During the past few weeks I have experienced some really lousy customer service. So bad in fact that I had to make the owners aware of my displeasure. I am not going to name the businesses, but in this day and age, I don’t understand how bad customer service even happens.
I received really bad customer service four different times at different businesses and I left each one shaking my head. One instance was at a restaurant, which wasn’t cheap, my meal was just warm and my wife’s salad was missing both the chicken and the dressing. The restaurant wasn’t even busy. In the second instance, a fast food restaurant, our fries were cold. When I took them back they replaced them…with more cold fries. The last two problems were grocery store pricing issues which resulted in me leaving my items at the checkout. In all four instances, the front line person was either lazy or indifferent to my concern.
As business people, it is important that front line staff are as tuned in to good customer service as the business owners and managers. Do these staff not realize that people relay bad experiences to their friends? Have they forgotten that 80% of business comes from customers they already have. Why not bend over backwards to try and keep them.
Training your front line staff is critical to the success of any business. Make sure they realize that great customer service is paramount, no matter how insignificant the prospect is.