Page 151 - The Apple Experience

 “I’m helping someone else right now.”

Customer service blunders are inevitable. Customers complain, and there

will be times they have to wait, no matter where they are. Resetting your

customer’s clock is even more important in these delicate situations.
Salespeople need to be smart, friendly, and fast. They also need to be skilled

at smoothing things over for disgruntled customers. The process works much

better if employees are trained to go on the offense instead of playing

defense.

My wife writes a customer service column on our site, and she receives

great customer service stories from people around the country. Here’s one

story of how an Outback Steakhouse in Louisville, Colorado, played offense
and hit a home run.

My wife and I entered an Outback Steakhouse one evening for a
quick dinner. The hostess took our name and the need for a

table for two. As we sat there, additional parties came in and

then we noticed a trend. Numerous parties of three and four
were being seated but we were not—the bypassing of us for

larger parties continued past the time when we should have been
given a larger table. Once I addressed the issue with the

manager on duty, we were quickly seated, with a sincere apology
and an appetizer “on the house.” At that point, we were satisfied

with the quick response and enjoyed our free appetizer.

As it turns out, the owner of this and several other Outback
locations was in the building and came over to our table, offered

a sincere apology, and indicated that the hostess was new and
that he had replaced her for the evening and would provide her

with additional training. He took the blame, placing it on
himself as a training failure instead of the typical “blame it on