restaurant

Customer service tip: Don’t insult your customers

March 16, 2010

Don’t insult your customers. I know this sounds pretty obvious. Why would any of us insult our customers on purpose? But it happens more than we realize. Here’s a recent example. I’m ordering a sandwich at my favorite sub shop. As I’m chatting with the sub-maker, the co-owner walks over. She notices that I’ve had [...]

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7 things customers hate

March 3, 2010

As we left the Cracker Barrel that night, I asked my wife how she would rate our customer experience as we paid for our meal. “Two thumbs down” she replied in microseconds. We were on the same page. It was a horrible experience. While the food and overall experience in Cracker Barrels are frighteningly consistent, [...]

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Never assume everything is clear to your customer

February 5, 2010

Communication is the surest path to delivering Amazing service to our customers. But it’s often harder than we realize to be on the same page with our customers. Here’s a funny (and true) example of how something can seem so clear to an employee but not their customers. Thanks to the good people at NotAlwaysRight.com [...]

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Burger King learns lesson about customer loyalty

February 5, 2010

A recent article about Burger King points to a weakness in what seemed like a profitable marketing strategy.  It reveals lower earnings by the company at a time when many of their so-called “Super Customers” are leaving them. According to the article, BK has focused much of their marketing on customer 18 to 34 years [...]

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Remember the basics

February 1, 2010

Lunch at one of my regular restaurants recently reminded me how often servers forget the basics. Less than 10% of them (in my experience) tell customers what the daily special or soup du jour is.  If I want to know, I have to ask them when they show up to take our order. That’s like [...]

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