Want To Know How To Truly Disappoint A Loyal Customer?

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Even though it was near closing time on a Sunday evening, my request at the drive-thru was simple enough.  All I needed was two fried chicken salads, one without cheese, both with honey mustard dressing.  I also needed a large sweet tea, no ice please.

After a long day of redecorating at home, my wife and I looked forward to satisfying our hunger with a meal that has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure during the diet we are currently on.  We quickly headed home, eagerly anticipating a well deserved meal as a reward for our redecorating heroics.

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I had placed this order countless times at our local +Zaxby's.  Each time the order was "spot-on".  So much so, that long ago I reached a point where checking the take-out bag before driving away seemed unnecessary.  I had reached the point of faithful expectation; assuming my needs would be fully met and my stomach completely satisfied.  This was indeed the blissful height of #CustomerService and #CustomerSatisfaction. Upon arriving home, our little bubble of confidence was about to be burst.

To our dismay, the salads received were not up to the restaurant's usual standard. They were not well prepared.  The amount of chicken placed on each was less than usual.  It was obvious cheese had been placed on both salads, with a hurried attempt to remove it from one to match our order.  To top if off, we were given ranch dressing instead of honey mustard.  I am not a ranch dressing fan.

Since the restaurant's closing hour was reached during our drive home, returning the salads was not a viable option.  We set forth to salvage them by adding some chicken from the fridge and scraping up the small amount of honey mustard dressing we had on hand.

Image Courtesy of Hector Alejandro at www.flickr.com/photos

We concluded that our disappointing experience was attributed to placing an order at the drive-thru 5 to 10 minuted before the restaurant's closing time.  Apparently in a rush to close down operations for the night, our salads did not receive the degree of care during preparation we had become accustomed to.  As a loyal Zaxby's customer, we were disappointed.

The confidence we have in the restaurant's ability to consistently deliver and fully meet our expectation, regardless of the business hour, has slipped.  While this recent experience has taken away a bit of the luster, the customer goodwill Zaxby's built with us over the course of time will keep us going back for now.  I guess it's again time to double check our orders at the drive-thru window.

Who knew that key customer service reminders for my next blog post would emerge from a salad bowl?

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First, remember that "goodwill deposits" are made with customers each time service fully meets or exceeds expectations.  These deposits provide a safety net that can catch businesses when operations occasionally fail to deliver;  however, deposits of customer goodwill can be depleted if customer focus becomes bankrupt.

Image Courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Second, regardless of its track record, no operation is bulletproof when it comes to the negative impacts resulting from disappointed customers. Consistency in quality of product and service delivery is critical to business success.  "Consistently consistent and incrementally improving" is the operating state all customer-centric enterprises should seek to attain.

Thanks for reading.  I would love to hear your food inspired customer service story.

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#CustomerService
#CustomerExperience
#CustomerSatisfaction
#Badservice