BarServ Blog and Podcast

Texas Restaurant News has started a cool social networking site where restaurateurs, vendors, managers and servers can all get together and stay in touch.  Check it out! http://www.trnusa.ning.com

Interesting developments on the alternate energy front, namely from The Pickens Plan (http://www.pickinsplan.com).  Talk about the PR machine in full force, T. Boone Pickens is really pushing for business opportunities and taking it straight to the media and Washington.  Check out the site and share your thoughts.  This is a good example of good proactive customer (or potential customer) relations.

Today's Pegasus Restaurant News (http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/in/business/hospitality-industry/restaurants-and-bars/) is chock full of restaurant closings here in Dallas-Fort Worth over the past quarter.  If you're not on the customer service bandwagon, you'd better jump on quickly.  With the economy in a downward spiral and consumers becoming more discriminatory with their spending, business owners are getting a one-time shot to show what they have a product worth purchasing.  More importantly, to show such value in that product that consumers will return again and again for more. 

Customer service can be a time expense moreso than dollars and cents.  It is critical to train staff to go the extra step and earn customer loyalty.  Business owners and managers need to be in direct contact with customers to ensure those customers are happy and will return.  An hour on the phone making follow up calls with the previous days customers will return great dividends in the future.  Measurement of customer service efforts is also more important than ever.

Make changes today... don't wait.  Your customers are too valuable to send home unsatisfied.  Unless, you want to be the next establishment on the chopping block.

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A quick thought on customer service... Have you recently needed to contact your credit card company's customer service department?  I've found the challenge is not so much getting a real person on the phone (they've become much better at this as of late), but finding exactly how to contact them in the first place!  My statement lists a mailing address and a Web site, but that's about it.  How about a direct line to customer service?  Or maybe an email?  It's frustrating when I need answers now, not in 3 to 5 business days.  When phone numbers are listed, they often allow me to check my balance via an automated system but not speak with customer service.

Lesson here is be available to your customers as many ways as possible, chiefly in person.  Ever been to a restaurant where you ask to meet the executive chef or owner and you're told they are from out of state?  More than likely, not quite the answer you had hoped for.  I recommend you set up a phone number and email address just for customers to reach you and then encourage them to do so.  They'll appreciate the personal touch and find that you're available, not missing in action.

Cheers!

George W. Daye, III
Founder and President
BarServ Mystery Shopping Services
www.barserv.com

Apple and AT&T seem a bit unprepared for the rush of iPhone customers rushing to purchase and activate phones:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/07/02/iphone.ap/index.html

With all the hype surrounding the iPhone, I was almost ready to jump ship from Verizon just to have the latest hot gadget.  I'm so glad I didn't.  I can't imagine shelling out $500+ AND standing in line for hours upon hours and then going through the frustration of my phone not working for two days.  AT&T can spin it however they like, there's no excuse for not being prepared to deliver not only a cool device but the customer service that should come along with it.

Do you remember the last time you received something for nothing?  It happened to me today.  Click on my podcast and listen to the details. 

 Kudos to Doug and the team at Capitol Motorsports in Austin Texas.  I found a beautiful car on eBay listed by them and was skeptical about purchasing from a small dealership.  It was by far one of the quickest and easiest car buying experiences I've ever had.  If you're in the market, regardless of location, I strongly encourage you to look these guys up:

http://www.bestaustincars.com/

Great job guys and big thanks!

Customer service is often about being resourceful and using initiative to make things happen.  Here's an interesting scenario I recently encountered at a local Albertson's store/Bank of America branch.

I needed to make an ATM deposit on a Sunday, but the Bank of America ATM didn't have any envelopes.  I went to Albertson's customer service to ask for one.  Turns out the person in front of me in line, and the person behind me, were also requesting some.  The woman working the counter, who was nice as could be, said, "Nope, sorry.. we just don't have any," to all of us.  Now you're probably thinking, "Don't grocery stores carry envelopes?" Yep, they sure do.  And I went and bought a box of 50 for $1.50, made my deposit and left the box on top of the ATM for the other customers.  Why couldn't the Albertson's customer service attendant have done this?  I have no idea, but she didn't.  Albertson's often gets my business because of the Bank of America banking center located in the store.  Surely it's worth it to them to donate a box of envelopes or two at cost to keep my business.

Be a resourceful business owner!  There's always a way if you think on your feet. 

As of April 30, 2007 @ 3:50 p.m., the CI Host server that hosts BarServ.com and SHOPNet is down for emergency maintenance.  We have called CI Host and expect service to continue by 4:30 p.m.

Am I the only one that is driven totally insane by the self-check machines at Kroger?  I use these quite often at other stores and don't seem to have any problems. It's not so much the machines as it is the assistance I receive from the Kroger employee that monitors them... which is minimal at best.  Just venting today but MAN!  Get it together, Kroger!

