Your employees represent YOU
My fiance Suzanne and I went to a movie last week and wanted to purchase the tickets before grabbing a quick dinner prior to the show. It was a boutique theater that plays "artsy" films which we love (the film we saw is Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary on the New York City public school 5th grade program of ballroom dancing competition, and we both LOVED it).
It was an hour prior to the show and I asked for two tickets. The young man at the cash register informed me that they were going through a "shift change" and I would have to wait a few minutes. I was concerned about fitting in our quick dinner (Mexican – tacos, cheese enchiladas and a margarita) so we decided we’d head to the restaurant right away and get the tickets later. As we walked out the door of the theater, Suzanne and I discussed our situation. Since we hadn’t yet purchased the tickets ($17) we had the option of having a leisurely dinner and not see the movie. Good plan, we decided. It’s a date on Friday night and we don’t want to feel anxious or rushed.
Then the entrepreneur in me started to consider what just happened. We walked up to a small business with cash in our hands and said, "Please take our money." And the small business said, "Go away." I began to blame the young man that I had spoken to, but then settled on the opinion that it is the theater owner him/herself who has set the stage for that to have occurred. We did finish our dinner and get to the movie in time, although we had to wait in line 10 minutes for our tickets at that point.
Now I’m thinking about the ways that I act like that theater owner. Nick Swinmurn of Zappos.com says that the key move to his business success is focusing on service. This movie theater experience can help me be a more successful entrepreneur if I decide to learn from it.
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:25 pm
I agree with you. I actually had a similiar situation occur at the movies last week. I requested two tickets (one for my son and one for me) and the only response from the ticket lady was "18". I wasn’t focused so immediately my response was no we are older then 18. She next stated "18 dollars!" Needless to say communication skills are a key attribute when selecting your superstars. My son and I had a good laugh though.
June 23rd, 2005 at 2:00 pm
On a similar note: I’ve noticed a lack of accepting responsibility at many businesses these days (in my experience, it has mostly applied to the service industry).
For example, I recently visited a restaurant where my order was delivered slightly incorrect. Not "big time" wrong…just a couple of things were off. When I mentionned the minor issues, the server immediately gave me excuse after excuse…even mentionning that "I should have ordered it that way" (which I had).
I wasn’t placing blame on anyone in the beginning, I just wanted the order corrected. Needless to say, their tip went down a few percentage points for that response.
Instead of addressing and correcting the problem, it seems the current trend is to immediately make excuses. I will give credit to small businesses and entrepreneurs though, I see this far more often at the big chains and rarely at the mom & pop shops.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:13 am
To Brian: I am a little surprised that you at all gave him a tip in the end?! Shoulda taught him a lesson on how to do his job the right way as a waiter!
Similiar experiences occur almost everywhere everyday here..It’s not a big deal for the locals becoz we have long been used to it. To our comfort, lack of proper business/service attitude is nowadays being more and more talked about on a certain level..it’s a good thing after all. And being a boss/entreprenier of misc sorts of fields, service in particular, one is really supposed to pay more attention to the business attitude towards consumers/customers, big or small!Thing is, literally, service including ur attitude is part of what you write on the price-tags of ur products! Think about it!
June 28th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
Ok…here is what I get out of the experiences shared here. No one mentioned that they actually [i]brought up [/i]their disappointment with the direct individual involved in the service nor the Management. What is scary for me is that if our customers are not ‘telling’ us about their disappointment, where are we learning it from? People don’t tell you but they sure will share it with their neighbor, friend, Mom, Sister whoever…far more damaging advertising!
July 8th, 2005 at 7:25 am
Well when I get bad experiences, I’m at the point now where I try to always ask for a manager or supervisor, and usually I get what I was looking for. When in a restaurant, if something is not right, I ask for a manager and many times I don’t have to ask for compensation, it automatically happens. But almost always when I have to call into a place, like tech support or for some customer service issues, I get people who are just there to get paid, just to fill a seat. They don’t care about accountability or about conversations you had with a previous representatives, so I would just rather talk with someone who I know can solve the problem. A couple of weeks ago I talked with 4 reps from AMEX (2 were supervisors), and 3 of them flat out said they were not going to comply with my request. They didn’t care about the conversation I had weeks earlier, they didn’t want to look in the notes, all they knew was that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted. One even said something to the effect that, he didn’t know why I was asking for a supervisor because they are going to tell me the same thing. But the last supervisor I talked with showed some understanding and realized that AMEX should be held accountable for what their reps said. You gotta push the envelope and go to the top if necessary.
July 9th, 2005 at 1:11 am
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I agree with customer service! I own my business and work full time in a Doctors office. The management thinks like this….. You clock in at 7:30 AM and work 10 hours and GET OUT! So what if there are patient’s waiting for a phone call that you could not get to earlier in the day. OVER TIME OVER TIME…. I work very hard to PLEASE my patients to keep them coming to see the wonderful doctor that I work for. But patient care gets in the way when it comes to OVER TIME. Phone calls not complete appointments not made because your giving customer care to the pt that is standing in front of you. Phone call you work on between patient care just don’t get the attention that is needed for give GREAT customer service.
My doctor is working on building her practice. I am working just as hard for her practice to grow through CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Imagine this owning a clinic, hiring just enough people to get you through the day. What about those that are still waiting for a response or the Medical Assistance’s that don’t follow through because they got to get that phone off their computer or they are looked down at because they have so many phone notes to do? What happened to helping the pt.?
Let those staff members that CARE about customer service work over time. Get rid of the slacking employee. Don’t look down on the hard working, customer service employee’s just because it SEEMS they are behind. Maybe think of their customer service to the patient, which in turn brings more money to the clinic because the patient was happy with their care and told other people.
Remember—Negative feedback you don’t hear. Positive you do. Negative feedback goes to the community.
NOW–What does the community think about YOUR business???
Does this make you feel good or do you want to change some things?
Thanks for listening.
November 7th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
I’ve always said that It’s a shame that some hard working biz owner’s success is dependant upon his/her employees - Employees that lock the door in a customer’s face because they don’t want to work one minute later. Or don’t want to be bothered by pesky customers while they’re focusing on shift change or talking on the phone. It’s always been tempting for me to alert the owner of his weak link. I’ve acted on this but usually was disappointed to find that the employee’s behavior was supported by the owner. When you think about it, staying vigilant with customer service is one of the things that sets the successful biz owners apart from the failures. So, fine, if you’re going to allow your employees treat your customers like aggravations, I say go ahead and fail.