Nov 27, 2005

More Thoughts About Customer Service

About a month ago, I wrote about notifying a company if you experience a break down in customer service and specifically, about an incident that occurred at Grand Lux Cafe - my dessert was missing from a take-out order and the manager refused to issue a credit, instead offering me a gift card. The gift card never arrived so I complained via the company's website, and was contacted by the restaurant's general manager, who apologized and said he was sending a $25 gift card.

I just wanted to let you know that I did receive the gift card the week after I spoke to the general manager (although I just got around to sending them a thank-you email today). A couple more thoughts worth noting:
  • Every time you talk to someone about a problem, take notes. Write down the date, the name of the person you spoke to, and a brief summary of the discussion. You may need this information later (in this case, I was able to include the name of the manager who refused to issue a credit when I contacted Grand Lux through their website).
  • Follow up. It would have been easy to say "forget about it" when the gift card promised by the manager who refused to issue the credit never arrived. I probably would have done so if I hadn't been so irritated by the thought that the restaurant had essentially stolen from me - after all, they had taken my money and failed to provide the item that I paid for. It's especially important to follow up if the situation bothers you - being proactive is a good antidote to being bitter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I would remember to follow through more. It can be troublesome to complain that we fail to take the time and effort to do so. Thanks for the reminder and if more companies knew what their employees were doing, then we as customers wouldn't get so upset.

ChiefFamilyOfficer said...

You make a good point, Ed - the companies won't order changes from the top if they don't realize what's going on, and an easy way for us to make a difference is to let them know!