Introduction

On Sunday, I was finished with my last Savage Seven game—an ultimate tournament in Baton Rouge—game and decided to go grab a quick lunch with some teammates before the final game. On Monday, I had the day off and decided to go buy some new running shoes for ultimate. Each of these establishments obviously have very different practices for their customer service. I’m sure this is a matter of praxis and not doctrine, but regardless each experience was vastly different. I took something away from each of these and thought I’d share these lessons with you. I’m no customer service maven (see Guy Kawasaki for that), but I think one can still learn from this.

Scenario 1: Burger King

Like I said, I had just finished up my last Savage Seven game. We were hungry and there were just a few minutes before the start of the final—which was sure to be a good game. We hopped into my car and drove to the nearest fast food establishment. It happen to be Burger King #01314.

I had six other guys with me, but otherwise the queue was empty. Before getting in line, I made a trip to the restroom. Immediately, I noticed the unkempt appearance of the restaurant. The drink bar was in disarray; the tables and chairs weren’t arranged and dirty; the bathroom was an unpleasant mess. Before I reached the cashier, I knew this wouldn’t go well. First, and most important to initial customer reactions, she wasn’t smiling. In fact, she seemed completely apathetic. She very obviously didn’t want to be there. Secondly, her uniform was in slight disarray. It wasn’t anything to be too worried about, but something that never would’ve happened when I was working in fast food. We ordered our food, each getting a different combo meal. I ordered a relatively simple fried chicken sandwich—I added bacon and cheese to it and removed all other components; the perfect sandwich (according to my theory) is meat and cheese only. This was 1:20pm (according to the receipt). Exactly twenty minutes later, I finally received my food. The sandwich was slightly warmer than room temperature and the fries were room temperature. I was the last in line, so after I got my order, we scurried back to the final. Unfortunately, we missed a good bit of the first few points—including a Callahan by Turbodog player John Malone—and the fantasy draft.

This is a sad excuse for fast food. Chick-fil-A would’ve had my sandwich in under three minutes, even in a sea of people. Needless to say, I was quite perturbed. Not furiously upset, but enough to call the customer service hotline. I expected to get a live operator with which I could relay my dissatisfaction. But no, I was greeted by “Jane,” an automated machine. How am I supposed to get my point across to a machine? It was really terrible. Seriously, try it out: 866-425-4745. Isn’t that offensive? Instead of spending maybe three minutes telling an operator that I wasn’t happy with Burger King’s service, I was bombarded with a twenty minute survey about totally unrelated things. No, I don’t want to answer questions about referring this location to a friend (which I wouldn’t) or how convenient the location was to my traffic tendencies or how many times I’ve been to a burger chain in the last month. I don’t care if this helps their marketing, it’s bothersome, pesky and nagging. I just want them to know that they have a poor quality restaurant in their company and that they need to address this issue promptly. Of course, I’ve been informed that even the restaurant owner doesn’t care, see geauxpromotions on Twitter.

Lessons from Burger King

I learned quite a lot from this experience. First of all, if you’re interacting with customers, you should always be smiling, enthusiastic and amiable. If you look like you’re bored or don’t want to be there, then it’s likely the customer’s experience won’t be very good. Further, if you don’t care enough to be in a presentable manner, then it’s obvious you don’t care about your job. If either of both of these are true, save both you and me time and don’t show up. Finally, don’t set up a customer service hotline with an automated attendant. Don’t ever. If I take time out of my day to give you comments about your service, then you should at least have enough respect for to listen and interact with me. Having an automated customer service hotline is like a slap in the face—it’s just plain offensive. Take what Burger King did and do the exact opposite and then you’ll have a good customer service department.

Scenario 2: Varsity Sports

Ultimate is my most active extracurricular activity. It’s a sport that consists of non-stop athletic movement. To be an effective player, one must posses superior athletic ability and the endurance of a soccer player—or a third lung, as one of my fellow players put it. So, to become a better player, I do a lot of running. I’ve been running in some old New Balance shoes I’ve had for a couple of years. Needless to say, they are worn out and are in a definite need of replacing. My parents wanted to buy me a new pair for Christmas, and today we finally had time to go shopping. Normally shoe shopping means going to several different stores to find a combination of the best fit, style and price. These stores are normally the big, national brand stores. But this time, we went a different route. My parents suggested we go to Varsity, a well-known local place. In these economic times, it’s important to support the local establishments—our wonderful Governor has been pushing this.

But more importantly, Varsity is known for tailoring to runners. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly, smiling staff. I told them I needed running shoes for ultimate, and they immediately began their work. I was attended by a lady—a runner herself—who started by watching me walk to determine which type of shoe I’d need. Then, she fitted my foot and pulled several shoes ranging in color, style, brand and price. As I waded through the selection, she pulled more that fitted with the others I had put in the “maybe” pile. She even pulled stuff from the clearance rack. As we worked through the pile, she give me helpful tips and let me walk around a bit. Once I had narrowed the shoes down to just two, she gave me more insight into choosing a shoe. She even suggested I run down the road outside to get a feel for the shoes. I ultimately decided on a pair of Nike Air ZM Structure Triaz+ 11. They look nice and feel great. They are also fairly inexpensive. Plus, I got a free shirt to go with it (This is another thing Varsity is known for, and I think it’s great marketing).

As she rang us up, I also asked the staff questions about my ultimate cleats. They’re a nice pair of Nike Total 90’s, but after several months, they’re still giving me severe blisters. I asked what I could do about this and they told me that it was probably because of the cotton socks I was wearing. Apparently, cotton holds the moisture and that is what causes the blisters. She told me to find a pair of polyester- or similar material-based socks that are moisture wicking. This, she told me, would help. I started looking at their selection, but she suggested looking at Target or Wal-mart for cheaper versions.Also, she recommended I apply BodyGlide.

Lessons from Varsity

I already mentioned how important your appearance is to customer service. Varsity’s friendly staff was nice, smiling, and very passionate about running. This can’t be overstated. I knew going in that it would cost a bit more than the other stores, but the customer service made the extra expense worth it. The quickness of service was also impressive. In the same amount of time it took Burger King to serve me, I was observed, measured, fitted and finished. That’s absurd; nothing was barred for quick service. Moreover, I was asking questions about another unrelated purchase yet they were more than happy to assist me, even going as far to suggest another, cheaper store to find what I needed. Sure, it might lose them a $10 sale, but it’ll keep me coming back for much more expensive items.

Conclusion

I Facbooked and Twittered about my experience at Burger King and I’ve been told that I’m just whining. I mean, yeah, maybe I am, but I think that response sheds light on something far more important: America has resigned itself to accept inferior customer service. Why is this so? I blame outsourced telephone support—and also the general degradation of Western civilization, but that’s a topic for a different time. What does this mean for you and your business? It’s simple: In a world of lackluster and lethargic customer service, be weird. In the fast food industry, Chick-fil-A stands alone in great customer service. What does this mean for their business? Incredible, steady sales, a terrific, loyal fan base, happy employees and the privilege to enjoy a premium on their products without harming their business (notice no dollar menu, either). This also works for Apple, MediaTemple (who both have legendary customer service—and they speak English!), Varsity, et al. I’m not saying that customer service will make a company (you still need a quality product or service to deliver), but it certainly will help increase your business.

I hope these lessons have helped you as they have helped me. Have you had similar experiences, or has your mainstream customer service experience been wonderful? I welcome your feedback and discussion in the comments.

Also, if anyone from Burger King would like to discuss this, I’d be happy to provide additional feedback. I wonder if they monitor the blogosphere and twittersphere as do other companies.

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