It has been a few days of little annoyances with a range of our devices.
My son’s computer suffered an unrecoverable mechanical disk failure; my wife’s computer crashed; our TV service was out for the opening weekend of the Olympics; this blog was off the air for a couple days due to a server crash; we blew out a turn signal on a car designed for dealers to replace lights. And so on.
Throughout, we have encountered great service people who did their best to empathize while restoring service. The best customer service experience was on the way home today. The turn signal blew out as we got on the highway, meaning that lane changes were going to be a problem. So at lunch time, we pulled off the highway at Orillia and took the car into a dealer to get the bulb replaced.
We were travelling with our dog, meaning that we needed a place for lunch that was furry friendly.
The Montana’s restaurant had a bench in a shady spot in the front that looked good for a picnic, but the staff went above and beyond for us. They set up a table for us, with full service using real cutlery and plates. They even brought a bowl of cool water for Tobi.
It was above and beyond our expectations, maybe because we often don’t see people in national chain restaurants who love their jobs. It reaffirmed my view that business is done between people and that great customer service needs great people.
How do you build a passionate workforce?
I totally agree with your comments, every company is a people business at its heart and it is very hard to ‘manufacture’ a customers service focus if it’s not in the DNA of the company already.
I work for TELUS and every 6 months all VP, directors and many managers spend a day with the customer facing teams engaging with our customers. What we always see is the passion from the teams and often they share excellent ideas to deliver an improved customer service. To my earlier point this can’t happen unless you have collaborative and learning orientated managers and you hire and retain employees who care.