As a business owner, you want your team to be fully engaged, especially regarding the customer experience.
However, you will sometimes disappoint customers.
You must know the areas where you drop the ball and create systems to make them right when they happen.
Some companies need help to do that.
In a recent encounter with a food chain, something extraordinary happened.
My wife wanted some breakfast, and sincerely, we got there TWO (2) minutes late after their breakfast serving time.
We understood that there was a probability we would not get what we went there for, and that was okay.
When we got to the drive-through, the associate said it was past time and they were not serving breakfast.
My wife continued to ask if there were any breakfast items left over that she could have since they had just switched over.
The associate said they could not serve that because they were now serving lunch. He then made mention of this being their policy.
In short, they did have leftover breakfast items, but he would not serve them because it was past time.
He did not acknowledge the question and focused on sticking to the policy.
I am sure we were not the first people in the history of them being in business to be arriving two minutes late after breakfast time.
It means that this is a common service defect they should be aware of and have systems in place to solve it.
It is essential to know that my wife has gone as late as 30 minutes after breakfast time and got served those leftover items.
These situations are not uncommon and shouldn’t come as a surprise.
It would have been understandable if the associate said they didn’t have any breakfast left, considering they just switched to lunch.
It is a better response and makes more sense.
It is much better to tell me you’ve run out than to imply you have it and because I came late, you will not serve me.
It makes them look good even though serving breakfast after a specific time could be a company policy.
It protects them as a company, achieving their business objectives and goals and not disappointing the Customer.
It makes the Customer right even though the Customer, in this case, was wrong (Yes, the Customer is sometimes wrong, and you know that too).
And finally, it builds emotional equity with the Customer.
Customers feel cared for when businesses show they are always there to help as much as possible.
What makes this encounter worse is that other locations have made it work with much later times.
As a business owner, your job is to empower your team to own the experience in every moment.
Give them guidelines that give them the confidence to go above and beyond every single time to exceed the customer experience.
Your team is counting on you.
Francis is the President & CEO of Flair Consulting Group, a customer experience firm, training employees of businesses to treat customers better to attract more customers, increase profits and stand out. You can contact him at francis@flairconsultinggroup.com.
