It’s time for another tale from my weekend cruise.
This one is going to be an arguably juicier story, so get comfy.
I personally didn’t witness this, but my friend did.
My friend went to dine at a steakhouse by himself and sat next to a nice family who was celebrating their mother’s 90th birthday.
Apparently, they ordered a cake in advance with special instructions (They wanted a specific cake and wanted it cut into 10 pieces or something).
Everything was going fine until the cruise staff brought out the cake.
The family saw (1) It wasn’t the cake they wanted and (2) It was only cut into four pieces.
And suddenly, that niceness turned into pure bitterness.
They started complaining to the staff. And the staff, doing their best to maintain their customer service standard, apologized and brought the manager out to fix things.
But the family didn’t want to stop. They wanted to complain more, and complain they did.
And once they decided to leave, they wanted to get one last word in.
So the son told the cruise staff:
“My mother is celebrating her 90th birthday and she didn’t get the cake she wanted. You guys BLEW IT!”
How did the staff react? They simply rolled their eyes, and it’s understandable. I mean, it’s just a cake for goodness’ sake.
Even if it’s your goal to give your customers the best experience possible, it’s simply no use trying to please the overly-entitled customers.
Those are the people who take the “The customer is always right” expression literally. Those are the people who make the worst customers.
If they were to ever come across your business, you’re better off letting them go and have them bother another business that’s willing to deal with them, in my opinion.
And for your good customers, they deserve your best treatment. After all, they are funding your livelihood.
If you want to learn some ways to enhance your customer service, I suggest picking up Vance Morris’ Tales From the Customer Service Crypt.