Passing the Buck

[editor’s note: In reaction to our recent waitress post, one of our regular readers sent us this great tale of their own awful restaurant service. Thanks for sharing!]

Years before I was a mystery shopper, I was in a group of ten eating at a national restaurant chain. The hostess took us to our table, and she motioned to a server to help us. 

The server copped and attitude and told the hostess that she was about to go on break, and to have “Lisa” cover her section.

Lisa, another server, heard this and said it was the first server's responsibility to cover our table.

They argued for 2 minutes about who wasn't going to serve our table.

Great start, people.

Miss Attitude came to our table with a big chip on her shoulder, and her service reflected her attitude. Our drinks were not refilled and we never had enough silverware for everyone.

One of the few members of our party to not get the salad bar had an entrée tossed down in front of her with a little spin and an indignant, "There you go."

Worse, we quickly discovered it wasn't the meal prepared for our table; the server just grabbed it from the pass.

I had had enough!

I found a manager and asked if I could have a moment of her time. Instead of yelling and complaining, I just told her what had been happening. The horror and embarrassment kept growing on her face as I described our experience to that point.

The manager said she was truly grateful that I had brought this to her attention and said she would personally be taking care of us for the rest of our visit.

She picked up the entire tab and offered everyone a heartfelt apology at the end of the meal. 

As a customer, the way to handle dissatisfaction is just as important as the way management fixes the matter. 

The Sweet, Misunderstood Waitress (from Hell)

Maybe it was the way you buried your face in your hands when we said, “Party of ten.”

Or maybe it was when we had to ask you for chips and salsa that other tables had, and you sort of groaned before begrudgingly conceding that okay, you guessed we could have some.

Or maybe it was finding one of your hairs in our chips.

Or perhaps it was when your co-workers auctioned-off our food, forgot a few items, and messed up some entrées, because, as you later explained, you were “sitting out back, taking a break.”

It could also have been our need to request silverware so that we could eat, the way you disappeared during long stretches of the meal, or the general lack of attention we received in a restaurant otherwise empty.

Whatever the cause, I felt like you didn’t care about our comfort at all.

But then I got your check with the sweet hand-written note wishing me a great day and thanking me for coming in.

And so I lingered behind my group to talk with you, and I realized that you didn’t hate us at all.

You had started your shift at 7am, and we walked in at 1:30 with a daunting group of ten. You were tired, ready to go home, and eager to enjoy the holiday weekend.

And after talking with you, I truly believe that you sincerely, genuinely hoped we enjoyed our meal at your restaurant, and that you really wanted it to be an enjoyable experience for us.

But I have to ask: Other than your heart being in the right place, what did you do to make our stay enjoyable?

* * * * * * *

And once again, I’m reminded of why feedback is so crucial.

You never realized how unwelcomed we felt because of your poor body language, ungracious behavior, and inept apologies.

You had no idea how frustrated we were, being neglected at some moments and poorly serviced at others.

And you have no idea that I’m writing this in complete sympathy, because your employer is clearly not investing in any sort of mystery shopping or customer feedback program to give you the tools you need to improve.

So you remain unaware of your flaws and ignorant of the negative perceptions you create.  

I’ll probably never visit El Patron again. But I hope this gets to you somehow.

Because you’re a sweet kid who wants to give good service, but hasn’t received the resources and feedback to provide it just yet. 

Service Review: Jimmy John’s

Last week, I needed a break from my nemesis, a computer that usually works against me rather than with me.

A sandwich sounded good, so I ventured out to Jimmy John’s on West Jefferson for a quick lunch.

I’ve eaten there many times, and as in the past, I was greeted with friendly faces and polite, efficient service.

The cashier took my order promptly, and my sandwich was ready before I had time to get a drink. (I guess the slogan “Subs so fast you’ll freak” really is true!)

When I grab a quick bite at lunch, I’m not looking for a deep, meaningful customer experience. My only expectation is for a quick, tasty meal, and Jimmy John’s delivered.  

However, something different happened during this visit that really stood out.

I noticed a female employee busily straightening chairs and bussing nearby tables. All the while, she was smiling and quickly interacting with some of the customers.

Moments later, she removed the empty bag of chips from my table and asked me what I was drinking.

I told her and she grabbed my cup and asked if I would like some more ice. She walked away and quickly returned with a full glass of Diet Coke.

She even retrieved a lid and straw for my walk back to the office!

Then, just as quickly as she had approached me, she smiled, told me to have a nice day, and then walked away.

Proactive. Thoughtful. Helpful.

She turned a routine experience into something more.

The smallest gestures sometimes leave the biggest impacts, and you can bet I’ll be back for another Jimmy John’s sandwich!

This experience: 5 Magnets

Wagging the Dog

In a recent post, Ray Sola offered a great observation about the misguided nature of many mystery shopping programs.

Ray is the founder and president of Volition.com, which is “the” mystery shopping community site. It’s completely free and offers incredible resources, especially for mystery shoppers. As such, Ray knows all the ins and outs of this business.

So his remarks carry weight. 

He makes several great points, but I want to focus on an underlying theme:

• Done poorly, mystery shopping actually erodes customer service instead of enhancing it.

There are several reasons why this occurs, but two stand out as particularly ridiculous.  

Frustrated with Success

It sounds impossible but it really happens: management can become frustrated with persistently high scores in certain areas, so they stop rewarding for those behaviors. 

