I work at a small local resturant. Buisness has been poor so the owners have been stressing “fantastic customer service.” We have had a few training seminars and now the promised raid of secret shoppers is to begin.
My question is: How important is customer service REALLY?
Perhaps it is my age, but I prefer my service to be invisable. I don’t go out to eat because I want a stranger to be phony to me. Assuming the service is there, and the stranger(s) I deal with during my visit don’t royally screw anything up, i’m mighty happy.
Let me give an example.
Do you hate seafood? Yes? When was the last time you went to Red-Lobster? Why not - they have fantastic customer service?
Do you have a cell-phone? Yes? Ever had a problem and had to call customer service? Did you find their customer service satisfactory? If not, why do you still have a cell phone?
(I’ll clarify this one, in my personal experience cell phone customer service has made me want to go to India personally and hunt down the phone-farms and scream my face red asking how those people can be so inhumane… but i digress, i still have a cell phone)
Why is this a stressed point in almost every service job i’ve ever worked? No one notices “good” service, only terrible mishaps. The only way to give a customer “fantastic” customer service is to go so inhumanly out of your way to make someone happy (that is, service they walk away from and go "hey, that was better than normal) …and I don’t think any owner could afford the amount of staff that would require.
My anser to this question is the concept of customer service is a little behind the times. The pioneers are no longer stressing customer service that pleases the customer, but the absolute bare minimum of service that keeps the law off their back (eg. Cell Phone companies). While this doesn’t exactly make ME happy, I think it is the only way to stay competitive in the market. I don’t see McDonalds going out of their way to please me, they just give me the crappy burger I expected when I walked in.
How important is it? How much are you charging for your services? The more money being exchanged, the more damage poor customer service can do to your business. Nordstrom charges a lot more for clothes than Old Navy, and their customer service is a lot better. (That’s not to say Old Navy has crappy customer service, just that service isn’t their selling point.) It has to be – it’s part of what a Nordstrom customer is paying for.
In your example, no, McDonald’s doesn’t need to provide customer service that competes with the French Laundry. A reasonably trouble-free transaction is fine. However, I have stopped patronizing even inexpensive restaurants or other retail operations that provide crappy customer service. There are too many other inexpensive options out there to put up with actively crappy service.
I’d also guess that your restaurant’s efforts aren’t going to be successful unless that focus on customer service is really backed up at every level of the restaurant. And if they don’t have the resources to do that, and if they’re not willing to wait a long time for word to spread, and if they don’t really give their servers enough latitude and independence to offer really good customer service, it’s not going to work out for them. (My brother works at a restaurant where “customer service” includes frequent upselling. This is not what I consider actual customer service.)
Sorry, you’ll get no pity party here - and this is not a personal attack - just stating some food service facts.
Customer Service IS important, especially on the food service business. It need not be overbearing or “phony” as you describe it (Maybe it’s only phony due to your lack of interest).
As for your comparisons:
Red Lobster - Normally as good example of bad service combined with bad food.
Cell Phone Companies - People complain but generally put up with their poor customer service for the duration of their contract. Plus how many cell phone service providers are there as compared to restaurants. I can easily go down the street to another restaurant. You can offer the best food in town, but if the service is crap you’ll be out of business.
If all of the staff has the same attitude as you, I feel sorry for the owners
While I agree that bad customer service is more noticable (and likely to affect my spending habits) than good, there are indeed places my wife and I go to just because of the service. Not only that, but they tend to get recommendations to friends also. I suppose the thing is that this really only kicks in when most everything else is equal; you’re right - for a restaurant, the quality of food and price is more important to me. On the other hand, I cancelled our cable and cable internet to get satellite and DSL just because of the cable company’s crappy customer service.
So, I guess my $0.02 is that it does make a difference…sometimes.
Why does it require more staff to give excellent service? I have never worked in a restaraunt, so I am speaking entirely from the customer perspective, but the key to above average service is anticipation. Getting the salads when the appetizer is done, making sure my drink isn’t empty (not the same as keeping it full) and such. And it doesn’t sound like you’re willing to put in the extra effort to do that.
My wife and I waited out a cell phone contract and changed companies because of bad customer service. The “incident” happened shortly after we signed on, and it was prohibitively expensive to get out of it. But we showed them in the end…
[QUOTE=Interrobang!?]
Good customer service certainly can’t hurt.
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Agreed.
However, the rest of your post went on to talk about bad customer service.
Obviosly no one wants BAD service. However, I would be willing to bet the majority of people aren’t concerned with service assuming they get what they want.
