The Good Customer Service Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, this topic doesn’t seem to have been discussed for quite a while, so considering that there are at least three current piss-and-moan threads about bad customer service (and bad customers), it might do our hearts good to spend some time thinking about the good service we’ve received.

I’ll go first, with the dinner Mr. S and I had today. We’d been running a bunch of errands, and at 5 pm we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and we had an hour’s drive home. So we decided so stop at a Mexican restaurant we’d tried once before. The food was really good, as it had been the last time; the waitress took our orders promptly, brought our food promptly, and checked back twice to see how the food was; and another server refilled our chips, sauce, and drinks before we even noticed they were low. We received our bill about two minutes after we finished eating. On a check of $16, I left a $5 tip. It wasn’t outstanding service – it was just plain good, attentive service, the way it should be. And between the recent negative threads and how we seem to expect bad service (and are frequently not disappointed), this case of attentiveness just seemed to stand out. (So I guess it was outstanding!)

Another ongoing example: There’s a local diner-type place that we call “the truck stop” because it used to be one many years ago. It’s not haute cuisine by any means, but it’s an inexpensive, decent meal, and we eat there about once a week. The waitresses there work their asses off – but they are always friendly and attentive, no matter how bombed they are. We always sit at the counter just so we can watch the interaction between the waitresses, cooks, and bussers. The owner is as likely to pour you a cup of fresh coffee as your waitress, the busser, or even another waitress. They all work together to serve the customer, always genuinely cheerful, even when they’re obviously tired. It’s easy to tell that everyone gets along and it’s a fun place to work. We always leave at least 25%. A few Christmases ago, we’d had a really bad day and were slumped in a booth, eating our truck stop meal with what energy we had left. Our waitress’s usual good humor perked me up, and I realized that we often went there just to “be taken care of” when we were down. A friendly, familiar face and food set in front of you, just like Mom used to do (metaphorically speaking). On impulse, I left a $20 bill clearly marked for each of our regular waitresses: “Thank you, [Name].” We heard about how surprised (and thankful) they were the next time we came in.

Now it’s your turn – sing the praises of a service person (or customer, for CS people) who makes or has made your day!

2

Oh, but there are so many of them. I remember going to Home Depot to look for some special lining that I needed to fix my door. I had three sales people helping me out for about half an hour. I think that the moral of the story is to shop early in the morning, less cusotmers around then.

3

OfficeMax, a few weeks ago. I went find a fax machine, because I’d seen just the model I wanted, on sale, the night before.

Of course, I got there, and they were out of stock, and the sale was over.

Which didn’t bother Jeremy at all. He searched the store for them. He called another store. They were out too. He called a distribution center. They had them. He asked if it was okay if they delivered it the next day, no delivery charge, and at the sale price.

I went straight to the manager’s office, to let him know that he’d just gotten a loyal customer, thanks to that one employee.

To all of you in the customer service area, what you do makes a difference in people’s lives. They may not always show their gratitude, but it really matters. Thanks.

4

Weird to see people singing the praises of some customer service people ([sub]being in customer service myself and working my ass off to help others you all make me feel a little bit better about it[/sub])

The last time I had good customer service was when I went to Applebee’s. I have never had a bad time there. The servers are unbelievable the food is perfect and they are always checking up on me to see how everything is.

But the best customer service I have ever had was at a small restaraunt in Cincinnati. I can remember being waited on by the same wonderful waitress everytime my family ate there for a good 15 years. She always remembered who we were and was such a kind lady. It sucked when I went back one time and she had retired. Oh well I guess (although she did have loyal customers considering they all donated enough for her to take a nice vacation to Florida).

5

I am an absolute freak about customer service, having worked in a customer service type position basically my entire working career. I had a very good experience with a Verizon customer service rep day before yesterday. I had charges on my bill that weren’t mine. She helped me refuse the charges. Then she asked if she could do anything else and I told her I wanted to cancel my second line (this was a complete afterthought) and explained why (never got the jack installed and decided I don’t need it anyway). She then suggested that I get DSL, gave me the info on that and offered to transfer me to the right dept. to order it. I told her she had done excellent work for me and asked how I could put in a good word for her. She was very flustered and grateful and finally transferred me to her supervisor’s voicemail so I could leave a message, which I did. I told the supervisor what a good job “Donna” had done both as customer service rep and in cross-selling. I hope she gets a promotion.

6

TroubleAgain’s story reminds me of another story, this one involving (GASP) a Microsoft tech. I can handle most of my own troubleshooting, but Windows was refusing to complete Setup on a reinstall, so finally I gave up and called the MS pay-per-incident line – $35 to fix one problem. I was on the phone with Kevin for 3½ hours. He quickly ascertained that I was smarter than the average bear and gave me instructions accordingly. (I’ve met techs who insist on spelling out “autoexec.bat” to me – “A-U-T-O . . .” even though I’ve made it abundantly clear that I’m familiar with handling system files.) We talked out other things while we waited for HAL here to do his thing. He explained why we were doing what we were doing (and it made sense), and other things that I might try later. At the end of the call, we’d determined that HAL was probably fried and that I’d probably have to reformat. But even though the call was unsuccessful, I told Kevin that I’d learned a lot from talking with him, and I felt like we’d been working together, instead of the mighty tech instructing the lowly moron. He insisted on refunding my $35, because he hadn’t solved my problem, even though I said I’d be glad to pay it. I sent an e-mail to what I was told was his supervisor, but never got a response. I hope he got some kudos from his boss for that one!

7

Oh, you guys’ll love this one: The IRS!

For the first time ever, I owed some money - not much. And then I lost the invoice they sent me. The bill was due this past week, and here I am frantically - and stupidly - looking all over for it. On top of that, I can’t pay it in one shot - I need to pay half now, half with the next pay. So I finally call. The lady says - direct quote, now - “Pay what you can now, and the rest when you can.”

:eek:

WOW! So I said I’d write them a check for half of it as soon as I got off the phone and then send the rest in a week. She was way helpful. Told me to make sure I had my SSN on the check.

I figure it’s great service because I always looked at the IRS as this mean, evil entity, and if you didn’t have your $ to them that very moment, they’d send those guys out to your house like the tax collectors from Haggar the Horrible. I had no idea they’d be… nice!