Why Is Customer Service Such A Puzzle For So Many Businesses?

Customer service rant #24,367...or at least that is my best guess of the number of times I have been baffled by the lack of it since I first started using any social media a decade ago and quickly discovered its power to make companies more accountable for how they treat anyone paying for their products and/or services. No, I don’t want to be considered “that person” who complains just for the sake of complaining. My mother raised me to be an “action girl” and if I need to put on my cape and take on that persona every once in awhile, I do think I am extremely mindful of doing it with grace and integrity.

Well, 99% of the time...I will admit to a rare occasion when I simply lose my mind when the lack of ownership and responsibility goes beyond absurd.

There was the time that a certain cruise line truly lied about the itinerary they were advertising, knowing months in advance that they were not going to be able to dock in all of the ports listed because of a problem with the ship’s propulsion system. They simply didn’t want to fix it until after the busy cruising season. Translation...lose millions in sales but with a risk that could have cost them even more if the boat did reach the point of failure in the middle of the ocean.

As a result, I took it upon myself to fight the fight for every passenger and when they didn’t like my social media posts trying to get them to do the right thing and compensate us with more than a few dollars of onboard ship credit (barely enough for each passenger to have two pina coladas), they banned my entire family from all of the ships owned by their parent company...before we even got on the boat…not kidding. Ultimately, I got the ban lifted with the help of a few U.S. Senators, the Maritime Board, Better Business Bureau and a major news outlet requesting interviews with their Director of PR so chalk one up for persistence.

Did I mention I was raised to be an “action girl”?

Here’s the thing...I happen to believe that companies should not get away with thinking that a paying customer isn’t entitled to good service and feel like their concerns about any matter are being ignored. And when any company is presented with a reasonable request from a customer, they need to make a reasonable attempt at fulfilling it.

Providing superior customer service and maintaining an excellent reputation is something that small business owners like myself take very seriously. If one of my organizing clients decides they don’t like the work I’ve done, my business could be destroyed with the click of a mouse even if their complaint was completely unjustified and unfounded. I just will never have control over someone that is hell bent on damaging my livelihood. That said, I can’t ever imagine anyone ever doing that to me. I work so hard at communicating with my clients and tell them during the initial consultation that if at any point they are not happy to let me know and we will work through it.

I recently had an 80 year old client that is getting ready to downsize and spent an entire day working with him side by side dealing with piles and piles of paper that had accumulated over the past two years since his wife died rather unexpectedly. I sorted the copious amount of newspaper articles, holiday cards, scraps of paper with phone numbers that didn’t have corresponding names and so much more that obviously he didn’t know how to organize.

A few days later his son called and said his father was very upset that I had thrown away some papers without his consent. I responded that I would never do that and explained that is exactly why I task my clients with those decisions once I’ve sorted everything. Usually it is the “homework” I give them in between sessions, but in this case, his father sat in his favorite armchair most of the time I was there and looked at everything piece by piece. He made the decision whether it should be filed or tossed, not me.

His son didn’t doubt for a minute that I was telling the truth especially after I mentioned I was concerned about a few things I had noticed about his behavior that might indicate signs of dementia like an overflowing refrigerator and freezer with a ridiculous amount of expired food products. The father told me he didn’t know how it all got in there. One package of chicken was from 2017...trust me, that is not a smell you forget very easily. And when I questioned whether it really was a good idea for his father to plan to take a cross country road trip by himself this summer for a high school reunion, he said, “What? That was two years.”

Sadly, his son wasn’t able to convince his father that I did nothing wrong and I lost the rest of the job, one that was going to be a rather substantial amount of revenue for my business over the next month or two. But instead of just ending it all right there, I gave the son another 45 minutes of my time for free on the phone and provided him with a lot of resources he could use in place of me. He knew that the downsizing process was now going to fall back onto his shoulders to manage, something he attempted months ago, got nowhere and thought the answer would be to hire a professional organizer to remove himself from the emotions that clearly were standing in his father’s way of making any significant progress towards getting the house ready to sell. The son was extremely grateful and promised me he would let the Realtor that had referred me to them nothing but a glowing recommendation. And he also said he would pay me the balance for the initial number of hours we had originally discussed and I had already scheduled to complete the follow week.

My point in telling that story? Obviously, I am someone who does everything in my power to make my clients feel like I am a person who truly cares and never wants any excuse for my credibility to be sullied by a bad online review. In recent years, the internet has seen its share of examples of companies behaving badly and suffering severe consequences when the story goes viral, but the vast majority still get away with everything from rude call center employees to lack of transparency in a transaction, false advertising and misrepresentation.

So when I finally get the chance to take off my business owner hat and want to enjoy an evening out with some friends, I kind of expect the same level of customer service I give to my clients. Silly me it seems...or at least it was silly of me recently at a certain 5 star hotel I routinely go to for business meetings, special events and occasional happy hours. They are one of the few 5 star hotels in the state and that means when anyone walks into their hotel whether an out of town guest or local resident we all should expect 5 star treatment.

I had plans to spend a few hours in the hotel’s very inviting lobby to enjoy some drinks and food and celebrate a friend's very special milestone birthday along with about a dozen other people. And, like we do whenever we go out en masse, we made the request before anyone placed an order to get separate checks. Not a big deal right?...especially in 2019.

