The Other Guy Did It

This entry is my first in almost three months due to a very difficult time period experienced by my family. Now it is time to get back in gear and bring my blogging up to speed!

Customer service is crucial to survival at any time but especially in our current economy.  It plays a major factor in which businesses will thrive and which will disappear.  At the same time, anyone dealing with the public at any level, be it in person, on the phone, or electronically, is constantly under a microscope.  How you present yourself definitely impacts your current and future levels of success.

Over the past several months, I have observed various levels of customer service from commercial airlines, airport service staff, home health aides, hospice care professionals,  clergy, charitable organizations, etc.  The range I witnessed has been all over the charts.  Whether it was in NJ, North Carolina, Florida or over the phone, I saw everything from exemplary to efficient to absolutely awful.

My reaction is that the amount of experience one has on a job does not necessarily equate to the quality of service provided.  Passion for the task at hand, a genuine interest in making other people's days better, a desire to provide excellence all the time, and a hunger to be perceived in a positive manner all can make up for a lack of experience.

Recently, I experienced a lack of all of the above.  A local diner, which has been in existence for at least 50 years, was purchased a few months ago by one of the top diner families in NJ.  When I heard the news, I was excited that this establishment which had barely survived for the past many years due to mediocre food and deplorable customer service might actually come back to life!  I waited anxiously for the transition period to end before convincing my wife to give the place a try.  Last week, signs went up announcing the grand re-opening under new ownership so we stopped by for dinner.

Needless to say, our experience got off poorly when the waitress came over to greet us (with a smile) and said that she was chomping on ice since it was her first day and she was tired and kept crunching while telling us that even though new owners took over, the menu and food were pretty much unchanged.  This did not bode well.  We asked her about some of the menu items and she proclaimed that all she had tasted was the cheesecake and knew nothing about the food.  She also forgot to bring an order pad and tried to memorize our requests which came out of the kitchen wrong.  First, she asked me if that was what I ordered, then blamed the chef!  Once the order was corrected, she stopped by and asked me how I liked the 'bad boys' on my plate and told us she would be disappearing for five minutes.  When she reappeared, my wife commented about the stench of tobacco in a smoke free establishment.  She had trouble finding our check but did thank us nicely for coming in.

The manager was working the cash register.  He took our money and said thank you without asking how our meal was so I decided to engage him.  I told him the food was good but customer service was shaky at best.  He asked me if I meant the waitress had a big mouth and I said that was part of the problem.  He did not ask me what else went wrong so I did not bother to tell him. His only reply was that he did not hire her, the other guy did it.  

One of my biggest issues with customer service is that a little training goes a long way.  Had the manager wondered around instead of sitting at the counter for over an hour (place was half full at best), he would have picked up on the problem and perhaps given some on the job training.  No matter what line of business you are in, how the public perceives you will determine your future success!