The world is in need of a customer service boot camp. There is every other type of boot camp–weight loss, bill payment, small business and more, why not one for people who are working with the public?
On a recent long weekend I encountered some of the worst customer service. I went to a TGI Fridays in Dearborn, Mich., to pick up a takeout order. When we walked up to the door the “greeters” on the other side just stood there. There is a reason for this first leg of the complaint. In Pittsburgh, when you approach the door, a Fridays staff member opens it for you and welcomes you, perhaps Detroit is different. We placed our order and then sat down and waited. Before long our order arrived. The waitress gave us our bill, which was about $36.23; we gave her a $50 bill. Let me add that we had a tip waiting for her when she brought back the change. She gaves us $13 with no coins and had the nerve to ask us if we wanted the coins after we handed her the tip. Yes we want it go get it.
While she was on a mission to get the rest of our change I requested an audience with the manager. All of the staff was young enough to be my grandkids. The manager showed up and I asked him was it customary for the wait staff not to give the entire amount of change back? He said absolutely not and apologized for our experience, he quickly went into his shirt pocket and handed us a card for a free appetizer; it seemed to me that he had quite a few of those cards for these kinds of complaints. As we walked out of the door I overheard him tell the waitress, “I told you before about doing that,” so it seems this was a pattern, withhold a portion of the change to boost her tip. We felt stupid for even giving her a tip.
How are people being trained these days? Cashiers cannot count back change if the computer breaks down, they don’t know how to great people properly, many mumble when they talk to you and some don’t know how to make eye contact. Perhaps this is a result of too much shopping online or maybe these people are graduates of online schools and are not used to frequent interaction with humans.
I find this frustrating and when I sit down and talk to my contemporaries we compare similar stories of bad service. When I get good service I frequently compliment the server because exceptional service is so rare. Please don’t be afraid to ask for a manager or write a letter, it is important to let a business know why you will not come back or where they are falling short. The more we accept the bad service the more of it we will get. I’m ready to put my mystery shopper hat back on and clean up customer service.
(Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com)
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