A story in today’s paper was highlighting the owner of a new restaurant in town.
” (name of owner) said the restaurant is competitive with its customer-centric hospitality. “Nobody really does that anymore,” (name of owner) said.”
Really? No one does it? There are no restaurants in the town that are customer focused?
I know there’s a meat and three in the same town where the owner comes up to my table each time I’m in and greets me like I’m a member of her family. There’s even a chain steakhouse near the mall / big box area with great service and a waitress that we’re on a first name basis with. And I’ve had great customer experiences all over town.
But I’ve also had many bad ones. And a few horrible ones.
You hear the old “we’re bringing back customer service” line a lot, but the follow-through is often lacking. It’s like politicians promising lower taxes.
And I have no doubt that a lot of these promise makers are sincere. But what happens when I go into the restaurant mentioned in the story 3 months from now after the new shine has worn off for these owners? They’ll be off launching another location and making the same customer-centric statements while a teenager making minimum wage is slapping my sandwich together and telling me they can’t give me extra pickles.
It’s easy to say you’re all about the customer. It’s not so easy to make the customer service follow-through.
It’s like being good-looking. You really can’t say that you are. Only other people can bestow that upon you.
Chris Houchens 
Chris,Bringing back customer service is easy to say but hard to do. And it is in the doing that businesses find success or failure.However, the truth, as you said, remains that customer service never went away. As has always been the case, some businesses focus their energies mostly on customer experiences, others on the bottom line. Guess which ones have great customer service.
I agree with you and Lewis, Chris. The problem is, too many places rely on one or two fabulous customer-facing employees to create their great customer service. When those employees leave and go somewhere else where they are more appreciated, the customer service goes in the tank.It is only when organizations look at customer service as a strategy and measure it across the business (large or small) that they begin to be able to execute on the ideas. And ultimately, as you stated, Chris, the customers will be the judges and give the grades.Thanks for keeping this in the forefront, Chris. You rock!
Customer service is taken very seriously by such entrepreneurs and small business owners. They really mean what they say and they are correct in most instances when they say they will focus on customers like none of their competition.Things run off the rails, however, when they have to start hiring people to operate their businesses. Quality control and customer service is relatively easy when you are the owner and the staff of a small business. Once more employees are necessary, it becomes much harder to deliver on those brand promises consistently and deliver superior service all the time.Simply put, nobody cares about a business quite like the owner.As such, “customer centricity” is a dangerous position to carve out for a local restaurant that intends to grow.