RSS Feeds
| February 12th, 2009 by Christopher Musico |  |
All work and no play at CRM magazine’s world headquarters in Midtown Manhattan make me a dull customer service/contact center reporter. A couple of nights ago, I went out to Max Brenner in Union Square for a much-needed catch-up dinner with a good friend of mine.
For the uninitiated, when you go to Max Brenner it is largely for the creative iterations of chocolate desserts. While that was super important to us, we both had long days in the office and wanted some real food before chowing down on desserts.
Everything seemed normal at first. She ordered salad, and I chose the grilled chicken panini with a side order of waffle fries. The restaurant was not filled to capacity, so we both figured we’d get our food fairly quickly.
About a half-hour went by, and we hadn’t received our food. It was mildly annoying, considering our waitress also hadn’t been around to let us know what was going on. It had all the ingredients for a poor customer experience, and given the fact that I’m a journalist and she is a publicist, neither of us have a problem voicing our opinions rather bluntly.
Suddenly, a manager came to our table and apologized for the long wait. “The food was burned, but we will get your meals out right away,” he said quickly before patting me on the back and scurrying away.
As soon as he left, I turned to my friend and asked if she thought the burning food gambit was a lie. While that may highlight the cynic in me, I find it very difficult to burn salad. It’s probably slightly less difficult to burn my panini, but when the waitress came back over and asked us what the manager said we knew that in all likelihood our order had just fallen through the cracks. We started to ponder what else could have happened to our order, but about two minutes later the manager returned with our meals.
We devoured our dinners and ordered dessert, not thinking much about the incident. While waiting for dessert, we both agreed that we should get some type of discount on our bill to atone for the restaurant’s mistake, but we weren’t going to bring it up. However, when our first dessert order — chocolate banana bread — came out, the waitress told us that our entire dessert order (we had another dish including waffles, ice cream, chocolate malt balls, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream coming to us) was on the house.
Mind you, this was perfect timing. I’m sure this is part of some policy Max Brenner has when things like this happen, to comp you for a portion of the meal, but no one told us until after we ordered our dessert. This way, there was no guilt or hesitation over ordering multiple dishes and wondering if we were taking advantage of the restaurant’s generosity.
The manager and waitress turned what would have been a poor customer experience into a great one. So much so it had me talking to several friends and co-workers about the experience. Talk about finishing strong.
Beyond the great customer experience, it did leave me with a lingering question: If a company ultimately solves your customer service-related issue, does it matter if an agent gives you the exact reason for the screw-up in the first place? I’ll be honest, the manager could have told me they forgot our order, dropped my fries, or lost the ticket … as long as they brought my food out to me quickly afterward, the reason wouldn’t have mattered.
Do you feel the same way I do? Obviously, most of us have ingrained in us from birth that “honesty is the best policy,” but in your customer service experiences — whether working as a contact center agent or being the consumer in question – if the problem is resolved does the reason matter that much?
Feed
