You might have noticed that the rate of my posting is declining. It is because I started doing some things besides watching the wheels. You can say that I am selectively hopping on the merry-go-round from time to time, to feel it again.
However, my Customer Experience sensors are still active and so they caught someone say the sentence in the title “Sorry, we do not want your money“. Well not in these words, but practically this was the meaning.
While we were walking out of Max Brenner in Herzliah, we heard a conversation between the restaurant host and a group of 4-5 people who came in.
Prospect customers: “Do you have business lunch?”
Host: “Yes, but only from 12 pm”
The time was 11:50am !!!
Prospect customers: “It is only 10 minutes from now”
Host: “I know, there is nothing I can do”
We could not hear the rest of the conversation, but we saw the prospect customers leaving.
Let’s analyze it for a second. 4 or 5 people just wanted to pay for lunch and you sent them away to another place. I am certain that tomorrow they will not even consider going there (there are so many good restaurants around), and I suspect that they will tell other people about the pettiness of this restaurant. Max Brenner not only lost a few Shekels in this case, they lost much more.
“There is nothing I can do?”
If the problem is human hardheadedness of the host then there is really nothing we can do. But assuming there is a technical reason (for example, the computer does not accept business lunch orders before 12pm), let’s consider a few alternatives:
“Sorry, the computer does not accept business lunch orders before 12:00 but…
1) … please come inside and choose your meal – by the time you will know what you want it will be time”.
2) …. we will manage.”
3) … come inside, we will offer you some coffee on the house while we wait for the time to pass.”
I guess we can think about many other ideas which are by far better than the experience they got. If you want your customers to return and also tell others about your place – do not tell them “we do not want your money”.
All great examples of good customer experience are where the service giver went the extra mile to satisfy the customer – especially when there is a limitation that prevents him from giving the “normal” service. When there is difficulty, turn it into an advantage. Don’t throw your customers away.
And having that in mind, here is a great Dilbert from last week:
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