April 30th was my birthday and I took the day off. It was supposed to be a relaxing day. It began by making pancakes with my wife, then playing video games for a while. Soon after I went to get a massage followed by some lunch. Lunch threw my day off. We went to a new-to-the-neighborhood, upscale, sit-down sandwich place called Jerry’s. Their menu is gigantic. I figured that deciding what to eat would be the biggest problem I’d have there. I was wrong.
After we ordered, we noticed three new tables of people seated at various times. We also noticed that about 20 minutes had passed without food. Again, we’re talking sandwiches, not exactly the type of food you’d expect to wait a long time for. A little more time passes and our waiter comes out to tell us that he’s sorry, but our order was “stuck behind a giant take-out order”. This changed my mood from anxious to frustrated …
… and now a tangent on how my mind works:
If someone walks into a sandwich shop to place a giant take-out order, they can safely assume they’ll be waiting a for awhile. If my wife and I sit down in a sandwich shop and order two sandwiches, we assume it won’t take very long. If the kitchen would have understood these common assumptions, they would have realized that the length of time added for the person waiting for the take-out order by having two additional sandwiches made (ours), would have been minimal compared to their overall wait time for their “giant order”. In reality, the take-out customer would likely not even notice the extra time. Instead, the restaurant left two different sets of customers waiting for the same amount of time for two drastically different-sized orders.
My point? Scientific thinking in the kitchen doesn’t always have to yield foam and/or crunchy, flavored air — it can lead to a better experience for the customer.
Back to the story. To make matters worse, after waiting for almost 45 minutes, the three other tables that were seated after us got their food before we did! Once our food finally did arrive, something interesting happened: my sandwich was so good that the frustration I felt for having to wait 45 minutes for it was calmed significantly. Significantly, but not completely … hence this article. If the food wouldn’t have been worth the wait, then this would be an entirely different story. At the very least, their food was great, and that’s a start. However, like in many businesses, the product is only part of the experience.
Before I continue, I’d like to point out that I’m well aware that this restaurant may not have any ongoing problems with their customer service. Our bad experience could easily be, and most likely should be chalked up to “sometimes, shit happens”. I’m an eternal benefit-of-the-doubt giver, but the experience did get me thinking about how this relates to the type of business I’m in.
Remember our server who apologized for the tremendous wait? He didn’t make sure the customers waiting the longest got their food first. The lesson here is to back up your apologies with actions; don’t just apologize to your customers because you think you should, or worse … to make yourself feel better.
In his book “The Last Lecture”, Randy Pausch points out that “a good apology has three parts: ‘1. I’m sorry’; 2. ‘It was my fault’ and 3. ‘How do I make it right’. The last part tells about your sincerity.” Consolation is a vastly overlooked area of customer service, which is essentially Randy’s third part of a good apology.
At Threadless, if something goes wrong that’s our fault, you’ll get a coupon code for money off your next purchase. It’s a great way to say to your customer, “We’re human and we’re sorry but sometimes these things happen. So, here’s something we hope will help soften the blow”.
Consolation could be your only chance at a do over with a customer. Take that chance.
What else could anyone who handles a product-driven, customer-service-related company learn from my experience? First, know that simply having good products won’t retain your customers (but it does certainly help). At Threadless, we’re well aware that the impression between product and customer is fleeting, while the impression between company and customer is long-lasting.
Next, recognizing an issue or problem on the approach is almost always better than reacting to it at the intersection. At the point of intersection, the damage has already been done and the only thing left to do is play damage control. In most businesses, it’s usually two different teams of people who handle the “approach” (strategy/planning) and the “intersection” (customer service). A huge part of being on the “approach” team is understanding, and more importantly — caring, that every approach you miss, the “intersection” team has to clean up for you.
So, as a customer, does this mean that I’ll go back to Jerry’s? Sure I will. Their “product” is great. Only next time, I’ll probably just get it to go.
Apologies can go a very long way. I used to work at a large traffic website with lot’s of regular members. If we had a server speed issue and never mentioned it, poeple would complain like mad in the forums. If we put up a small banner saying “sorry for the slow website, were working to correct it as we speak”, very few would complain, and instead would wish us luck on resolving it!
