When you own a business, you may find yourself in situations that may be a little tricky to handle. Dealing with customers who steal is one of them.
A few years back we were faced with the problem of how to handle our free water cups. It seems some of our customers were filling them with the fountain drinks instead of water. This was, of course, was theft - pure and simple, but we felt confronting the guilty customers would create a bad atmosphere in our restaurant and we wanted to change their behavior and keep them loyal.
As we were mulling over how to handle this, one of the young men on our staff decided to take things into his own hands. While he was making his rounds, checking the dining area, he came across one of our chronic offenders. He walked over to his table and looked at his drink in the free water cup and said, "There is something wrong with your water, it's a mess!" He then picked up the water cup and said with a smile, "Let me get you some fresh water."
Well, the chronic offender knew we were on to him, along with some of the other onlookers and that problem was no more. We all had a good laugh and it made a lasting impression on me.
Recently, we were visiting our daughter and her husband in Maryland and they took us to the "California Tortilla." We ordered our food and moved down the line and when we got to the beverage counter we noticed two pictures. One of the pictures was titled; "Good Bob" and it showed "Good Bob" holding a water cup and under the picture was the caption, "Good Bob only puts water in his water cup." The other picture was titled "Bad Bob" and it showed "Bad Bob" holding a water cup. Under the picture was the caption, "Bad Bob puts fountain drinks in his water cup." We thought this was a great and ingenious way to handle this problem and we noticed it brought chuckles and smiles to the other customers as well.
About The Author
Luana Emmons, http://www.allfoodbusiness.com; allfoodbusiness@allfoodbusiness.com
Running a business is about providing goods and services to... Read More
Looking For Ways to Improve Sales and Customer Relationships?Find Out... Read More
The future of customer service is here. Technology has made... Read More
Homebuyers are an interesting study. Watching people make their home... Read More
You've heard it all before when it comes to stats... Read More
With all of the calendars and PDA's and lists I... Read More
Who was it that said - "The customer is always... Read More
Over the last month, I have come to hate emails... Read More
What a lot of money we have been wasting on... Read More
In today's highly competitive economy, it is difficult to maintain... Read More
Whether you are a seasoned small business professional, or you... Read More
With customers being smarter, more cost conscious, more product knowledgeable... Read More
This may seem a strange topic to introduce. Yet, it... Read More
One of the mantras we hear repeatedly in business is... Read More
As Alan Weiss (guru to the savvy consultant) says: "It... Read More
There are two kinds of customer service we all experience... Read More
This article offers five ways to help you deal with... Read More
According to customer service studies by marketing gurus of the... Read More
I will not make sales. I will make Customers.I will... Read More
Listening to complaints, whether they're reasonable or not, is a... Read More
After years of flying below the radar in the magazine... Read More
Delight = Customer Expectation plus 1. This was the simple... Read More
On a recent airline flight I was an upset... Read More
When people ask, "What is CRM?" the literal answer is,... Read More
Winning Customer ExperiencesMuch research has been done on what the... Read More
In any business our customers are one of our most... Read More
It might sound quick and simple, to say how well... Read More
Improving customer service starts at the top - with us... Read More
Last night I was at my computer and a Skype... Read More
"Marketing as a spiritual practice." It sounds contradictory ? how... Read More
One of my classes in management focused on the repeat... Read More
Newsletters can be wonderful tools for communicating with your customers... Read More
With the growing number of people in every business sector,... Read More
With all of the recent data theft in the financial... Read More
Millions of people, just like you, end up with a... Read More
Running a business is about providing goods and services to... Read More
Service can be described as a "performance" of some kind... Read More
The salesman's job is to be well informed; extremely well... Read More
Can we be too good to our customers?... Read More
Abstract: People buy for their reasons, not yours. This article... Read More
Whether online or off, if you plan on running or... Read More
Many organizations tackle to the issue of customer service by... Read More
The purpose of business is to create and retain a... Read More
I will not make sales. I will make Customers.I will... Read More
This may seem a strange topic to introduce. Yet, it... Read More
It should be a straightforward business scenario: making sure that... Read More
I call it the "wave and roll."You walk up to... Read More
My regular readers will know that one of the things... Read More
One of the most important questions people ask when they... Read More
Do you have good customer service? Even for your free... Read More
Do you know you can open, answer, close and report... Read More
Customer Loyalty, we all want it. Don't we?Some people say... Read More
Are you concerned about customer loyalty? Are your customers so... Read More
It's a salesperson's worst nightmare- the phone call that comes... Read More
Last night I was at my computer and a Skype... Read More
One of the most popular questions asked in online business... Read More
As I waited for an answer to my VCR inquiry... Read More
Public transport operators who already use passenger surveys may not... Read More
The best way to explain this concept is to tell... Read More
Good service is easy to spot and hard-to-find. Mediocre service... Read More
Newsletters can be wonderful tools for communicating with your customers... Read More
This morning I was having breakfast with my good friend... Read More
What happened to the old saying, the customer is always... Read More
Customer service is everything to a business. Just look at... Read More
In this day of terrible customer service, it should come... Read More
There is a widely accepted principle of human behavior that... Read More
Customer Service |