Crappy Customer Service is Never Forgotten

Customer service and client satisfaction are crucial for all businesses. And it’s vital to ask for feedback, but what if we don’t hear it?

A few years ago, a friend and I made a visit to (from their website) ‘ a prestigious Dining Room‘ in Manchester.

Imagine…dickie bows, blacks and whites, aprons, silver service, 1940’s backdrop and table decor, cups you couldn’t pick up with the extended pinkie, and of course saucers.

Imagine hearing, ‘certainly madam, as you wish‘ and the click of fine bone china and silver t-pots reflecting people eating cake.

Plenty of cake. Lovely.

Told that a table would be half an hour (buying psychology: ‘oh, it’s popular, busy, that means it must be really good‘), we were ‘placed’ and gently tucked into our seats an hour later.

Slighty peeved, we ordered.

Half an hour later the coffee arrived, one hour later our sandwiches (you know bread and a filling) and two hours for the creamy buns!

Total: 3 hours

On paying, I was asked ‘how was everything today for you madam’?

Me: ‘I think the service is appauling. I have no idea…(insert feedback and rant)…so no, it wasn’t a lovely experience.’

Their reply, ‘We don’t have enough staff today, it’s not usually as busy’.

Me: ‘Why ask for feedback if you don’t want to hear it?’.

Silence.

Lessons Learned

If you’re asking for people to comment, reply, get in touch, connect, leave their thoughts on your website or give you feedback:

• Be prepared to hear what their experience was really like.
• You opened the channels, you don’t have to agree but don’t leave anyone in silence, reply.

Be sure to deliver what you claim:

• If you offer the ‘finest dining experience in the North’, you need to back it up with a ‘fine’ experience.
• If you offer a ‘course that will get you all the results you want’, you better deliver.
• If you offer a ‘free consultation for 30 minutes’ and your eye is not helping but focusing on the sale, you aren’t delivering what you offered.

Pure Eye Candy — People Are Smarter Than That

On the outside that dining room promised so much: decor, dress style, environment.

But the nuts and blots didn’t match, the systems weren’t in place to carry it through.

To do: identify where clients are first meeting you. Their first experience. Through their eyes — is what they seeing, reading, feeling, hearing a true reflection of you?

And lastly, crappy service sticks. That experience was 5 years ago! I’m still talking about it.

Your Turn: Have you ever experienced a service that made you change an aspect of your business? What has been the worst service you ever received? Please feel free to share in the comments below.