Apologies are so easy to say, and backing them up with more information or what your doing about it is simply good manners - yet the net is full of companies and sites that never give even this simplest of courtesies to their members and visitors, this really does astound me, especially when it’s one of the larger sites!
wow, a really on-target article.
my company is an online e-commerce store and we also sell on eBay. we had an eBay customer give us negative feedback because the product took 4 times our quoted ship time to get to him.
our response was to call the customer, give him a 100% refund and we also let him keep the product.
good companies care and others simply accrue a bad reputation.
I couldn’t agree more. I bought some stuff from an online clothing store and needed them within two weeks - the stuff was out of stock so I e-mailed and they assured me the order would be there on time.
It wasn’t, so I e-mailed again. They apologised and offered me 15% discount coupon for any future orders. I’ve since order from them many times and rarely have any problems.
It was only because they resolved the issue to my satisfaction that I continued to buy from them and that I’m still willing to recommend them to friends.
All I see here is a big grown-up thirty year-old whining like a four year-old because his sandwich was late some other kids cut in line. Furthermore, he offers up the following advice: Delay servicing your big profit margin - bulk order - corporate customers rather than delaying your small - occasional customers.
Somehow I don’t picture Threadless stopping a single-order production run of 3000 shirts in one design so that it can retool and send me a single shirt of a different design.
Carl-
Thanks for the feedback! I think you kinda missed the point. First off, the whole point about the kitchen has literally nothing to do with Threadless. I was just pointing out how MY mind works, not how our business works.
The point you’re missing is that this is about customer service and how to treat your customers. When the food came out isn’t the issue, how we were handled was.
BTW, I have eleven long months before I’m 30.
Oh man, I would wait days for a Jerry’s sanwich. Best sandwich shop in Chi hands down.
Oh, and nice article too.
I have read dozens of customer service articles and was hesitant to read this one. But once I started, I really liked the analogy and your story. Good stuff!
I completely agree with you on the service part. Especially, in the web space, there are countless tools and online services and how a company deals with the client (you can call this ‘client experience’) has more value than how your product deals with the client (call this ‘user’ experience). Software is slowly becoming a commodity so what will stand out is your attention to detail and customer service.
One company that comes to my mind is Rackspace. They are in the hosting business but their differentiation has to do with customer support.
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[…] Good products don’t make up for bad service…but they help […]
Service is one of the few things that businesses have control over and if done properly can set them apart from their competitors.
Good read - Thanks!!!
I have been to Jerry’s several times and there menu is a problem for me. They have maybe 50-100 sandwiches to choose from. Sure that sounds great, lots of choice, never eat the same thing twice. I find it overwhelming. If I am looking for a sandwich to satisfy my lunch needs, I don’t like to spend half the day thinking to myself which should I have today. Im just fine with a simple list of maybe 10 sandwiches.
I will try and relate this to technology and web apps now. Lunch should be a simple painless process. Gather food, eat and go on with your day. Most web apps follow the same rules. Navigate to site, preform your function and go on with your day. If I got to my banking website and the navigation looked like a tag cloud I’d think twice about using it ever again.
[…] (from Think Vitamin) […]
This is very true and I always give free goodies to customers who take the time to email with a complaint, no matter how small.
That being said, I have had several occasions where the customer did not take or want the goodies or would not accept apologies. So, sometimes, even customers are just plain rude as well.
Case in point; Quark XPress! ever had to deal with them when their product fudged? Not until the release of version 7 did they re-think their (lack of) customer support. And that is a $800 layout program! I believe its a nail in their coffin besides no real upgrades till now.
Their treatment of customers was deplorable, legendary even!
thnaks
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[…] Good Products Don’t Make Up for Bad Service … But They Help Skinnycorp’s Jeffrey Kalmikoff discusses ways to truly make amends with a disappointed customer by going the extra mile. […]
thanks man
Thank you again..
Thanksss
Bad service will destroy your business…….quality counts in a product but service is the key.
Service will either make or break your business