In business there is a fine line between the bottom line and pleasing the customers. Now just let me be clear, I don’t have an business degree and the closest I’ve gotten to a business is working in restaurants. But, I do believe that pleasing the customers to the best of your ability creates an excellent relationship between business and customer, which in the long run will benefit the bottom line. This is especially true for small business, because there is a much, MUCH smaller customer base.
For five years I have worked as a server/manger at a local St. Vital restaurant. Throughout my years of serving, I’ve notice that nine times out of ten customers appreciate you going the extra mile; not only in the tips they leave behind but the fact they return time and time again. So why would I not continue to help make my customers’ experience the best possible one they can get? As a public relations specialist, the goal is to meet or increase the businesses’ bottom line by creating valuable, long-lasting relationships with clients.
Last Friday, for example, I was at work and friendly couple came in to have a couple of drinks and some food. I could tell they were good for business – they ordered drinks, one of them a double, and a bunch of food. The guy ordered a plate of our famous nachos, and asked me if it would be ok if he substituted the salsa for an extra sour cream. No problem, until I went into the kitchen and told them what I wanted.
“You’ve got to charge them,” the guy said to me.
“You can’t be serious?!! They only want to swap.”
“Sour cream is more expensive.”
“I really don’t care. Give them what they want.”
According to the cook, my bosses informed the kitchen that anything more or extra needs to be charged for the bill. This is bull. I mean, what are they thinking? Money, money, money, mon-eh. The business has quite a bit of competition with some pretty serious companies, like earls and Montana’s, pleasing the customers should be common sense.
If you make the customers happy they’ll come back again and again and again. But where does that fine line end? When is it time to put the breaks on giving the customer whatever they want just to keep their business?
I think that's both true in service as well as the business world where the option is always there to exploit clients or cut corners.
ReplyDeleteOh, God. How frustrating, eh?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great observation - and extends to our discussion in class about employee communications.
ReplyDeleteEmployees need to be given the latitude to make small (inexpensive) decisions that will help create customer loyalty; when they aren't, the brand suffers in the eyes of both the customer AND the employee.