The salad or the sale? How do you make your customers feel?

The salad or the sale?

Today a friend took me to lunch. It was the kind of wonderful sunny day—perfect for lunch outdoors—that makes living in the South so appealing. Beyond that, who can turn down what purportedly is the “world’s greatest hamburger” as my friend described it? (I’d planned on giving him a quick lesson in hyperbole.)

As we approached the counter to place our order, we instead got a lesson in customer service every business would do well to heed. My friend ordered his hamburger with all the expectant excitement of a man who enjoys his meals. He also ordered a side of tomato-feta salad.

The cashier gave him a quick, confused glance and called over to the store manager. “In training,” we both thought. Instead, we were the ones about to be trained.

The manager stepped up to the register and informed my friend he couldn’t have his order. “We can’t do that. It’s not in our system,“ he said.

My friend, as agreeable and easygoing as a man can be, said he had ordered this combination before and was prepared to pay for the extra side, which, granted, usually didn’t come with the hamburger. In fact, he said he came here specifically for this combination because he enjoyed it so much.

Nonplussed, the manager said, “we have had a problem with this and I will not allow it anymore. It’s not in the register this way.”

I was speechless; too amazed even to complain. As I understand business, this organization exists to sell food. In this case a person came in to order food. Everything as designed, yes? No. The customer did not get what he wanted, was embarrassed in front of his friend, and I was disappointed as well.

The irony, of course, was as deep as the dish in the display case. Yes, a big bowl of tomato-feta salad…unsold. Businesses spend so much on systems, training and technology to ensure maximum efficiency that they often forget common sense. Not even the manager had the authority or the good sense to think beyond the computer screen on his register, even as the solution was apparent to everyone in the restaurant but himself.

This story would sound like an isolated example of poor service, were it not so common. And it’s not limited to food service, either. Can you ensure that your customers, ordering carpet, insulation, pipe, trucks, wood flooring, or cabinets are not running into the same situation? Are you confident you are not losing money?

Actions you should consider:

1. Become a customer. Have you bought your own product before? I always buy our clients’ services and goods. The process teaches me more than any meetings we might have. I almost always discover opportunities to improve the process and the product.
2. Systems check. Who is in control of the purchase? IT? A third party? Your customers? In my scenario either a clerk, a department manager or a cash register company defined what we could buy. There is $4 in a friend’s pocket that he wanted to give them…but then again, they have the salad…at least they can eat!
3. In my recent experience, all the money invested in brand, in sales, in training, and in R&D was lost. Have you audited your processes? Have you been your own customer? Do it!

One final thought: embarrassing a customer is a fatal mistake. They will neither forget nor forgive you, no matter how good your hamburger is.