What ever happened to customer service? I’m so tired of people who are paid to be of service being snarky and rude. The positive note is that when I do get good customer service I make sure to comment and say thanks.
Tried to go to lunch today with my dad and my kiddo. Now, I will admit that I’m already in a cross mood because the weather SUCKS and I’m getting cabin fever and all I really want to do is eat junk and watch TV. But, if you’re going to ring up my order wrong, I will call you on it every single time. This is something that drives my husband NUTS.
It was an order at the counter kind of pizza place and the guy ringing up our order wanted to be anywhere but at work. He rang up 2 lunch specials at $8.69 each ($9.20 with tax) to a total of $26.47. Ummmm… no. Something is not right with that.
Don’t Say It Like That
He says, “Well, the way you ordered it you can’t have the specials and it’s more expensive to buy the slices separately because you want one with just cheese.”
I ordered the lunch special. If you were going to ring it up differently perhaps you could have said so. Especially to the tune of an $8 difference. Now, if he had been the least bit courteous I might have said, oh, my bad, sorry, I can pull the pepperoni off of one of the slices. But he was so rude and irritated that we even questioned it. So keep your pizza. I’ll go elsewhere. Because there are 750 restaurants within a mile of this one. Or a lot anyway. And I am a good tipper even for mediocre service.
I Won’t Go Away Mad, But I’m Going Away
Yesterday, I met a friend for lunch at a different pizza joint. Also order at the counter. The people were so nice and accommodating and pleasant. I didn’t even much care for the non-pizza item that I ordered, but guess what? I’ll go back there and try something else because they were NICE.
I spent a LOT of time working in areas where I had to provide customer service. I’m not gonna lie – I was not always (ok maybe rarely) very good at it. But as I’ve gained life experience, I’ve definitely tried to improve in that area.
Be Kind
Recently I read a book by Jack Mitchell called “Hug Your Customers”. I had seen him speak years ago and thought “I need to read that book.” But I kept putting it off like the procrastinator that I can be. And I figured that I already knew that basics. But, WOW, what I learned.
I’m almost tempted to carry one around with me to hand out to people who offend my customer service sensibilities.
I’ve definitely had some worse customer experiences than the one I had today. But, it’s February in Nebraska so maybe the guy behind the counter was having a bad day as well. Though this was the second bad customer service experience I’ve had at this same place so maybe the management is askew? In either case, I will not be going back there again.
What’s Your Worst Experience?
What is your worst customer service experience? And what was your best?
My top #1 best customer service experience would be: Best Care Pet Hospital West – Dr. Siggers and staff are always outstanding, but were extra caring during one particular pet health crisis. But that is a sad story for another day.