Again, I think this MIGHT boil down to my age. I’m 22. My area lacks a Nordstroms, but my expierence with high end clothing is not what you describe. Abercombie and Fitch has little to no customer service concerns (this experience is from shopping / friends who work there). Perhaps as I age I will expect more pampering, but I doubt it.
I gues the crux of my argument is good customer service is the absence of bad customer service. The customer goes in, gets exactly what they want with as little interuption from a stranger as possible. Anything more than this is a waste of everyone’s time and money.
…or perhaps I simply shouldn’t be in the customer service industry.
It’s a factor. Poor customer service has driven me from one place of business to another.
Obviously good customer service only applies to potential customers. Red Lobster isn’t going to get the seafood haters business no matter how great their wait staff performs. On the other hand poor service might prompt their customers to go to another seafood place instead.
Because the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks.
I notice good service and I’m more likely to become a repeat customer if the service is good.
I think that customer service probably varies in importance depending on what kind of business we’re talking about. It might not matter as much in McDonald’s as it does in other businesses. A local game store has lost my business because they’re indifferent to special ordering games for me and they’re store is so cluttered and disorganized it’s hard to get around or find anything. So I go to another store that isn’t cluttered and is willing to order what I want.
Customer service is very important. I’ve been a customer at different places, and I’ve been on the other side of the fence. You should be polite and professional. On the other hand, the customer is not always right. Some take it as a license to be rude, abusive, manipulative, and to try to get a “special” deal just because they are a customer. All you owe your customer is courtesy, and a fair price - many customers ignore that. It’s funny, but the biggest pain in the ass is always the cheapskate who is either not going to buy anyway, or is trying to screw someone out of something and get a “deal”. Heck, I know someone from work who torments and grills people for the most tiny purchases, and after buying, will still try to get give- backs of some sort or the other. If it was me waiting on him, I’d “retain the right to refuse service” to him. More places need bouncers, not just bars
It depends on the industry. I have a cell phone, and I’ve never had to deal with the customer service besides actually getting the phone and contract, b/c I’ve never had a problem with it. I have a cell phone because I’m never home and it’s a better deal for me b/c I make a lot of long distance calls, not because I expect warm, personalized service. Plus, they have so many customers that the loss of a few isn’t a big deal. There are a finite amount of cell phone carriers, and if you want a cell phone, you may have to just deal with bad service sometimes.
Alternatively, yesterday I went wedding dress shopping. I got a lot of personalized service, the friendly saleswoman spent a lot of time running around finding dresses that she thought would be flattering. And she was good at it - my favorite dress was one I would not have picked out on my own off the rack. Even if I don’t get that dress, I will still purchase my dress, bridesmaids dresses, and tuxes from that store, and work with that woman, who probably works on commission. However, had the salespeople been rude or inattentive (I’ve heard some horror stories), I would have tried on dresses and written down designer and style numbers. Then I would have bought the dress elsehwere. Yes, I have to buy the dress, but I can do it at a different store or even online. If they had been lacking in customer service, they could have lost the sale of one bridal gown ($800, plus veil), six bridesmaids dresses (about $150 each), and 8 tux rentals (about $100 each). That’s a lot of money to lose just because you have poor customer service.
Basically, if a company has a lot of competition, they need good customer service as well as a good product. Why should I go out to get a steak at the place that has great food but lousy service when I can go to a place that has both?
I expected no personal pity party. Lets leave my service out of this?
If you go to a shop/grocery store/resturant and leave without thinking “what rotten service” will you NOT go back there?
The only time one notices customer service is when they receive BAD service.
Avoid BAD customer service and you are fine. I think training should focus more on not making mistakes and doing your job efficiently and correctly. Customers appreciate that more than “HI” every time they walk in the door (Blockbuster).
Another post mentioned anticipation of the customers needs. Agreed, that is fantastic. However, I like my service to be invisible. If you are a waiter and you interupt my conversation once I will not be happy. Some people like a chatty waiter, I shy away and am annoyed. I don’t see how any human being can anticipate every customers needs, therefor I say don’t anticipate.
If one is doing his job corectly the customer will tell him what he needs. Listen and do it, but don’t make a big deal out of it.
er, and about the Red Lobster. I hate seafood, therefor I don’t eat there. However, I know the company stresses customer service and has high standards. Their training period is several weeks long (from hiring to the first day a server is by himself). The training period includes several difficult tests about the menu (with no second chances) and very detailed procedure with dealing with a customer from the moment he walks in the door to how many biscuts should be in each basket. I think Red Lobster is a fantastic example of a company’s emphasis on customer service gone wrong. From your candor it is obvious to me their efforts have made no difference in public perception.
