"The Customer Comes First." For unit managers, our employees are our first market. Never treat a customer better than you do a team member. If you're not serving the customer directly, you'd best be serving someone who is.  

 

"The Customer is always right." No. The customer is usually right. Rather than assigning blame, focus first on hiring, developing and retaining a focused team that enjoys making customers happy. Happy customers buy more.

 

"A satisfied Customer is not enough." A popular book is titled: Customer Satisfaction is Meaningless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. I disagree with the former and agree with the latter. I'm sure the author's point is that we should aim higher than "satisfaction" but the fact is that habitually satisfied guests are extremely likely to be loyal.
 

"Memorize the steps of service and you master the skill of service." My experience has shown that if you train only to a process, all thinking stops. Meeting or exceeding the different expectations of the variety of customers we serve is ultimately a thinking-and-adaptation skill, not a process of rote memorization. The best way to inspire better service is to share effective true stories about team members who demonstrated exceptional customer care. This is more effective than memorizing "The 10 Steps of Service". 

 

"Secret Shopper Scores accurately Measure Service". Accurately measuring customer satisfaction by tallying mystery shopper scores or "comment cards" alone is like judging the quality of chili by counting the number of beans. When it comes to service, everything speaks. Measure all that matters. Same store sales, customer traffic, COGS, and lower employee turnover are also key indicators of good service to consider as well.

"Service is what the customer-facing team does." Wrong. If you're a manager or owner your customer is anyone who isn't you.

 

Depending on your perspective, this list may be enlightening or just so much "myth information." One thing's for certain: service is our invisible product, and if you don't examine the obstacles to better connecting to the customer and distinguishing yourself from the crowd, you'll just be the crowd.   

 

 

Jim Sullivan is a popular speaker at foodservice and retail industry conferences worldwide.

 

YouTube Bonus Service Video: Click HERE to see Jim Sullivan give a 60 second lesson on the HOW OF WOW in a popular YouTube Video.  

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• Walks you step-by-step through the process of improving your organization's customer service.
• Provides case studies and examples from companies that have implemented the Unleashing Excellence tools, so you don't have to start from scratch.
• Gives you specific tools and templates that you can "plug in" to your own operation. You also get online access to every tool and template so that you can customize them to best fit your needs!
• Highlights pitfalls to avoid in your service improvement efforts so that you can focus your efforts on those actions that have maximum impact.