Okay, let’s talk about one of my Top 5 Pet Peeves. Understandably, my wife readily offers that there are actually about 100 – whatevs. The following is surely close to the top.
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We recently had two of our three sons and their girlfriends join us to celebrate our middle son’s birthday. We chose a place to eat that they liked, arrived and had about a 30-minute wait. Upon being seated, it took our waiter quite a while to slide by and take our drink order, which came off with no snags. Smiling, he then took our orders. The meals arrived fairly quickly – well, four of them did. My wife and our birthday boy did not fare as well. Our son got his about ten minutes later. My wife was served about 15 minutes later, after we had all finished our meals (note: we did offer to wait for hers to arrive before we ate). I did not want to embarrass our sons, their girls and my wife with the “chewing” that I wanted to deliver to management and the server that night. But, I did go back the next day to drive it home to the manager. The apologies came with a hefty gift card that I handed over to my son, as my wife and I will not go back there.
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Midweek, we decided to try another local Italian eatery that had several good reviews. Fast-forward to the overview: Great start by the smiling server who offered piping hot garlic bread to join our drinks. Well, we got the drinks, no bread until halfway through our meal and empty glasses with not one offer to refill. We wanted to leave immediately, but had to wait until the server finished chatting up several tables before dropping off a $100 check. I paid, tipped appropriately and then typed a letter to the owner which as of this writing, has been unanswered. Here’s my answer: No more. You will not get one more penny from me.
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At the end of the week, we tried it one more time – my wife picked the place.
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A visit to your salon may be a customer’s last bastion of hope for a better day. Make sure it IS!
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After being seated by the hostess, we watched four or five servers walk by our table. After a while, I got up, approached one and asked very sternly (but politely) who was going to serve our table. Geez Lou-weez! Got our food, had to ask several times for additional condiments (is there a country-wide ketchup shortage?) and again, waited too long on a slow night for our check.
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So, let’s go 4-for-4 on this topic. Steak night: let’s go out. After a short wait to be seated and order, our salads arrive and we dig in. Within about four minutes (no kidding), our entrees were at the table. Really? I lifted my salad plate face-high as my meal slid in under it. It was not going well. The saving grace was that the food was really good – but c’mon man! DO NOT DELIVER THE ENTREES UNTIL WE FINISH THE SALAD.
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We’re all not perfect – I know that it’s about timing and sometimes, those working in the service industry fall short of delivering a great customer experience. When you do suffer that fall-off at the salon, what is your comeback? How do you handle not only a customer’s irritation, but also provide the offending staffer with the obviously-needed training? Address both with kindness, but get to the root of the matter. Above all, listen to the complaint. Sometimes, customers embellish and sometimes, staff may not completely explain the problem. It’s YOUR business! A visit to your salon may be a customer’s last hope for a better day. Make sure it IS!
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It’s super easy (and affordable) to get your entire team up and running with better customer service through our Sun is Life® Training module on the subject. Visit sunislife.com today for more info!