We're excited to announce our client access module has been launched and is up and running smoothly.  BarServ's partners can now login via BarServ.com with a unique username and password to access reports.  Once inside, our partners can review, print and download reports.  This also provides an easy, one-stop for partners to access all archived reports for their establishments.

BarServ is committed to providing the best customer service to our partners and will continue to develop additional tools to enhance our proprietary products.

Chance and I drove to Key West and back today and had a great experience at Porky's Bayside Restaurant on Marathon Key.  Porky's is a little BBQ place that looks like it's right out of a Florida Key's postcard.  Greenhouse roofing, old tattered pirate flags on the ceiling and beer promo posters that are attached to the walls with packing tape.  Exactly what we were hoping to find on our journey.

What we didn't expect to find was the outstanding service.  A polite, well-spoken young man was our server who made suggestions, called my wife "Miss", volunteered to take our picture (twice!), used my name when delivering my credit card and gave us continued service even after we had paid out.  A memorable experience to say the very least.  So, guess where we'll go back to when we make that trip again?  Important to note: Porky's has no "walls" per se.  It's just open air and shares space with a charter-for-hire fishing tour company.  It has maybe 20 tables, with additional room for guests along the rail overlooking the charter boats.  We only saw two servers total and there was no sign of management.  Even McDonalds would be considered a more established, refined experience.  So, if Porky's Bayside can pull off a service homerun like this, all excuses have been pulled from the table in my opinion.    How does your business measure up?

I've harped on the 'little extras' before and how important they can be.  The Sagamore Hotel, where my wife and I are staying in South Beach, is definitely headed in the right direction when it comes to those little extras and they're discovering what an impact they can have.  As if the hotel wasn't unique enough already, they are making a conscious effort to set themselves apart from the pack.

Over the course of six hours at poolside yesterday, we were provided with samples of frozen cappucino, strawberry smoothies and raspberry iced tea by a female server.  Another server also brought out a tray of oversized washcloths that had been soaked in cold water and then topped with ice.  These were handed out poolside and the guests raved about them, and I promise you they'd continue to do so even after their stay was over.  Great job Sagamore!

Today's holy grail in marketing and customer service is word-of-mouth.  What your customers take away from their experience with your business is everything. Those customers now have a much bigger voice than they did just a few years back.  I believe the rule of "a customer will tell 10 friends" about their experience is expired.  When was this rule written? 1999?  Considering the power of the blogosphere, the sheer volume of traffic on networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube and the ability of people to self publish, you should be shaking in your shoes.  Customers can now tell thousands of people about their experiences with a few key strokes and you can no longer afford to hide behind the curtain of "par service".  You need to be excellent, and I know that many of you already are.

I'd like to share an experience that illustrates exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to the tired and expired "Tell 10" rule.  My company is on MySpace and I frequently get messages from people who just need to vent.  My buddy Danny, a friend since high-school, recently wrote about an experience at AMC movie theatres in Grapevine, TX.

Can you believe it?  Is a simple bag of candy really worth all that trouble?  Danny had every right to be irritated.  How does this make you feel?  If you're like me, you probably sympathize with Danny and, at least for now, don't have lovey huggy feelings towards AMC. 

Here's the bigger picture: Danny posted this comment on MySpace, the largest social networking site in the world.  And AMC, being a national chain, could suffer much damage from this one comment.  The game has changed and it's not okay to have a bad day, or treat a customer poorly, or stand up on principal based on a bag of candy.  Keep this in mind always because Danny may be the next customer to walk into your place of business.  He cared enough to write to me about it, so do you care enough to make sure he writes good things about you rather than complaints?  And remember, there's not just one Danny, there are 2 million + Dannys out there who have this power and also the power of choice.  Take your customers' complaints seriously.  They only want you to improve, as do I.

Many readers of the BarServ blog are in the service industry, more specifically restaurants and bars.  BarServ encourages its partners to send managers to every table for a customer "touch". 

I'm curious to know what you all think of retailers using this same type of method.  Wouldn't it be interesting to be approached by a manager at Best Buy during your time there... not to sell you something but just to ask how you like the Best Buy experience, to find if there is anything you would need.  It seems like this would assist with customer retention and brand reinforcement.

I have been approached by Target employees while browsing merchandise.  They asked if I'd like to sign up for a Target credit card to save an additional 20% on my purchases for the day.  I must admit, this was a big turn off and I did not like being 'stalked' while looking for mens' dress shirts.  But if a manager had approached me and asked, "So, how do you like my store?" it would have been different.  Ownership of the experience by the management is a big plus to me. 

Take a moment and think about the last five experiences you have had at a 24 hour breakfast-type restaurant such as Denny's and IHOP.  If they are anything like mine, they are less than stellar.  Quick, impersonal and not memorable.  I'm happy to report my experience at IHOP today was quite the opposite and there is much to be learned from it.  It had what I like to call "POP," the Power of Personality.

