So I am on my way home from work Wednesday evening and my wife has notified me “I’m on my own” as far as dinner goes.
Knowing I need to get some gift certificates for a friend’s Christmas present, I figured it would be time-effective to sit at the bar of my friend’s favorite restaurant, woof down some chow and be in and out in less than 30 minutes with gift certificates in hand.
When I sit down at the bar I see a young lady coming my way and as I attempt to make eye contact with her to tell her I know what I want to order, she looks down and away. So I’m thinking “the bar is obviously not her territory” and I wait for my server.
Here comes another young lady and once again just as I’m trying to make eye contact with her she looks back into the kitchen and tells the chef he messed up her order.
Then 5 seconds later a server who was waiting on her food from the kitchen turned and looked…right through me.
Then I see the manager coming with, I am assuming, a new trainee and as he is talking to the new trainee they walk right by me…once again looking right through me.
The cycle I just described didn’t happen once or twice but three times and after 7 minutes of this nonsense I got up and left. I also did not buy any gift certificates.
So now I am hungry and angry (50% of the way to a place alcoholic and addicts need to stay away from), the other two are lonely and tired. HALT=Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. (I will save this acronym topic for another blog.)
As I’m pulling out of the parking lot of the restaurant that could have cared less whether or not I was alive or not, I see the sign for another chain restaurant establishment known for their unbelievable customer service (at this particular location.)
So I stopped, ate, had a wonderful customer experience and was in and out in 17 minutes. BTW…the manager was walking around with a set of reindeer antlers on his head and greeted me as soon as I walked through the door, he also asked me twice how I was doing during my meal and said “Merry Christmas” to me as I walked out the door and the restaurant was jam packed.
Back in my days of running a business the team and I lived, breathed and slept customer service. I would stress over and over the importance of not only shipping the right product to the right place at the right time with the right price, but to do all of the “rights” with the right attitude. “After all,” I would stress, “anyone can get the right product to the right place at the right time at the right price, but it takes a special organization to do all the rights with the right attitude.” Did we get all the rights-right all the time? Absolutely not. Did we try our best? Yes. But even when we failed on the other rights, our attitude would help soften the impact we would feel from customer backlash.
I am not a Harvard MBA grad nor am I the brightest businessman in the world but I know enough to tell you customer service with the right attitude is and will always be the difference maker when it comes to any business that involves human beings. Human beings like to be treated right.
It is also important to note customer service and the right attitude starts at the top of any organization and if you are at the top of your organization or department within your organization you need to look in the mirror at least once a day and ask yourself whether or not you have an attitude that can turn a craving for a Grilled Chicken Salad into a craving for Chilli-Cheese Coneys.
That is what my good friend and all of his teammates at Skyline Chilli did for me tonight all because of their right attitudes.
P.S. In the business world the customer’s perception of reality IS reality.
P.E.A.C.E.
jay@EagleLaunch
