Bad Feedback Turns into Great Service

by | May 22, 2014 | Education, Guest Services, Management, Motivation, Performance, Personal

feedbackOne of the things we always encourage our clients to do is consistently solicit feedback from your customers. It’s so important to really know what people are experiencing in your center.  Remember that we used to tell 2 friends who told 2 friends and so on, and now with social media we tell 200 (or maybe it’s 2,000. I have 508 friends and feel like I live in a small world!). You certainly don’t want to be the last to know when there was a problem in your center.

Every group, every birthday party, every restaurant diner, bowler (get the picture) should be asked to fill out a comment card about their experience. Now comes the hard part, what are you going to do with that information?

I recently had a negative customer service moment at Office Depot, which usually is one of my favorite places to shop. They solicit feedback on their receipts and after stewing about the situation for a week I decided to share my feedback on their online survey. The survey was quick and easy (a must!) and I checked the box that they could email me for more information.

Less than 30 minutes after I submitted my survey, their store manager had gotten the feedback and sent me an email about it. WOW! Talk about impressive. I’ve given feedback a hundred times in this survey or that and have never been contacted afterwards. The fact that the manager contacted me at all was startling, much less the world class timeliness.  She quickly apologized for my bad experience, explained that was not the way they ran things in their store and asked for more specifics so that she could understand the situation better.

I responded with the details and she returned, thanking me again for my terrific feedback, apologized again, and offered to send me a small gift card in the mail for my trouble. It was enough that she took the time to address my concerns at all, so when she sent me a gift, I was elated.  She was able to turn the experience around completely. Now the story I tell you today is NOT the detail of the bad experience, but what great management and response time can do for your center’s ability to turn bad service into great service!

We are human, and we are going to make mistakes that will earn us some tough feedback sometimes. It is up to us whether we are going to be remembered for the mistake or for the lengths we’ll go to in order to correct it.  What will you do?

 

Have you had some feedback that you were able to turn around to something positive? We would love to know how you’re handling that ever-essential feedback!

Keep ’em Coming Back

by | May 15, 2014 | Education, Guest Services, Management, Motivation, Personal, Training

heb serviceEvery Friday I go to the grocery store.  It is one of the few shopping things I love to do since I love to cook. I have been shopping at the H.E.B every single week since they have opened a new store by my house. (and yes, it is the ONLY grocery store I will go to.)

About a year ago an Aldi opened across the street from H.E.B and I kept saying that I needed to go and check it out. I even have a close college friend that is the director of purchasing and encouraged me to visit.  Aldi is supposed to have great prices on their groceries with an interesting concept, you have to pay a quarter to get your cart and then get your quarter back when you put the cart back in the stall. They only take cash or debit cards to get rid of processing fees, customers bring their own bags for groceries and they don’t really carry name brands.

So last Friday, as I made my weekly trip to H.E.B., I passed by Aldi and wondered why I hadn’t been there yet. They’ve been open for over a year; and it is the same distance from my house as my usual store.

This really got me to thinking, WHY do I go to H.E.B. every week?  It was so easy to answer, I go to H.E.B. because I can ALWAYS expect the same level of service, friendly people and the best quality products. I know that some of their items are more expensive than other stores but I can ALWAYS count on the fact that their quality of service and products are the BEST.

Many of the cashiers know me and know my boys. They even remember that we are moving and that my husband has been gone so they ask how everything has been going. They literally see hundreds of people a week but know (and seem to care) who I am, and to me that is HUGE! One day I forgot my $5 gallon of Organic milk in my cart so I called the store.  Then all I had to do was return with my receipt and get a new one, no questions asked!

So my question for you is, what keeps your guests coming back to you? Are they loyal to you or are they going across the street to your competition? I think what it boils down to for me is great guest service. I will drive further and pay more if I know the guest service is great. So do you know if you are leaving those lasting impressions with your guests and providing the best service possible? Do you want to?  We would love to hear about how you keep people coming back for more, share with us on Facebook!

Social Media Miracle

by | May 7, 2014 | Personal

It was easy to know what to write about this week. Last Friday, I was on the phone having a one-on-one with one of the superstars on our team. We were planning how to rule the world, and then another call came in on the company line. I ignored it, but they rang in again and again. I was intrigued by their persistence, so I asked Sherry to hold it and clicked over.

What happened next blew me away. A young man on the other end of the line said, “Hello, I know this may sound odd, but my name is Daniel. I’m a student in PA. I just left a cab and found a purse that someone had left. Do you know a Marie Shatto?”

I have not spoken to Marie in a few years, but I know her well. She worked for BPAA for a long time in the events department and did many good things to help our company at tradeshows and bowling events. Immediately, I let this young man know that, indeed, I knew Marie. He said that he had looked at her driver’s license and then went to Facebook to see if he could find her.

When he found Marie’s profile, he noticed that I was a friend of hers and was listed as the President of a company. He clicked over to our company fan page and called me right away. A brilliant and SAINTLY move, in my humble opinion!

I took his number, clicked right over, and called Marie (I had her cell number in my phone, thank goodness). Marie picked up on the first ring, and this is how that conversation went. “Hello Marie, this is Beth Standlee. You won’t believe this, but I understand you may have left your purse in a cab.” She was astonished. I think she thought maybe I was in that cab. I do travel a lot. She explained that she had spent the last hour on the phone with the Admiral’s Club, American Airlines, and the Cab Company to no avail. I gave her Daniel’s phone number and hung up quickly so she could retrieve her purse filled with her life (that’s where we women carry our life, in case you didn’t know!).

The next morning, I saw this post on Facebook that really tells the story better than I have here. Rosie Salas, our director of marketing said it best,  it helps to know there is great good in the world! It makes such a difference to do things every day that make a difference to someone else. I wish I could meet this boy named Daniel.

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We would love to hear from you.  When is the last time you did something to make someones day or someone made your day with a small act of kindness?

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