customer service

As someone who knows how hard it is to try to get a customer to part with their hard-earned, I really sometimes wonder at companies that do just plain stupid things once they have a customer in front of them.

A certain global fast food chain with yellow arches gave me cause to comment on this kind of customer-unservice again tonight. (Please don’t ask what a health-conscious young man like myself was doing even getting a drive through burger and fries, let’s just say it was 9.30 at night, I was on the way home from a meeting with several more hours of work to get done and was very hungry and leave it at that… sigh…  )

Here’s what happened… I drop up to the drive-through and ordered my burger. Then I realised that I usually choke on the things unless I have a drink so I changed it to a “meal deal”. The price on the board said $8.85. They then said, “That will be $9.15″ and I said, “Listen, it’s only a small difference, but it says $8.85.”

So, what do you think they did?

Did they:

a) Say, “Oh, sorry sir, we’ll correct that, $8.85, please drive to the first window?”

b) Say, “Oh, sorry sir. Our mistake. For your trouble, we will upsize your drink and fries. Terribly sorry. That will be $8.85, please drive to the first window?” OR

c) First have the server say “No, it’s $9.15. You are mistaken.” At which I reply, “Look, I know we are only arguing about $0.30 but it’s annoying and I’m looking at a sign that says what I ordered is $8.85 so I feel ripped off”. To which the manager comes on and says, in a fairly pissy voice, “Listen, we haven’t updated the sign yet, it’s $9.15, could you move through?”

If you guessed a, I would say you at least have a reasonable understanding of customer service. If you guessed b then pat yourself on the back because you really understand how to make a customer feel valued. If you guessed c then you have probably also spent your money with the famous Clown.

Now seriously, stop and think about this for a few seconds. How much did they spend to get me in the door? Hundreds of dollars over the years? Perhaps more… how much do they have to spend now convincing you that they are not morons? And not just the particular manager on duty on March 22 at around 9.30pm on the corner of Burke Rd and Waverley Rd in Melbourne Australia. It’s the whole freaken global business and it’s billion dollars a year in advertising.

All wasted because the local manager doesn’t have either the autonomy or the brains to turn a customer irritant into a customer win.

So don’t be a clown with your customers. If you make a mistake, or even if the customer thinks you have, fix it. Apologize. Make it right. Make them happy. It will cost you a couple of bucks and could create someone who will rave about you instead of writing blog posts about how stupid you are.

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