Customer Service?

Ever get that feeling like you’re wearing a big sign that reads “Attn: Customer Service Representative, it’s okay to ignore this one”? I had that feeling big time while I was dining out with friends last Saturday. We were at a popular Tex-Mex restaurant and, after seeing the birthday celebrations the restaurant staff put on for a few other diners, we thought it would be fun to have the same done to one of our dinner party members who was also celebrating his birthday. After being assured that it would be taken care of, no group of singing wait staff came by and no hot brownie dessert ever showed up. Our friend -who happens to embarrass easily, wasn’t upset about the miscue when he found out what we had planned, but the rest of us couldn’t help feeling a little snubbed.

Then, entirely by coincidence or some act of a higher being, this morsel of customer service enlightenment gets delivered to my inbox. Amen, Mr. Brown! Customer service isn’t a cost. It can be a very profitable strategy. I should march several copies of this over to that restaurant ASAP!

Traditional business wisdom tells us that it’s cheaper to retain customers than find new ones. And I was once told by a very successful area businessman that “repeat customers pay the bills.” Putting two and two together, it seems to go against the business’s best interest to offer even marginal customer service. Yet, we encounter it all over the place. So, what gives?

Maybe the restaurant’s staff could learn a thing or two from Jennifer Sharpe and her Girl Scout troop. Selling enough cookies to fund an entire European vacation? Those girls must be doing something right…