This article talks about how customer service has changed into customer care. The restaurants that did well always knew this.
As I waited for a response to my question about a VCR from a stereo company, I listened to a recording that said a "customer care" representative would be there soon. At that moment, I realised that everyone is finally getting into it. With ageing baby boomers, events happening around the world, and other stresses in today's society, "customer care" has become more important in our economy. We have moved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy and are now moving toward a "servicecare" economy. Since we live in a high-tech, high-button-touch world, there aren't as many personal interactions. This makes each customer interaction more important than ever for a company's image. For example, if you call tech support for your computer, the person who answers the phone will often call you by your first name. If it's a bank or credit card company, they might ask, "How are you today?" This makes the customer feel like a person instead of a number.
The successful restaurant owners always took service one step further toward "care" because they knew that, more than any other industry, restaurant customer service is directly tied to the health of the customer (except for healthcare industry itself). When people were asked why they ate out, the most common answer was "to feel good." (After all, the word "restaurant" comes from the French word "rétablir," which means "to fix." As a waiter for many years, I thought it was my job to make people feel better, especially if they had had a hard day.
When I used to work in a dining room, I remember certain things that took service to a higher level of "care." Once, a customer asked for margarine, but the restaurant didn't have any. The owner crossed the street to the store, bought the margarine, and brought it to the table. The customer was happy. A diabetic customer who came in often always got some kind of bread or crackers right away so she wouldn't feel sick before her food came. If there was a baby at a table, our staff made sure that the baby's food came out as quickly as possible to calm the baby down. These kinds of actions give any business or organisation a good reputation that lasts. Even after the owner left to open other restaurants for the company, his care for the guests could be felt in the dining room and among the staff.
Customer service has three important parts:
- The ability of frontline workers to be spontaneous and flexible, which makes it easier for them to solve problems on the spot.
- Recovery is making things right with the customer when the process has gone wrong.
- They care about the customer
Any training for customer service should always focus on these three points. If they are taken into account, good service will happen.
