The manager of a local eatery got an earful he wasn’t expecting when he stopped by our table to ask what we thought of our dining experience. “Not much,” I said. “Call me a Luddite, but I prefer my customer service experience to be with another person, not a robot.”
Recently, my wife and I visited a restaurant that offers her favorite broccoli-cheese soup. We were greeted at the door by a cheery young man who steered us to their brand new automated order kiosks. “You’ll love the experience!” he chirped. “They are very intuitive and easy to use.”
They weren’t. And when we looked around to see if we could get some help navigating the menu, the cheery young man was nowhere to be found.
Eventually, we managed to figure out how to place an order, concluded the transaction, and went to our seats. It wasn’t until we sat down that I realized I was so focused on navigating the not-so-intuitive menu kiosk, that I had forgotten I wanted one of their delicious triple-chocolate with walnut cookies. Not wanting to repeat my experience with the kiosk, and not wanting to wait in line to talk to an actual person, I passed on the cookie. And therein lies the rub.
Customer service isn’t just about efficiently taking orders. It’s about making a customer feel valued. It’s about listening not only for what they want but also helping them decide between options; even suggesting things they may not have even known they wanted…like triple-chocolate cookies. Bombary Company, a home furnishings retailer I once worked for boiled down customer service to an acronym:
A – Ask how you can serve the customer
L – Listen carefully to their response and do your best to exceed their expectation
L – Link the customer to other products and services that will enhance their shopping experience
Hey! I get it. This restaurant chain is one of several such businesses that are rolling out automated customer ordering kiosks as a way to help human employees improve customer service and lower labor costs. Such efforts have resulted in a nearly double-digit uptick in customer orders and increased job opportunities as restaurants add food preparation staff to keep up with the increase in orders from kiosks and mobile phones. I love being able to visit a self-service checkout line, scan my one item, pay and leave. But I also love to have a customer service representative hovering nearby when the machine decides it is going to have hiccups. I appreciate if things aren’t too busy, getting to know a bit more about the person serving my needs and returning some of the warmth they are sharing with me. I can’t banter with a menu kiosk and ask if it caught any fish this past weekend.
Leaders and managers need to remember that technology has its limitations. Only someone intimately familiar with the technology would ever make the mistake of asserting that it is completely intuitive. Ultimately technology must serve to enhance, but not replace, the customer service experience.
Judging from what I was able to dig up while researching this article, I may be in the minority on this issue. What do you think?
Some stores get so bogged down on process that they forget about the customer. I went to McDonalds last week and ordered a small drink cup. My cup was put in a queue that I could see above the counter. It was the fifth item. All the cashier needed to do was hand me a cup since the cup was right next her below the counter. Instead, I waited for that cup for ten minutes since a lot of people ordered burgers. I was so tempted to just reach over the counter and grab that cup.
Is this a story that McDonalds would like to share?
As a former employee of that legendary chain (It was my first full-time job after high school), I can attest to the amount of effort they put into process planning. Everything we did in the store was geared toward getting product into a customer’s hands within an allotted time. Alas, I have to agree that process now seems to trump the other mantra we were all taught: The customer comes first.
Nothing an replace the person to person experience. Imagine if you would if the stories we tell to our customers about who we are and what we provide were powerful enough that they would tell their children about us and the adventure we helped them create.
Every business tells a story. The question is, what story is the business telling? Perhaps even more important, what story is the customer hearing? Great lesson!