In these difficult times, it is hard not to see the change in expectations from ourselves and those around us when it comes to appreciating the customer service we are given.
I was out for dinner with some friends last week at our local Pizza Express. After a lovely meal and great company our waiter, Rory, brought the bill over.
“The service charge can be removed” was his statement to us when placing it down on the table.
What would ordinarily have been a given; of course we will pay the service charge, suddenly became a cause for discussion.
Did he really give us £23.56 worth of customer service?
Now, the waiter was undeniably nice and attentive. He also brought the things to us that we wanted and didn’t make us wait a very long time, but did he really sell how good a service we were receiving from him?
In a survey the New York Times carried out, tipping in restaurants is down 35% with waiters and waitresses barely receiving 10% of the 15% that is usually standard fare. For people that rely on their tips, this means they need to work harder and harder than ever before to fight for the money they need to survive.
It’s not quite the same, but these new world rules absolutely apply to the contact centre environment too. No longer can we just do a “good job” and receive the same scores and compliments. We have to work harder and “sell” our high standard of service to our customers. This has become apparent in the last 6 months with sales skills becoming a hot topic across the customer service industry, unlocking the door to maintaining and improving quality and customer satisfaction. We are no different, with sales techniques and self sales becoming an increasing focus of the coaching that I complete with my teams.
What happened to Rory? Well, we paid him his £23.56. Split between 8 it was only a few pounds each and his service was just as good as we have experienced from the same restaurant before.
Next time however, he might not be so lucky.
I absolutely agree Lisa, we ask our customers to rate us on our customer service skills and, as we are all someone’s customer, we have various models of service to compare in order to determine good from bad. What I assume came out of the conversation around your dinner table was that we are now differentiating not only between good and poor service, but also between shades of good and poor. As service providers we know that good service is our base state – there is nothing below it. What we strive for is exceptional service; for every customer every time. But what are our differentiators? How do our customers know they are receiving exceptional service? Just as Rory needs to do more to earn his tip, so we need to do more to deserve our customer’s loyalty. But how much more do we have to give? In my experience, the mention of ‘sales techniques’ to a customer service specialist would be met with a look of horror. Now however, if we want our ‘tip’ we not only need to ‘add value’ to our customer’s service, we also need to help them to appreciate the value we are adding so that they know how to rate our service.
Going back to the waiter scenario; I recall a discussion between a food critic and a top chef/restaurateur concerning ‘special offers’. The critic asked the chef if he believed customers who dined at his restaurant got a different level of service from the waiters if they opted for a ‘meal deal’ of some kind. The chef replied that they certainly did as the waiters worked on the assumption that if a customer was too strapped for cash to pay full price for their meal, then they certainly wouldn’t be a good tipper. Personally, I take advantage of offers whenever I can; I also leave a reasonable tip for reasonable service. I wonder how these waiters are coping now that more and more diners are taking advantage of special offers. Are they dividing their attentions equally between their customers and trying to convince them to tip by giving a great service, or are they fighting over the full price payer in the hope that he/she will eventually reward their efforts?