I’ve had a couple of instances this week where I’ve received particularly good customer service and a couple where the establishment have been left wanting. The crazy thing is that there genuinely seems no pattern as to where you get this awesome service and where you feel like screaming ‘I’m a client/customer – I pay your wages!’
Let me explain one experience I had was from the venue of an event that we hold fortnightly meetings at and have done so for over 3 years – by my rough calculations that is in the region of £15000 that we have been responsible for bringing in to the establishment directly. I say directly because as it’s a hotel renowned locally as a ‘posh wedding venue’ who is to say that visitors to our events haven’t booked further business with them as an indirect result? The standard of service from the hotel staff has been dipping recently and was subsequently reported to the management, since then if anything, it has become worse. This has lead us to review future bookings. This has also happened at another venue recently – we moved the event and the management now seem to want to get us back by offering ‘incentives’ – meeting room upgrades etc – too late !
On the plus side we have launched a new lunchtime venture and the staff management and restaurant cannot be more helpful – nothing is too much trouble and teething problems have been ironed out without fuss. I’m sure this will be a long and fruitful relationship and I know some of the attendees are already booking up special occasions there.
How easy it is to neglect your clients and whilst the above are quite extreme examples of good and bad service think about how you could be doing more for your clients and indeed what they can be doing for you. How easy is it to drop them that email, pick up that phone or just ask ‘is everything ok?’ In Britain most of us don’t like to make a fuss and would rather moan to others than highlight problems to the people concerned – break the mould and I’m sure you will reap the benefits!
