The disgruntled customer

We were in the doctor's office today and overheard an elderly woman complaining about a new deli that she had recently gone to.  She was predicting that it would "go down the tubes" and soon.  She was telling this to anyone and everyone who would listen.  The reason.....the potato salad.  Apparently she purchased some potato salad and according to this woman, the potatoes were raw.  When she brought this to the attention of the staff at the deli, they were unimpressed and did nothing.  Her response during her story-telling was...."and that's bad business."

Whether the potatoes were raw or not is really not the question here.  The point is that the customer thought they were raw and perceived that the business made no attempt to correct her problem.  There was apparently no offer to replace it with different potato salad or anything else that was comparable.  This is a critical error on the part of the deli because this woman is telling and retelling her story of dissatisfaction everywhere.  I can assure you, if she had actually mentioned the name of the deli that we would be less likely to try it out.  All of this negative press can destroy a business as quickly as positive word-of-mouth can build a business.

It is essential for a business to not only empower, but expect, all associates to make customers happy.  This includes replacing products that are not satisfactory or offering some sort of compensation for their dissatisfaction.  Failing to do this, businesses will suffer from "bad press" such as the type offered by this woman in a crowded waiting room.

Case of the public employee

It is well-known that the Northeast is being inundated with snow this winter.  One day, when recycling was scheduled, we had an overnight snow storm.  The snow was over, the roads were clear, and our recycling was at the curb by 9 am.  There had been a phone call from the town telling us of the snow removal efforts but no mention was made of canceling the recycling pick up.  At 3:30, all the paper on our block was still left on the curb.

A phone call to the recycling office found out that recycling had indeed been canceled and the recycling center was closed for the day.  Being annoyed that we had not been told, we called the DPW Superintendent.  The reason that we were given for not picking up the recycling was, "We had other things to do."  His basic message of "too bad" was delivered gruffly and abruptly.  There was no attempt to solve the problem or even show empathy.  The next phone call we made was to his boss who promised that the DPW Superintendent would be "dealt with."  From the tone of the conversation, we guessed that wouldn't be a good conversation for the Superintendent.

What would have made this better?

1) Admitting mistakes.  The Superintendent should've admitted the oversight in not letting us know that recycling was canceled when the snow removal phone call was made.  It was an error that the boro manager's admitted to and apologized for.

2) Show empathy.  The Superintendent should've listened and empathized.  Certainly saying that he had "better things to do" was not showing any concern for the inconvenience.  In fact, it showed that he could care less what the results of his decisions were.

3) Attempt a solution.  The fact of the matter is that a recycling truck passed the house less than 5 minutes before the phone call to the Superintendent.  Obviously, the department was on the road and it would have been no trouble to have them stop and pick up one can of paper to be recycled.

The case of the missing check in

A recent trip to a time-share resort provided an example of poor customer service.  It was a case of neglect and lack of awareness.  The resort is in a small town and this is off-season.  Our arrival was on the eve of a holiday and so we called at 5:30 pm knowing that we would be late and wanting to make arrangements with them to pick up our key and get directions on how to complete our check-in.  Despite having posted hours of  9 am to 11 pm and a check-in time of 4 pm, there was no answer on the phone.  In addition, there was no mention of closing early for the holidays on their phone message.  Concerned about being able to get in after a 5 hour drive, we called a couple of more times, each time leaving a phone number where we can be reached.

Once we arrived, we did find the front desk closed, but a note on the door directed us where to find a key.  The cottage turned out to be lovely and the stay relaxing.  After two days in our cottage, we got a phone call in the middle of our lunch asking one of us to come to the front desk to check in.  When we got to the front desk, there was no mention of closing early or the phone messages that we left as we were driving to the resort.  In fact, the young woman at the front desk asked for a cell phone number that she could use to contact us, despite us leaving it in the phone message previously.  It showed that she either didn't listen to the phone messages or she didn't care.  In neither case did she acknowledge the issue.

Although this is not a major problem, it shows how a lackadaisical approach to customer service can affect customers.  This lack of attention to detail will affect how we will choose which of the resorts in the area to use next time.  It will also cause us to mention it to friends and family and it will cause them to think twice when making a choice of places to stay.  While it wasn't horrible, perhaps there are better places that value their customers more.  If we find one, then this resort has lost a customer that could have easily been kept from seeking out other accomodations.

How could this have been better?

1) Attach a paging system to your voice mail.  This will alert the manager that there is a phone message so they could have called us back right away and told us they were closed and let us know where to find a key.  That would have made our trip less stressful and made us feel more valued.  It also would have taken the manager less than a minute to deal with.  If a paging system wasn't available, forward the phone to a business cell phone that the manager could carry.

2) Once the damage was done, the front desk clerk should have acknowledged the difficulties relating to the check in.  She should have apologized at the very least and done something to make it better.  Instead of making us walk across the parking lot to have her ask us 5 questions including the license plate on the car sitting outside her window, she could have made a phone call to ask the questions and obtained signatures by walking over to the cottage herself.  Instead she was found playing on the internet when we walked in.

There is no need for financial compensation here because there was no cost to the customer, however, good customer service would have required an apology at the very least.