We’ve witnessed this on employee behaviors like making eye contact, smiling, and offering assistance. Typically, a minimum of coaching and sales training can get employees performing these behaviors over 90% of the time.

But as months go by, managers can get impatient and start taking these foundational behaviors for granted. So they’ll reduce the points awarded to these behaviors, or –in the worst cases– stop tracking them altogether.  

Ultimately, the employees learn that these basic requirements of good service are not important to their employer, so service in these areas decreases while they focus on other areas that management deems more important, like up-selling.

(But employees who don’t smile or make good eye contact are not as successful at up-selling!)

Disconnect from Customers

Another huge pitfall that undermines good service occurs when management uses a mystery shopping program to promote behaviors that are not important to customers.

In our recent entry, I discussed a restaurant that emphasized managers visiting every table. So to score maximum points, managers would either perform quick drive-bys of the tables all night, or put a hostess in a manager’s shirt and have her do it.

But focus groups with actual customers who had experienced manager table visits revealed that customers get annoyed by fast, superficial, drive-by table visits.

If a manager visits their table and interrupts their conversation, they want it to be a meaningful interaction.

But too many times, they complained, managers interrupted their meals, asked them if everything was okay, but didn’t even stay long enough to hear their answer.

Such visits are so cursory and perfunctory that customers are actually irritated, not pleased.

If the behaviors evaluated by the shopping program had been driven (and validated) by customer feedback, this error could have been prevented.

But instead, the program was driven by management’s definition of good customer service; not their customers’ definition.

* * * * * * *

Mystery shopping can be a tremendous coaching tool that gives employees first-hand feedback from customers.

But used poorly, the tail can quickly start wagging the dog. And even if scores are improving in the areas that are important to managers, overall service satisfaction may suffer from misplaced priorities.

Shenanigans!!!

Last week, Bruce Temkin discussed the ins and outs of tying employee compensation to customer feedback scores.

He offers a few observations on the issue, my favorite of which is:

• "If there is significant compensation tied to any metric (including customer feedback), then people will look for ways to manipulate the measurement."

We have seen this in action, and it’s sort of like the People of Walmart site, in that you sort of need to see to believe.

Not too long ago, we worked with a national restaurant chain that performed several in-store assessments per month.

For one section of the assessment, the evaluators were asked to identify the manager, and note whether or not the manager was seen visiting tables and talking to guests.

One night, at a particular location, one of our evaluators was approached by a young employee wearing a manager’s shirt.

After a short conversation about how the dining experience was going, our evaluator commented to the manager that she seemed awfully young to be managing a restaurant.

To which the employee replied:

• “I’m not actually a manager. Our secret shopping program gives us more points if managers visit the tables, so the real manager has me wear this shirt and visit all of the tables.”

So yes, tying compensation to customer feedback will definitely lead to some degree of shenanigans, and the challenge is to develop feedback programs that offer as little opportunity for manipulation as possible.  

It’s definitely a learning experience (as opposed to the People of Walmart).

Reader Review: IHOP

[editor’s note: one of our regular readers sent us this wonderful review of a recent IHOP experience. Thanks so much to Ch & BO for sharing!]

Our 7-year-old suggested we go to IHOP Thursday night. We ordered brinners (we all had breakfast for dinner), talked for a while, and completed all the games on the kid's menu.

After a while, our son started grousing that it was taking a long time, and he noticed that patrons seated after us were being served before us. (He's going to make a fine Mystery Shopper one day!!)

About that time, our server came by to say there was a mix-up in the kitchen, that our meals would be right, and that she was going to ask a manager to stop by the table in a few minutes.

With sincere apologies, she did everything she could to make sure we were comfortable. 

Our meals arrived and about halfway through them, the manager came by and jokingly introduced himself as having just been flown in from "corporate damage control department."

He apologized for the unacceptable delay and explained that the kitchen had made a timing mistake and become overwhelmed by a sudden rush of patrons.

Most importantly, he presented facts, not excuses. He expressed sympathy that we had to wait too long.

• And he took care of a substantial part of our meal!!!

All this without any complaint from our table – that’s just how they take care of customers.  We’ll definitely be back!

As The Magnetic Group would say…This visit: 4 Magnets

When "building rapport" goes wrong...

In addition to teaching employees about policies and procedures, managers also urge their staff to provide friendly service to clients and customers. Many managers teach employees to build rapport and make everyone feel as if they are the most important customer.

I’ve noticed a lot of employees try, but I have also seen several fail when they try too hard. When learning how to build rapport, employees need to be taught how to be personable without being too personal.

Prime example...

Recently I met my family at a restaurant. We had attentive service all night, and our waitress was extremely friendly. However, when one of us made a beer selection, she informed us that she had had ten of them the night before and then drove home.

Then she exclaimed (with a slight grin), “And we all know where you end up when you drink and drive!”

!^&?*@*!?!?!?

Next, she proceeded to justify her actions by explaining that she drove home because she got into an argument with her boyfriend.

Our mouths all dropped, and we just looked at each other. This conversation, while not acceptable during most occasions, definitely was not appropriate with a three-year-old at the table.

So a perfectly enjoyable atmosphere with a friendly server became very uncomfortable after a few inappropriate and unnecessary comments.

Some lessons:

• Match your comments to your customers
• Be yourself when interacting with customers, but be respectful
• Try to be very personable without being too personal