Bad customer service.
Just reading those three words you probably have a story that has popped in your head about the time when someone was rude to you at a store or when you decided you would never go back to a place because of the people you encountered behind the counter.
Ask any tourism business in Savannah, from retail to restaurant, and they will tell you how their business can live and die by the customer experience.
In hospitality and tourism, we strive everyday to provide our guests with something memorable. It’s often times the very thing that sets us apart from every other business or every other city trying to promote a similar experience.
However, we don’t always succeed. I’ve been to a restaurant with phenomenal hospitality one day and atrocious the next. It is this inconsistency that will make it hard for us to advance as a market.
If we are to be known as the “Hostess City of the South,” we must be ever vigilant with our brand of superior customer service. This is why, at the Tourism Leadership Council, one of our focuses is educating our workforce to be better at customer service.
Your business may benefit from better customer service training, so I’m outlining some tips for you and your team in the next two BiS editions. This week, we’ll look at three of the most common customer complaints. We’ll add on to the list in the next edition to discuss overall the top five customer complaints.
For any manager trying to train his staff in the art of customer service, where to begin might be the hardest part.
You don’t generally know what kind of customer will walk through the door on any given day. Will they be in a bad mood? Will they have brought with them a level of expectation that will be difficult to live up to?
It’s hard to play that guessing game.
So, when I work with my team, I break it down into common customer complaints. Most of the problems can be summed up in a few categories.
If you have an interactive staff, then you can usually get them to brainstorm the top five concerns they face on a regular basis. Once you have your list, you can tackle appropriate responses to the problems.
In my experience, these are the top five customer complaints: rude employees, promises that aren’t carried out, unresolved issues, lack of communication, and unknowledgeable employees.
Let’s take a look at the first three and how to address them.
RUDE EMPLOYEES
A customer complains, or you witness your employee being rude. You can substitute this with any negative perception the customer has about that employee. They may deem your employee inaccessible or too slow. Bottom line: the customer does not feel the love.
Assuming the customer is always right, start by talking to your employee one on one.  Make sure they are feeling okay and capable of being at work. If not, send them home. It’s better to be short staffed than to make a bad impression.
Next, tell the employee what behavior you observed or what customers have said. Give them time to respond. Afterward, ask what a better way might have been to handle that situation. Talk through appropriate responses you would like to see your employee make.
As a manager, those appropriate responses will come in handy. Make a list of how to answer appropriately and remind staff in regular meetings. 
PROMISES NOT CARRIED OUT
On the other hand, there may be a problem outside of your employees’ control that has caused the customer concern. This could be any service that goes against what the customer anticipates.
You can avoid this scenario altogether if you teach your staff to first accurately define the needs of the customers.
Remind your employees to ask questions along the way so that they’re clear on what the client expects. If there is a clear idea of expectations, there is a higher likelihood that you can meet those needs.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES
There may be expectations that turn into unresolved issues. For example, the chef is running behind in the kitchen and the customer has already indicated he is in a hurry. Or, a customer complains that things are overpriced or that you have too many rules.
If you do not address these issues upfront they will quickly fester with the customer. So, dive right in and address the issue before it becomes the problem.
First, validate the concerns of the customer. For example, “ I’m sorry that your food has not arrived.”
Then, follow through and find out what the problem may be. Figure out a solution, and then communicate that to the client as soon as possible.
Gather your staff, and walk through these steps with several different scenarios. Repetition will help your employees with the ability to remember these tips on the fly.
It has been my experience that the more often you talk to your employees about customer service, the better and more consistent they will be overall. Training staff is not a one-time event, it’s a drum that beats constantly. Next BiS edition, we will look at the last two customer complaints.