Last Saturday I walked into a restaurant with a friend to celebrate her birthday. “We’d like a table,” my friend requested.
The host led us to a table in a section with four other tables, two of which were empty and across from this table. Our assigned table had a wall in back and to one side of it, and the third side was back-to-back with another table. That table was filled with six adolescent boys who had just finished a hockey game. Their parents were seated at the table on the other side of them.
My friend, a retired teacher, noticed that the boys were having a good time, moving their chairs around and generally being typical adolescent boys. As she pulled out a chair on the side of the table near the wall, she asked, “Are you sure that you want to sit here?”
I had taken note of the boys, too, but had thought that I could handle it. However, when I tried to pull out a chair on the side of the table which was back-to-back with their table, I bumped into one of their chairs. Squeezing into the chair, I realized that their jumpy movements were going to disrupt my meal. “You’re right,” I agreed. “I’ll ask the waitress to move us.”
Unfortunately for the waitress, her opening line led into my brusque request. “How are you doing today?” she asked cheerfully.
“Not good,” I gruffly replied. “Could we have a different table?”
Taken aback, she quickly responded. “Of course. Where would you like to go?”
“To one of those tables across from us,” I answered.
After we had moved, I explained to her that I didn’t mind being in the room with the boys, I just didn’t want to deal with their chair movements every few minutes. “When you have that situation and two other tables available in the room, why seat anyone at a table near a disruption?” I wondered.
“That’s a good point,” she agreed. “I apologize for your inconvenience.”
I apologized to her for being abrupt. Later the person who had told the host to seat us at that table stopped by and apologized. I hope that she learned from the experience.
In a service business such as a restaurant, employees must keep close tabs on the customer’s experience. The food is important, of course, but the customer’s comfort is also important. If a customer is getting bumped and squeezed by someone in the chair behind her throughout the meal, she will not enjoy the food even if it is delicious. The possibility of this happening can be addressed when the customer is seated.
Those seating customers need to look for more than an open table. They need to look around the table and be certain that the customer will be comfortable sitting there. I cited the young boys jumpiness, but many other situations could make the customer uncomfortable. Employees need to consider the customer and the situation in order to anticipate potential problems. In this instance, noticing the boys at the next table ought to have triggered a red flag of a potential problem. Had he noticed this, the host could have directed us to a table across from the boys such as the one at which we ultimately sat.
To do so, the host needed to focus and think. He had to focus on the customer and what might make her uncomfortable. Then he had to take that assessment, look at where he was about to seat the customer, and think through if that location had anything that would lead to the customer’s discomfort. If it did, the host needed to quickly change the seating location to a place where the customer would be comfortable. While this process sounds complicated, in reality it takes less time to do than it does me to describe it.
This focus and thought stems from keeping the customer first and looking at the experience from the customer’s point of view. Do you and your employees do that with every customer?
This week's marketing trivia challenge is What experience have you had that demonstrated the employee had a customer’s point of view? E-mail me your answer.
The host led us to a table in a section with four other tables, two of which were empty and across from this table. Our assigned table had a wall in back and to one side of it, and the third side was back-to-back with another table. That table was filled with six adolescent boys who had just finished a hockey game. Their parents were seated at the table on the other side of them.
My friend, a retired teacher, noticed that the boys were having a good time, moving their chairs around and generally being typical adolescent boys. As she pulled out a chair on the side of the table near the wall, she asked, “Are you sure that you want to sit here?”
I had taken note of the boys, too, but had thought that I could handle it. However, when I tried to pull out a chair on the side of the table which was back-to-back with their table, I bumped into one of their chairs. Squeezing into the chair, I realized that their jumpy movements were going to disrupt my meal. “You’re right,” I agreed. “I’ll ask the waitress to move us.”
Unfortunately for the waitress, her opening line led into my brusque request. “How are you doing today?” she asked cheerfully.
“Not good,” I gruffly replied. “Could we have a different table?”
Taken aback, she quickly responded. “Of course. Where would you like to go?”
“To one of those tables across from us,” I answered.
After we had moved, I explained to her that I didn’t mind being in the room with the boys, I just didn’t want to deal with their chair movements every few minutes. “When you have that situation and two other tables available in the room, why seat anyone at a table near a disruption?” I wondered.
“That’s a good point,” she agreed. “I apologize for your inconvenience.”
I apologized to her for being abrupt. Later the person who had told the host to seat us at that table stopped by and apologized. I hope that she learned from the experience.
In a service business such as a restaurant, employees must keep close tabs on the customer’s experience. The food is important, of course, but the customer’s comfort is also important. If a customer is getting bumped and squeezed by someone in the chair behind her throughout the meal, she will not enjoy the food even if it is delicious. The possibility of this happening can be addressed when the customer is seated.
Those seating customers need to look for more than an open table. They need to look around the table and be certain that the customer will be comfortable sitting there. I cited the young boys jumpiness, but many other situations could make the customer uncomfortable. Employees need to consider the customer and the situation in order to anticipate potential problems. In this instance, noticing the boys at the next table ought to have triggered a red flag of a potential problem. Had he noticed this, the host could have directed us to a table across from the boys such as the one at which we ultimately sat.
To do so, the host needed to focus and think. He had to focus on the customer and what might make her uncomfortable. Then he had to take that assessment, look at where he was about to seat the customer, and think through if that location had anything that would lead to the customer’s discomfort. If it did, the host needed to quickly change the seating location to a place where the customer would be comfortable. While this process sounds complicated, in reality it takes less time to do than it does me to describe it.
This focus and thought stems from keeping the customer first and looking at the experience from the customer’s point of view. Do you and your employees do that with every customer?
This week's marketing trivia challenge is What experience have you had that demonstrated the employee had a customer’s point of view? E-mail me your answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment