I think I’m going to begin to ‘Slap it forward’ when I get bad customer service. Something simple – like telling the customer service rep – “Are you aware that after being serviced by you, people lament the death of customer service?” Or “You inspire people — to question what happened to customer service.” I know I sound like a jerk, but think of it like having something stuck in your teeth all day and no one telling you. Maybe these people don’t know that they lack the skills to be in a service position. I know servers that are horrible at their job, but walking home every night without any tips leads them to believe that people are cheap and not that they are incompetent.
My wife and I pull into a Sonic drive through this weekend for dessert and order a hot fudge sunday for my wife and a cone for my son (nothing for me). I ask while ordering “can we get the cone in a cup for my son?” “Sure” was the reply from the drive-through speaker. When we pulled up to the window, we could see our order was sitting on the counter already. After waiting for two full minutes, someone came to the window and asked for payment. I paid in cash and she handed me the order, however the cone for my son was in a cup – with no cone. My son loves the cone – I wasn’t asking for ice cream in a cup, I ordered a cone and asked that it be put in a cup. I understand how that might have confused the order taker, so I simply asked for the cone:
“Excuse me – I ordered a cone. I only asked for a cup to my son wouldn’t make a mess of it – he’s three.”
I believe I was being very civil. The young woman said “OK” and closed the window, walked over to the cones and began a conversation with what looked like a manager. It took her another two full minutes to come back to the window. At this point I am getting a little frustrated. She opens the window, holding the cone (with her bare hands) and tells me that what she charged me for was an ice cream in a cup order and a cone is an additional 10 cents!
Now 10 cents isn’t a big deal, but watching my order melt on the counter for a couple of minutes while I waited to be served, having my order made wrong, having to wait for the girl to correct to order, just to be told that there is an additional charge to get my order right — proverbial straw… I pulled away without the cone.
Leave a Reply