CSI - Lose my trust, lose my business?

On Saturday, I was convinced to stop by a fast food place that had a special deal. Fair disclosure requires me to say that I stop by fast food places about 10 times a week. What was different about this stop was the way they pulled their deal off the table.

I can live with a company getting overwhelmed by a deal or running out of an offer and making adjustments. The jury is still out on the long term effects of this oops as I wait for my KFC coupon. What I find amazing was that the other place pulled the Saturday deal and offered no alternatives. That makes me question your integrity. Once I am not sure that I can trust what you say, how can your advertising be anything but a waste of time and money. It's like that Lucy & Charlie Brown thing with the football.

When one of the little Unsorted Thinkers calls you out, you know that your organization has done wrong.

This leads me to the following simple suggestions from my customer service days.

• If there is a special deal, make sure the staff know about it and how to process it in your POS system.
  
  
• If you run into a problem, e.g. run out of the special--identify an alternative
  
  
• Share the alternative with the staff...along with how to process it in the POS system.

It's really not that tricky.

Soon, we will touch on another CSI that came up at the same franchise (different shop.) It almost made my my jaw hit the floor because it was just that unbelievable. I will make an adjustment to some of my fast food patterns now that I know...I just cannot trust some places.

I can't get no...satisfaction?

The other day, I was in a fast food business that focuses on chicken. There was a customer who was not happy with her order. She explained that it was not done enough for her. As the issue was handed over to the shift manager, she checked the chicken. The shift manager explained that the chicken was fully cooked and she had cooked it herself.

The customer wanted another order. The shift manager explained how she cooked the chicken for the required time and that all of the chicken was similarly prepared. She offered to refund the customer's money. The customer insisted that she wanted another order of chicken. The manager gave her the option of a refund or keeping her original order.

I was very interested in this exchange, because of that old (false and incomplete) adage--the customer is always right. While the customer is always right about his/her expectations, that does not change the reality of the business. Unless the manager believed this was a bad piece of chicken, giving away more of the same doesn't make the customer happy, it just makes the restaurant less profitable. Good for the shift manager.

All customer satisfaction is not equal. In some cases what we expect is not even close in different industries. The average level of service we expect from the cable company is far different than our expectations from an internet retailer.

Before you paint me with the "doesn't get customer satisfaction" brush. let me say that it is important to deliver a high level of service to your customers. Doing so should get you more business if you understand how to make their experience a memorable one.

However, if your best is not good enough for them, you have to make a business decision. Are we going to get better or do we believe our level of accomplishment is good enough? If you have no plans to get better, target customers that like your level of accomplishment and quickly get the others out of your business.

It is better to not have customers that you will not satisfy, than to keep them around. The more they show up, the more your happy customers start to wonder if their level of approval is appropriate.

Preference vs Process

The other day, the UT got a request to purchase a specific brand of peanut butter. I paused because the current 2 brands of PB were not the generic that this frugal shopper would love to buy. Even though I bought fancy brand #3, I was not convinced that it was any better than the other two. The comment that Mrs. UT sent my way stated that I had no appreciation for the taste that was clearly better in brand 3.

I’ll admit that I am not an expert foodie, but I did score in the middle of the pack (debonair diner) on a foodie quiz. I do wander over to the Food Network sometimes. I don’t think my kid is a foodie either, just far too picky to enjoy the variety of foods out there. Anyhow, Mrs. UT tossed a Pepsi challenge mumble in the air just before I started making lunches. GAME ON! A process idea initiated.

I got the opportunity to test both Mrs. Picky and her mini protagonist before they left the house. With 3 jars of peanut butter and 3 spoons for each, they both showed a dislike of brand 1 and general indifference between brands 2 and 3 before settling on brand 2.

You should have seen the UT doing the “You didn’t pick brand 3” dance.

My future work on the differences between things we buy into because of marketing versus reality is born!