You don’t have a point here, and maybe you shouldn’t be in customer service, or at least a restaurant. Not wanting to interrupt a conversation is, in general, good - but not for you. You don’t need to come up every two minutes, but I do expect you to ask if I want a drink, ask if I’m ready to order, take my plate away when I’ve lit my after dinner cigarette, ask if I want dessert or coffee, and bring me my check - whether I’m talking or not. Oh, and three to four minutes after I start eating, ask me if everything’s OK. You don’t need to be chatty - I hate a chatty waiter. You do need to be attentive from afar, and yes, sorry, you need to anticipate.
Nothing you listed seems to be anticipation, just doing one’s job.
Now, if I brought you out a plate of [insert ethnic food here] because you are [see previos ethnicity] THAT would be anticipation! However, I dare say the majority of [that ethnicity again!] wouldn’t appreciate that. Just as I don’t appreciate service that is obviously doing what their customer service manual tells them to do.
That table just sat down, so I’ll get their drink order, then I’ll swing by the ones that just lit their cigarettes to take their plates and see if they want coffee, on the way back to the kitchen with the plates I’ll make sure the folks with the kids that just got their food are OK, then I’ll take the drinks to that table because when you first sit down you want your drink and the people smoking are sitting there patiently smoking, and then I’ll grab the salad for this other table at the same time I get the coffee…
See what I mean? Maybe we’re just talking past each other.
Your quoting was fine. Were you trying to do italics or bold or something? Put an i and /i or b and /b inside brackets - like this only with brackets instead of parentheses: (i)italics(/i) and (b)bold(/b).
If in the restaurant business you were only judged on your standards, then I would say you are correct. However, this is a business where you are also compared to the service received at other establishments as well as their culinary offerings.
As for the anticipation, that doesn’t include matching a menu selection with someones possible ethnicity. However it does include anticipating when my next course should be served, when my drink shoud be refilled and when plates should be taken away. I also prefer you checking to make sure everything is in order on occasion. In general, if I have to come looking for you - I’m not getting good service. None of this requires you to be overly chatty, but leaving the customer with the impression that you care about their dining experience is a good thing and is generally directly proportional to the % used to calculate your tip.
I think the problem is i’m trying to outline a new definition of customer service and therefor being a little stubborn.
Let me vent my frustration than. I have worked at my particular resturant for over 3 years and have a lot of direct contact with the owner. He thinks the problem is customer service and yet has no contact with the customers. Every day I listen to the customers tell me what they don’t like, I relay that information to him, and he dismisses it.
Ultimately customer service is listening to your customers and reacting. That extends to every level of a company, from the first employee a customer sees to the one share investor. My store and my employees bust their asses every night but our customers are declining because the owner keeps making terrible decisions. You can blame me all you like, my boss does, and I’m used to to it.
Now back on topic.
As an owner of a buisness I think it is foolish to focus a great deal of energy into customer service. A terrible server (that is the resturant term for a “waiter”) fails in his own right, and will not stay with the resturant. Thank you Darwin. Now onto the minimum wage $6.50 employee that you have to deal with at your grocery store, McDonalds, and many other buisnesses that would like to have “fantastic” customer service. What is better spent money, improving tangible aspects of your buisness (the product, the building, etc.) or this moving target you call “fantastic” customer service? Ideally you have both, but we all know what kind of world we live in. I think if you can train an employee to do his job correctly, you have done more than enough. I ask for compitence, not an ass kissing.
If there’s other options, yeah, absolutely. I can think of many examples of places that have lost my business as a result of poor service.
That is simply not true. I can think of several businesses I patronize in large part due to the exceptionally good customer service. I remember good customer service.
Our favourite restaurant is a sushi place with exceptionally good customer service. I’ve never been to a sushi restaurant with BAD customer service, but this place is great. And we keep going back.
One place I got terrific customer service recently - strangely enough - was the passport office. Absolutely first rate.
I honestly have never met a person in my entire life who liked chatty waiters. A friendly word or two, but no good waiter interrupts your meal for a chat. Go into a REAL restaurant and the waiters are exactly what you describe as being your ideal type of service. Check up, anticipate, stay quiet. If there’s a Morton’s of Chicago near where you are, check it out (if you like steak and have some money to burn.) My experiences there have been of outstanding - and largely invisible - customer service.
Several have outlined what they consider to be the standards for customer service, yet your only response is that you are trying ot outline a new definition for said service. Maybe we don’t want a new one we just want to go away feeling like someone cared about our dining experience.
If the food is passable, I’ll rely on my satisfaction level regarding the service. As for the atmosphere, I’ll eat in a tent if the food & service are good.
