Do you and your company equate great service with a great experience? Don’t be afraid to say yes, most company leaders feel this way. But the real answer is they don’t…
I was in Las Vegas this past week for some business and to celebrate my wife’s birthday. We had the best of both worlds…we stayed off the “strip” a time share condo (definitely a topic for another post or two) and then traveled to the strip for dinner and shows…worked out great and allowed us to relax and also take in some great entertainment. But this isn’t about my business trip…it is about my wife’s birthday.
We had a full day so we wanted to grab something not too fancy but fun. We picked a restaurant that overlooks the strip so we could ‘people watch’…like catching a second show on most days. When we arrived I told the hostess it was my wife’s birthday and she was friendly and wished her a Happy Birthday…nice start. Then we met our server, I’ll call her Patty to protect her identity. I proceeded to order our drinks and then told her it was my wife’s birthday. She said nothing…not a good reaction.
Fast forward throughout the dinner and Patty stopped by what seemed like every 5 minutes to check on us and see if everything was OK and if we needed anything…very attentive. But not once did she smile and the check-ins were now feeling more like she wanted to “turn our table” than be attentive to our needs. But at the end of the meal, she had given us good “service” by meeting all our needs and being there if we asked for anything.
But the experience was terrible! It was so terrible in fact that we spent half the meal talking about it and Patty. It was awful in my mind and certainly memorable…for all the wrong reasons. Of course we turned it into some fun and joked about it so we could have a very enjoyable evening despite Patty. Finally, at the very end when we were finished and I had paid the bill, Patty said Happy Birthday. They didn’t give my wife a little cupcake with a candle or a chocolate or some ice cream either…which would have been customary for a place you celebrate a birthday. While I wasn’t really expecting it (we were planning on getting dessert anyway) it would have been a nice touch. Because of crappy experience we just decided to skip dessert and leave and get it somewhere else.
So in the end, the power of this story is to show you that Serendipity and Patty probably got a “B+” in the “Service” delivered well organized and efficient “service” by being focused on delivering our food timely and being attentive to our needs. But in regard to the overall “Experience” they would get an “F”…if I was grading. Does any of this sound familiar in your organization? If so, might be time to start thinking about the “Experience” more than the “Service” you are delivering…regardless of whether you are a B2B or B2C company. Thank you Serendipity for giving me such a great example to share with the world!!
