Awesome Customer Service

I've worked in customer service for nearly 20 years.  I've done it, I've trained it, I've supervised it.  It's not that hard.  It really boils down to "Be nice to people" or "Treat people the way you want to be treated".  So when I encounter exceptional customer service I feel the need to shout it out.   To me, exceptional customer service is going above and beyond.  It's not remembering to say thank you, or maintaining eye contact with me while we talk.  Too many people have come to accept those moments as the exceptions since as a society we have stopped expecting great customer service.

Applebee's here in Halifax gets my shout out for EXCEPTIONAL customer service.  Hilary and I took advantage of having rented a car last weekend to treat ourselves to some take out food from somewhere that we can't normally get when we are car-less.  Our order was fairly straight forward:  A burger and fries for Hilary and a salad with a side order of garlic mashed potatoes for me (cause garlic mashed potatoes ROCK).  I confirmed over the phone that it was an extra side of potatoes.  I confirmed again when I picked up the order that they had indeed rung in fries for Hilary and mashed potatoes for me.  They had.  I left a happy customer, dreaming of my mashed potatoes.

You know where this is going right?

When I got home and unpacked the food, the kitchen had gotten it wrong!  They had Hilary's burger with mashed potatoes and no fries were to be found. I called them to let them know and to vent some of my frustrations that the order was wrong after having checked it twice.  They offered to make a new serving of fries and I could go pick it up.  Thanks, but no thanks.  With gas prices these days, and the fact that it would take me another 20 minutes to get there and back, I wasn't willing to do that.  I didn't expect them to rush me over some fries, or really do anything, other then hear my complaint and maybe double check things for the next guy.

Instead I got transfered to the manager as the first person I spoke to was concerned that they couldn't solve my problem.  The manager was great.  He heard my concerns, he didn't make excuses, he tried to fix it.  And in the end he got my address so that he could send me something to say sorry that my dining experience with them was not exceptional.  

I never expected a gift certificate for $25.00 to make up for the fact that we were missing $2.99 fries!

Way to go Applebees!  That is some exceptional customer service!