Customer Service Principle

Throughout business history, companies have introduced grand strategies designed to raise their levels of customer service. They soon discovered, however, that the strategies were the easy part. Getting employees to buy into the strategy and make it work proved more difficult. Not surprisingly, results were usually doomed to failure from the start.

This inability to "close the deal" has been a perennial cause of puzzlement and frustration to company executives. They assumes that once strategies are unveiled, employees will implement the program in such a way that customers notice an increased level of customer service.

Wrong. Not only do sales and service not rise; morale goes down with them! The reason? The assumption that customer service can improve without employee commitment. All too often, management forgets that strategies and programs start and end with their people.

This assumption is a throwback to the thinking of the American Industrial Age when employees were reduced to a component of production, not unlike a piece of equipment.
Industrial age thinking was based on the concept that employees did not want to work and were definitely not concerned enough to do quality work. Employees were given orders, and except for breakdowns (injury or illness), tasks were grudgingly completed. Of course time has proven again and again that employees DO want to work, they DO enjoy their work, and they want to care about the quality of their work. Research has shown that work plays a huge part in a person's self esteem, self worth and personal happiness.

To turn your strategy into reality, you must create an environment that builds employee pride and quality. It is absolutely vital that customer service be a long-term, everyday commitment that employees believe in. Otherwise, employees will think it just another passing management fad that will fade away after a brief flurry of activity like so many other programs. They've seen it all before and if they don't believe it, it won't succeed.

To illustrate the difference in employee attitudes consider this parable. An observer passed by two job sites and asked one employee from each what they were doing.
Employee one: I'm working like hell for too little money.
Employee two: I'm building a cathedral.

Notice any difference in attitude? One was sold on the project and therefore became part of it, while the other was merely a part of the machine. Which employee would you want representing your establishment?

Customer Service Principles:
•Commit to excellent customer service. Live it, breathe it, believe it, and reward it.

•Sell the employees on the whole, not just their part.

•Ensure that any Marketing initiatives emphasize your employees, not just your products. When morale and pride go up, you can bet services and sales will go up. Make your employees feel they are part of an elite group.

•Ensure all customer contact employees have autonomy to accommodate their customers, even if it means bending company rules. Then take a hard look at those bent rules, and see if they need to be discarded entirely.

•Be better than your competitor by knowing your competitor. Take your key people out to a competitor's operation, and talk about what works there and what doesn't (after you've left, of course.)

•Finally, keep the focus on your people: They ARE your business!

Quality Restaurant Service

Randall Turner, a dear friend of mine, dines out at least twice a week and knows good service; he also knows when the wait staff is indifferent. A recent experience at a restaurant in the area made the evening memorable for all the wrong reasons.

"I was there with business associates and wanted to try a new restaurant that had been touted", he recalls. "The place was cavernous and the eight servers outnumbered the customers."

It was a warm night and the small group decided to sit outside. After a long wait the server appeared. Filled their water glasses and disappeared. "We had to hunt for more water, bread and for the waiter so we could order," Randall complains. "There were only two other customers in the restaurant that probably sat 150 people. We knew the servers were out there but we could not see them. It was almost funny."

The service did not improve as the evening wore on.

"After the meal we ordered coffee and when it arrived sometimes later I tasted something strange and sweet in the brew," he relates. "When I asked the server what it was she replied, "I don't know what it is. It's something."

Having to chase down the waiter for the bill was the icing on the cake.

Although the food was good, the quality of service soured the entire dining experience. It was a new restaurant and perhaps the staff was working out a few kinks. But Randall says he likes to patronize a restaurant that will appreciate his business. "It is disappointing when the meal is superior but the service is not up to the same standards," he concludes. "That is what stands out in my memory."

Quality service is vital to the reputation of any eating establishment. It will make or break a business, and customers will not return if they don't get good service.

Not that providing quality service is easy. Customers can be demanding and the menu can be complex and ever changing.

Is quality service learned or is it fundamental to a person's nature? I think is a little of both. I think anyone can learn the basics of how to wait a table. but some people are naturally in tune with customers and how to go beyond just filling their needs, Those are the employees making the big tips.

Typically, servers earn minimum wages plus tips. Particularly hectic days can be costly, since a server is often too busy to provide the personalized attention to each customer that generates larger tips.

Experience providing good service anywhere can be transitioned into the restaurant industry. If someone worked as a telemarketer or a clerk, the same principles can relate to those in a wait staff or in other position in a restaurant.