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A customer experience can have a shelf life of forever so make it good
Just as a great experience can boost business, a horrid customer experience can hurt the bottom line. What message would you send in the latter situation?
July 7, 2015 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
The other night, while enjoying a meal with some friends, I was asked to explain what my new job was and the site I was editing and writing for. So I began explaining the name, Retail Customer Experience, is exactly what the site is all about and what I write about and what our readers care about.
For one friend, the customer experience ‘focus’ seemed to a bit of a challenge to understand, and so I tried explaining how we cover new products, services, solutions and offer tips, advice and insight from the experts and from retailers on how to enhance and improve the customer experience.
Then I realized maybe the best way was to provide an example or two; one immediately came to mind because it was my own retail customer experience, and it’s one I’m not likely ever going to forget.
Why? Well first off it happened in a restaurant, which is a prime retail business base and the eatery is one in a summer resort setting, so the expectation of good service was high and justly so. Any retailer that depends on a seasonal-sales period knows the happy satisfied shopper will likely visit if they are in the locale in the future, and they’ll like share an opinion about the store or restaurant when they learn a friend or family member is visiting that seasonal location. And of course, we’re all so social that we boast about great food and meals everywhere from shooting a pic of an enticing appetizer on Pinterest to sharing on Twitter and Facebook.
A good friend and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner during the week at a beach restaurant, where we typically would not eat given the prices, but we figured we deserved it to celebrate summer arriving. We were literally the only ones in the dining room, and there was just one waitress and so we ventured in, sat down and then waited, and waited for the waitress to stop by, grab our drink orders and drop off menus.
Nearly 15 minutes we waited until she swung by her one and only table. And she dropped off menus but took off without our drink orders. Now both I and my friend have lots of friends who own restaurants and kids who have worked in restaurants, and we realize lots of things go on that’s not privy to diners. So we waited another 10 to 15 minutes and she returned for our orders. We asked to get a drink and that initiated the first "eye roll" of the evening, which prompted my friend and I to wonder what the heck was happening. We then asked for the specials and got a huge exasperated sigh and annoyed look in response.
Now, my friend and I were more than just wondering what the deal was with this waitress. We were getting a bit peeved at being treated this way. Our drinks took another 10 minutes, despite that the bar had three patrons. Our meal eventually arrived a half hour later. At no time during the dining experience did our waitress’ attitude change. We asked if the manager was in, and he wasn’t and as we know him we were tempted to leave him a note.
For the first time in my life, which has been full of restaurant meals, I did not leave a tip. Part of me felt very bad, but a bigger part felt very exasperated and a bit angry over our treatment and the level of service. The food was good, the drinks were made well, but since the service was terrible I could not bring myself to "reward" the server.
Weeks later I ran into a relative of the manager and shared my story and he was shocked, knowing that the manager is very good at his job, but apparently this waitress’ behavior revealed he may have made a poor hire or wasn’t managing well if he left her in charge given her attitude.
The relative shared his own recent bad dining experience. He had dealt with a very similar service issue and said his "message" to the waitress was left in the form of a 25 cents tip on a $100-plus tab.
We discussed both approaches a bit, wondering if either made the impact to help the servers realize their service level was exceptionally poor.
We both realized that neither would likely make an impact. It was only through conveying the experience to the manager or owner that something may likely change.
What will never change is the fact that neither I, my dining companion nor the person who had the similar experience will ever again patronize either establishment.
Why? Well there are plenty of great places to eat. There is no excuse to place oneself in a situation to be so poorly served a second time. It’s also likely we aren’t alone in our experience and likely someone has complained about those servers, and as they’re still employed it’s obvious the management doesn’t care if they lose a potential longtime patron or if they lose a loyal customer.
The lesson learned, for any retailer, is that every customer interaction is crucial for today’s bottom line and the future bottom line.
A negative retail interaction has just as long, and maybe even longer, shelf live than a terrific, rewarding experience.
About Judy Mottl
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