stared.
He says "I will change it".
Assessment:
Listened to... NO. If "stone-faced" really had any sense, he would have "listened" that my asking if the food was coming required him to give me an answer.
They thought I was a dope... They sure did. What kind of reply was "the rice must have moved..."!!
Interested in just taking my money... The bill was placed on our table 3o sec after the order had been taken.
Bent backwards for me and made me feel special... Obviously not!
Second dining experience.
Setting: Singapore's iconic hotel.
Situation: Had voucher to complimentary dinner for two. Voucher expiring soon. We live by the seat of our pants and decided that same evening to go there for dinner. Called restaurant reservations tel number of the hotel. Got "All our operators are busy at the moment, your call is important to us, please wait and we will attend to you shortly" for about half hour. No human came on.
It was tuesday night... surely the place would not be full. We drove there.
Place was not full - perhaps half. Dinner was buffet.
Lady at the front of restaurant greets us ever so sweetly. I state up front that I would like to use the voucher and to confirm it is not a black-out day.
She asks if I have a reservation. I said no.
She says "we are full. You need a reservation in advance if you want to use the voucher."
I looked at the restaurant and back at her. "You are not full". I say.
She then explains there is a daily quota of people they let in with the vouchers. Quota met for the day.
She then asks me if I would like to make a reservation with her to come back another day.
I explain to her the situation - I tried to call to make a reservation... no answer. I drove all the way here, the place is not full, we are celebrating my birthday and our anniversary, please could she make an exception.
NO, NO, NO... on and on about the same thing.
I say firmly. "If I had been able to get a voice on the other end, I would have known the place was "full" and I would not drive all the way here".
She asked what number I called (What goes through my mind...she didn't believe me that I had tried to call!! She is implying I am a lier!). I should her my last dialled number on my mobile.
She said it was the reservations number. YES I KNOW!!
She asked me what time I called. I said this evening. She says I need to make a reservations 2 days in advance. I tell her the point is not what time I called, but had I been able to get someone to pick up the call, I would have known not to waste me time to come, but since I am down, WON"T YOU PLEASE LET ME HAVE A TABLE!!!"
She asks me to wait a while. I thought she was going to check with her manager. No... she fiddled about the computer, came back to me 30 sec later and said "Let me show you to your table".
SO, YOU COULD MAKE THE DECISION TO LET ME IN OR NOT AND YOU TRIED TO SEE IF I WOULD JUST TURN AWAY WITH YOUR QUOTA EXPLANATION!!!!
Do I need to go through the assessment for this one?
Organisations are starting to "empower" their front line staff with decisions they can make on their own. I just wish someone would "embrain" them or tell them they do not need to go through every stage of the manual which probably reads "First, explain to the customer nicely that he needs a reservation. If the customer still insists, offer to take a reservation for another day. After that....." It's like she was going through the steps in her head and repeating it to me like in a role play. GOOD GRIEF!!!
Couldn't she have said at the beginning "We normally ask our customers to book 2 days in advance because unfortunately we have a quota on vouchers used per night. We have reached that quota today, but since you have come all the day here, and you did say you are celebrating your birthday and anniversay, I simply MUST find a table somewhere for you."
Wow, that would have been so special! For her, the restaurant and the hotel, it was the same ending - I got the table... but what a special memorable moment that would have been and I would, instead of writing this blog, sending out a complaint letter tomorrow and telling every person i am in contact with for the next 10 days how horrible this hotel's service is, I would be doing all that, but raving about the experience.
So, CEOs, managers, HR people, please train right.
It's really not the employees, it is the standard YOU set.
Till next time
Happy defining your reality!
june
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