Customer Service Thoughts

It's Crab Meat Newburg Day, but it's also National Food Service Employees Day and I thought it would be nice to talk about the folks in the food service industry. Having worked as everything from waitress to bartender to chef to caterer, I've had a lot of experience with good and bad food, but more importantly with good and bad service. What makes good service in a restaurant? For me it is attention to detail -- not forgetting that extra bit of butter requested! -- or a check-in from our server that all is well in dining land -- never having to stretch my neck looking for the server because we haven't seen signs of help for a while. We dine out very frequently and I've noticed a lovely upward trend in good service in the restaurants we frequent -- like folks really want their customer to enjoy their evening.

But food service is not the only place where we encounter customer service -- good OR bad! I've noticed improved customer service in my online transactions. Yes, I'm an Internet shopper, and every now and then something goes awry in an order. As of yet I've only had a single problem getting satisfactory correction to the error and it was with a large, national craft company -- and I'll never order from them again.

For several years I worked for a mail order gardening company as a customer service representative. It is a fantastic company that really believes that their customers are important and as a customer service person, I was totally empowered to fix whatever problem existed. It takes oh so much less energy to say, "what can I do to make this better for you", than it does to argue with the customer and make the customer feel bad about the experience. I diffused many a caller's bad temper with those words and it has become my standard on how I rate good customer service. If a store or company or restaurant doesn't make me feel that my business is important to them -- no matter how large or how small it is -- then I will simply take my business to another place that does make me feel valued. On the other hand, if the establishment makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, I tell them how much it is appreciated.

So my thought for the day is to thank the next person who gives you good service -- no matter where it is. We all want to know that we're appreciated!