Once on a vacation, we chose to have dinner in the restaurant of our upscale historical hotel. Even President Obama stayed there a while back and they actually named a dish after him and marked it on the menu and his suite of rooms with the presidential seal.
Like many, with ice water, I generally prefer to have a lemon wedge to add a little flavor. When the server took our beverage order, I specifically asked for “water with lemon”. When it arrived, there was no lemon. So, I politely reminded her, she apologized, and I was expecting it to come shortly. When she came back to take our dinner order, I politely reminded her for a second time and she said that she’d be right on it. It never came.
As a one-time road warrior for work and now a regular traveler for leisure, I’m attuned to customer service in the travel business and beyond. Sometimes, I feel like I receive better customer service in lower-end restaurants from servers who really take the time to serve and to be attentive.
In the end, I was able to get the manager’s attention when she brought the entrees to our table. Later, when the server returned to check on how our food was prepared, still without it herself, she noticed that I had already received my lemon wedge and said, “Well, I see that you got your lemon wedge.” And that was it.
This server was clearly distracted or just not very good at her job. We have become a very service-oriented society whether in face-to-face situations or on the telephone; let’s not forget that the meaning of customer service is plainly serving the customer, the one who is paying for the service.
“Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.” – Kevin Stirtz