mose's posterous

Over the last couple of days, the following happened ...

I drove through a Tim's to get a coffee. (For the record I am not a Tim's fan, but have not found another coffee spot in KW yet! But I am desperately looking!)
Conversation as follows:

I drive up to the speaker at the drive through ..

Happy cheery (Read very, very cheery!) voice ... "HI!!!! My name is Amy, Welcome to Tim Hortons may I take your order!!!!"

Moi ... "I would like a large coffee with cream and a ....

Happy cheery voice ..."That's three large coffees. Anything else?

Moi .. no, I would like ...

Cheery happy voice ... OK drive through have a GREAT day!

I sat there a moment said to the silent speaker ... "Ummm hello??? Hello?
No answer so I drove up to the window.

Another happy cheery young girl bursts through the drive through window with 3 coffees. may have been the same girl, no idea.

I said, "Um that is not what I wanted. =Can I ...

Then she started to chatter on and on about the order ...

I said. Miss, if you would simply listen I ..."

She then continued to chatter ... "but I am listening and I am taking your order..."

I said. "You finished?"

She then said ... "Yes I am finished and I was listening and I will take your order and ..."

I drove away.

Second one ...

At my golf course I was walking from my car to the club house. Now, being fare, our club has a cast of thousands marshalling, starting and greeting and God-knows what else they do. And seemingly they have a new crew every 3 weeks. These are all volunteers, they mean well, but it is a huge issue at our course as far as brand experience goes. Plus all the marshalling has not sped up play nor stopped the litter, the noise etc etc
Anyway, I am greeted by two young ladies who proceed to grill me as to what my tee off time is, who I am playing with, can we take your clubs, can we get your cart, is your partner here, do you know where the pro shop is... and on and on ...

I stood there under this barrage and simply said - "You know, two more questions and it will appear we are married!"

The process of checking into a golf club, whether you have a tee time or not is rather simple. Drive in. Park. get clubs out of car. Go to pro shop. Register, Go see starter. Play golf.

The third incident was this morning at breakfast - short story here. If I order breakfast (bacon & eggs) and you, the waitress ask - over-easy on the eggs? And I say, "Yep!" Then why not bring me a couple of eggs easy over and bacon. What I got wasn't even close - Oh, there were two other patrons in the restaurant - this was not confusion over an order - this was what we used to call a shitty breakfast. I have to find someplace in KW that can make eggs. In fact I have to find somewhere in KW that can cook anything!

I am assuming that these folks are all trying to be helpful in their own way. They are doing their best and are probably unaware of what great service and great customer experience is.

Great service is "Meeting customer requirements." Full stop. End of story. If you are unsure what the customer requirements are ... ASK!
In the first two instances the requirements I have as a customer are - to get what I would like and then pay you. I am not asking for a greeting, beiing engaged in a conversation, forming a relationship, answering a slew of questions or other frilly bits. All I want is for you to listen.
The Tim's situation is solved by ... May I take your order. Then listen til the customer is finished. Repeat the order and listen til you hear - "Yep that is right."

The golf situation even easier ... Good morning anything we can do to assist you? "Nope, thanks! "

the third cannot be solved with customer service - they have to be able to cook and distinguish between hamm and bacon and over easy and killed.

And if you are a regular customer (This is for the owners) and you have a rotating door of entry level folks - spend some time training them. Or you may just have to spend a lot more time trying to get new customers to replace the ones that are having a horrible customer experience.