And yet it was apparently a massive big deal on that particular night even when the lobby was unusually quiet and void of the normal hustle and bustle that can sometimes mean long wait times for even a glass of water.

When we asked why, we were told that is just their policy.

When we said we have never had that issue before, the server said, well, you got lucky.

When we said we would happily provide our individual credit cards to hold so there would be no issue with anyone walking out without paying (as if we would do that) we were still told no.

When we explained that it just seemed ridiculous to expect that many people ordering various amounts of things to figure out their share of a large bill and make one person responsible for putting it on their credit card, we were told we could get cash from the ATM nearby if that would help solve what they clearly felt was our problem. We were also told we could all go into the bar to order/pay separately and walk ourselves with drinks in hand back to the lobby. But, hey, we should have been eternally grateful that they were at least willing to deliver the food we ordered to us in the lobby right?

When we said that didn’t seem like a reasonable solution if we are already paying premium prices for drinks and food, but we enjoy the atmosphere of the hotel and are willing to pay that premium for a 5 star experience which should mean exceptional service, we were met with a blank stare from the server.

Side note...Can we just agree if we wanted “counter service” we would have gone to that type of establishment? But we were there, in a 5 star hotel… and we asked our server to have the manager come speak to us, but she disappeared and we never her saw again the rest of the night.

So someone in our group got up and went to the front desk to ask for the general manager. And after about 30 minutes, he did come over and listened to two former hospitality industry professionals (myself being one) talk about how we would always do everything to accommodate the customer and find a way to work around a policy. We made the argument that this was not an impossible request and if we had all just walked into the bar as if we weren't together and each sat at one of the dozen stools instead of in the lobby and ordered "separately" we would have been given separate checks. His response was, well, the bartender doesn’t have to walk across the lobby to place the orders. Ummmm...isn’t that exactly why you have servers in your lobby?

When we went one step further and asked what they do when the lobby is packed...which most nights it is...and strangers are sharing the couches because they want to individually enjoy some people watching or maybe send a few emails while having a drink before going up to their room for the night, do they tell them they have to deal with one check because they are breathing the same air as the person next to them? His response was simply “I’m sorry we didn’t meet your expectations this evening,” stood up and walked away. That was it. Not even an attempt to make us feel better by buying the woman celebrating her birthday a glass of wine or sending over a bowl of their overpriced seasoned popcorn which, admittedly is pretty delicious and if I’m feeling like I want to spend $10 indulging my love for popcorn clearly I will...assuming it will be put on a separate check.

But I digress...

Seriously, those little gestures do go a long way in making customers feel like you actually care about them and want them to return. But clearly this hotel doesn’t think so and sadly, far too many other businesses in the world today don’t either. We are all part of a “throw away, disposable” mindset that unfortunately applies to more than plastic straws. There are a bazillion more so why have to deal with keeping track of a reusable one? It appears that is the overall attitude more and more towards customers with each year that goes by. We are disposable and our potential loyalty really doesn’t have as much weight as it used to. Companies “talk the talk” to lure us in but don’t always follow through and really “walk the walk”.

My first hospitality job after college was at a luxury hotel in New York City as an assistant manager in one of their restaurants. On an almost daily basis, I had to approach at least one guest who didn’t leave a tip for a particular server, usually someone from Europe and Asia where they didn’t believe in tipping because, here’s a weird concept, they actually pay their servers a fair wage to support themselves. I would politely ask them if everything was ok with their meal and/or the service. If they said yes, I was then required to ask why then they didn’t leave a tip. Sometimes they apologized profusely for forgetting but other times they looked at me like I was insane for asking. I had to gently press them to reconsider leaving a tip. More times than not, they just walked away.

I realize this is somewhat of #firstworldproblem and at a time when more than a million people have been affected by the government shutdown (even with the temporary reboot let’s not kid ourselves; there are still a lot of people that will experience serious ramifications for some time to come) did I really need to spend the time to write this rather lengthy article? That is for each of you individually to decide.

As I often say, nobody died as a result of us having to essentially serve ourselves a few drinks, but still. The hotel’s policy really is a very stupid one. Even if it may take a little extra time for the server to enter individual transactions, it really shouldn't be an obstacle for providing separate checks, especially, with all of the technology today. I’m sure they could hire someone to create an app for very little money that could fix this situation, assuming one doesn’t already exist that would specifically address this problem. There are many restaurants that give customers iPads to place their orders. I personally am not a fan because I actually enjoy interacting with the servers face to face, but if it does help expedite orders and provide a clean way for creating separate checks, problem solved for this particular hotel.

Or maybe they would consider getting their servers individual order/payment terminals. If fast casual restaurants can afford them, I am relatively certain a hotel charging $400 or more a night for a standard room not to mention $15 for well brand cocktails can as well even if it does have elderberry flower syrup or whatever is in the latest “it” libation creation. And if this particular hotel is worried that the server won't get tipped fairly by each person and, therefore, take what they figure is the path of least resistance with one, neat transaction that, in their mind, gives them an inherent right to add an 18% gratuity for parties of 6 or more (and removing any obligation on the part of the server to actually earn that gratuity with above and beyond service), let's remember, there is no guarantee any one individual will ever leave a tip even if a manager chases them out of the hotel and down the street.

And on that note, I think I've reached the end of this rant...hopefully it is my last one for awhile. This “action girl” needs a little rest.