Have A Good Policy for Customer Service

Customer Service is the cornerstone of any operation and it is vital that you have a program and procedures in place. It should also be clearly communicated to your employees how you want that experience to be delivered to your customers.  I’ve had the experience of two screw-ups from two different companies the past couple of days and it has been interesting how the situation was handled by each business.

On Sat night my husband and I enjoyed dinner with my brother and his family at The Cannery in Newport Beach, CA., and after we finished dinner, we went to retrieve our vehicles from the valet. Everyone ahead of us, and actually everyone behind us got their car before us and although the attendant repeatedly told us our car was coming, clearly something was amiss. Finally they located the car and I was fairly annoyed and in private told my husband I didn’t really think a tip was appropriate given the bad service. However, he was much more forgiving and when the car arrived, gave the attendant a tip. Much to my surprise, the attendant apologized for the inconvenience and refused the tip, saying he couldn’t accept it under the circumstances.

The second incident involved a food delivery today for a salad from my local cafe about 10 minutes away. When my salad arrived, I discovered the salad dressing was missing. The delivery guy said he would go back and get some and return shortly. Fifty minutes later he returned and I gave him a tip, inspired by my husband’s generosity from the day before. The attendant took it and begrudgingly said thanks. Now I may be wrong, but he acted as though I should have given him more based on his willingness to go get the dressing.

Two companies. One company had either hired or trained employees that knew how to give stellar customer service, the other company had employees to clearly failed to understand the significance of delivering a partial order and then making the customer wait an additional 50 minutes before they could enjoy their meal.

What kind of company do you want to be?

xo, jan