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I didn’t know what to title this, so I’ll just tell you what happened.  But this goes to both a fail in customer service and a possible fail in sales. I HOPE your receptionist is not like this gal.  First, she never says HER name, so when I was trying to share my story and frustration when I finally reached someone more senior at that company (it took 3 calls to get someone responsible to talk to), I couldn’t identify her.   I called back a 4th time and got her name when I asked her.  I’m not going to say it here because it really isn’t her fault she has these problems…it’s managements fault that she hasn’t been trained better.

It’s a nice thing to say your name when answering the company phone – whether a receptionist or a senior vice president, AND helps with later accountability and even…PRAISE…if the caller knows the receptionist’s name.  The second area where she dropped the ball was in her knowledge and ability to provide accurate information…and customer service.

This was a Saturday and I was asking to schedule service next week for my auto, I told No Name that I had a car previously purchased from that dealership by my mother and wanted to get it serviced.  She transferred me into a voice mail, it said  Mary’s voice mail…nothing in Mary’s voice message indicated she was the person responsible for scheduling service, so, not trusting that  No Name understood my question or put me into the right place, I called back, got No Name again and asked what Mary’s role was.  She told me Mary was responsible for scheduling service.  I asked if Mary was in today/Saturday because it went to her voice mail, and No Name said she was.  I asked until what time Mary would be there and No Name said until 4pm  So, I asked to be transferred again and got into Mary’s voice mail box and asked her to call me back by 4 (about 3 hours) so I could get on the schedule for next week.  After about 30 minutes, I hadn’t received  a call back, so I called again, and No Name said again that Mary was in.  However, I was impatient, so I admit I called again in about 15 minutes and THANKFULLY the phone system skipped No Name and connected me to Larry!  Larry answered with his name and it turned out he IS the head of service and was working Saturday, so he was able to answer all my questions about the maintenance needs for my mother’s car and schedule me for Thursday.  I asked him where Mary was, because she would then not need to call me back, and Larry advised me that Mary doesn’t work on Saturdays, just Monday – Friday.  I questioned why No Name would send me to someone who wasn’t even there and he explained that No Name is a SALES receptionist, because there is more traffic there on a Saturday than in service.  But that makes it even worse…if she’s a SALES receptionist, wouldn’t one think she would be more gracious in the way she answers the phone – especially if she might be the first point of contact in the company????  I would think that the sales department would like her to treat all callers as a Guest into the organization, whether a sales call from a prospect or a service inquiry from a customer.  That’s the basics of customer service training and sales.  So not only does she not use her name, she also hasn’t been trained on the other departments she answers for so she gives out inaccurate information.  NOT her fault…management owes her some training so that she doesn’t lose a prospective customer.  I don’t HAVE to get the car serviced at that dealership, but since my mother bought the car there I thought I should. There are many other less expensive places I’m sure to get it serviced.  I hung in there and fortunately got Larry.  Would someone else have been as tenacious as me…or gone elsewhere and given those maintenance $$$ to someone else?  Maybe that dealership doesn’t need the business/the money???

Recently shopped at a Dierberg’s in St. Louis…but not my usual store so items were not where I was used to finding them.  Found a wonderful guy stocking apples who answered EVERY question about where something was…got them all right and he even walked me to one aisle because he was not sure it would be there…and it was!  I apologized for interrupting him while he was replenishing the fruit but he said it was no problem and he was curious to see how many he got right!  He passed with flying colors.  Then on the checkout line, I looked and looked for Time Magazine on the ends of the checkout lanes and couldn’t find it.  So I asked a manager who was talking to a cashier (no one was on that line) if they carried Time. and the manager waved in a direction and said somewhat curtly that magazines were over by the bakery.  Not a very friendly response, but I trotted down to the bakery – looked at all the categories, and didn’t find Time.  Ran back to get in my place in line and said to that manager, in a snippy tone,  ”if you are curious …the answer to the question about whether you carry time magazine is NO.”  A few minutes later he found it on one of the ends of the register lanes and brought it to me.  So…he redeemed himself, but it would have been much nicer if he had found it for me originally, instead of sending my off to search on my own to a place that didn’t have it.  In Trader Joes, they take you RIGHT to the item you are asking for/searching for.  A very nice and friendly customer service touch.  This Dierberg’s manager needs to shop at Trader Joes and see how it is done.

If that manager had implemented some of TIPS (Tempo, Inflection, Pitch and Speech) which I teach in my Customer Service Webinars he might have sounded a little friendlier, and more empathetic.

I was on the checkout line at Trader Joe’s and an acquaintance came up to me to ask how I was doing, how was my mother doing. It was just 4 days after she passed away and I started to cry a bit. While talking to my friend, the checkout clerk left the register…and a minute later returned with a full bouquet of flowers for me and an expression of condolence from himself and on behalf of Trader Joe’s. How incredibly empathetic…and a beautiful gesture that I will never forget and will tell everyone I know. Simply listening…and responding – that’s the key to building a WOW customer experience.

Thanks!
Sam Black

How often do you find someone who just provides a good idea without any expectation of reward?  Karen Hoffman of The Idea Coach is such a person!  She came up with “baggie’ envelopes that she passes out at networking events so people can put the cards they collect inside the bag…and remember WHERE they collected that card!  Cool idea and she just hands them out.  Her information is inside on a card that says Turning Contacts into Connections and it has the event printed too…but that’s fine to remind us of her great idea!  Kudos to Karen.