Great Service Starts with Mastering the Basics

…Not Mastering the Basics – “Turn the cup over if you don’t want coffee.”

A colleague of ours was at a banquet with a client a couple nights ago.  Early in the dinner, before salads had been served, one of the wait staff came by and offered coffee to the client.  The client declined, suggesting he would wait until after dinner.  The waiter then snapped, “Well, turn your cup over if you don’t want coffee!”  Appropriately reprimanded, the client returned to his conversation with our colleague.

I suspect that somewhere along the line the banquet server had been trained that if the coffee cup is turned up it means the guest is ready for coffee.  And, if it’s turned down, that means no coffee.  So, he probably figured he was doing his job pretty well.  Unfortunately, neither my colleague nor his client felt too great about the experience.  The banquet server missed one or more basic concepts of service delivery:  seeing the situation as the customer sees it, having empathy for the customer, the customer is always right except in those cases in which the customer is wrong (this not being one of those cases) and/or your guests are not paying to be at the dinner so that they can get your lecture on dinner etiquette!

An understanding of those basic aspects concepts would suggest that the server could have just said, “Yes, Sir” and moved on to the next guest (remembering, of course, to come back and serve Mr. Big Client coffee after dinner).  What should have been a simple transaction with no effect on the future purchases of guests, threatened to drive them away forever.

Unfortunately, service and treatment like this is not uncommon.  Recently, my wife and I were having dinner with a couple of friends in a restaurant billing itself as a 4-star quality experience.  One of our dinner companions ordered a very lovely looking (and tasting!) version of chocolate mousse pie.  The waitress delivered the dessert without utensils and quickly turned and walked away.  Our companion was left with only her coffee spoon to eat the pie.  (Strike 1!)  So, we waited.  And waited.  And, waited for the server to return near enough to our table for us to be able to flag her down.  Unfortunately, it was near closing time for the restaurant so our server was on the far side of the dining room re-setting tables for the next day, so she was not exactly attentive to our needs.  We assumed that her after work plans were far more important than our needs for a fork! (Strike 2!) 

When our companion was finally able to ask for a fork, rather than just get the fork quickly, efficiently and with a smile, the server was prompted to exclaim, “A fork?!  Most people eat dessert with a spoon.”  (Strike 3, you’re out!)  Now, the dessert was actually pretty darn good – good enough to motivate a return visit.  But, our collective memory of the place will always be tainted with our memory of the server’s rebuke. 

Both restaurants – rather than creating memories for its food, or attentive service or great ambiance – became places that you get lectured by the staff…not the kind of memories that get guests to come back.

Heck, we get enough of that at home from our teenagers!

Questions to consider:  What are the “basics” of service delivery in your organization?  How are those “basics” built into your training programs and reinforced by leaders?  How well do your frontline service execute on the “basics?”  To what extent do they look at the world from the customer’s point-of-view?  What education/information do they need to help them get it?  How do you know what your customers think of the service they are getting?  What’s your recovery strategy when things go awry?

Delivering the basics well may or may not lead to great customer loyalty.  But, mastering them will at least keep you from driving customers away.