We visited IHOP on Carrier Parkway and I-20 in Grand Prairie (I seem to write a lot about businesses in this area) and were impressed from the moment we pulled up.  We were greeted by Breecy, a tall server with glasses, with one of the most unique greetings I've heard in sometime: "Welcome to the International House of Pancakes (Yes... he said the actual name, rather than the abbreviation!), where we do indeed have pancakes and they are indeed international!"  All this with a smile and personality! We were instantly set into a great mood and commented how that was probably one of the nicest and most personable greetings we had received at any restaurant.  Great job, Breecy!

Rachael was our server and was very well put together.  She appeared like a server you'd see on a commercial for IHOP.  Professional, well dressed in full uniform, friendly, big smile, attentive and, again, personality! What a novel concept.  She took very good care of us, made suggestions on the menu and upsold us with sides.  Great job, Rachael!

The manager, Adam, was busy too.  We observed him making table visits, working the front desk, seating patrons and cleaning the front glass of the restaurant. He thanked us by name and asked us to come back.  We made sure to tell Adam what a great job he did and that it was by far the best experience we had ever had at IHOP. 

So, what's really happening here?  The pancakes, tables, coffee, environment and menus were all the same as any other experience at IHOP.  As a matter of fact, we visited Denny's on Feb. 28th and ordered an almost identical meal.  People were the big difference here.  Adam, if he was the one who did the hiring, did a fantastic job of choosing his staff.  This team was on it! The basic steps of service were in place and they went the extra mile to make it stand out.  Denny's yesterday also hit the basic steps of service but personalities were absolutely flat.  It was boring at best.  IHOP today was quite the opposite: A cheery, memorable experience that I'm sure to tell someone about.  Actually, I guess I just told all of you about it, and word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Preach the "Power of Personality" or POP to your employees.  That "POP" is an important part of making a memorable experience for your customers.  We will go out of our way to visit that IHOP location again.

Bank of America has announced it is offering credit to illegal aliens.  Now, I'm new to this debate and don't claim by any means to be an expert.  There is a debate within a blog I recently read that talks all about it.  My inital opinion is that I don't like what BoA is doing, and being a BoA account holder for over 10 years I'm seriously considering moving my accounts... after more research of course.

What I do think is interesting about this is the lack of pro-active PR by BoA.  There is a firestorm of blog activity about this 'pilot program' and public opinion is free-falling with no word from BoA.  Try looking for a press release on the BoA Web site.  I looked and couldn't find anything.  If anyone has a lead on where I could find such a release I'd love to see it.

So, BoA is offering credit to "aliens" but seems to be "alientating" its customer base.  Shouldn't I be receiving some sort of statement from BoA in the mail concerning their positioning on the issue?  Do they value this new opportunity more than they value me as a customer?  Where's the love?  I'm definitely not feeling it and I've emailed BoA customer service to let them know just that.

Maybe this type of program would fly in Mexico proper.  I don't know if BoA does business there, but it seems like the right place for this kind of program.  But to offer this here in the US when illegal immigration is such a hot topic is not a very wise customer service-based decision.

George W. Daye, III
Founder and President
BarServ Mystery Shopping Services

I can't believe it's taken this long for the airlines to wake up and smell the customer service coffee.  Only with the threat of government regulation do they begin to budge from their "my way or the highway" mentalities.  Jet Blue CEO David Neeleman posted a statement this week on the Jet Blue Web site as well as on YouTube (quite techy of him, don't you think?) saying the following:

"For customers who experience a Ground Delay for more than 5 hours, JetBlue will take necessary action so that customers may deplane. JetBlue will also provide customers experiencing a Ground Delay with food and drink, access to restrooms and, as necessary, medical treatment."

Mr. Neeleman has done a good job of getting involved and spreading the word.  But, his efforts and this statement only address half the issue in my opinion.  Five hours?  Still excessive.  I appreciate the promise of food, drink and restrooms, which I expect to receive regardless of if those rights are inside a bill of rights document, but five hours on the tarmac before it's deemed as too long?  Three is enough for me and I'm at my limit.

When observing the overall situation, isn't it crazy that only after a few stories get national headlines and the government takes notice that finally something is being done?  Logic tells me that there have been countless complaint letters addressing these long delays on the tarmac for years now, but the airlines have turned a cold shoulder to them.  How can any high-end airline executive sit in his office and think it's okay to have someone trapped in a grounded plane for 11 hours and not do anything about it?  Wouldn't it have been much more commendable if they had come out and done this voluntarily two years ago?  Remember, even though they tell you they are doing this voluntarily, it's not so.  It's just like a baseball manager who is doing a terrible job and is given the option to 'retire' versus being fired.  There's a PR angle behind almost everything.

Another business recently bowed to consumer complaints and government regulation.  The quick-loan industry has suddenly become ethical with the creation of a payday loan council to advise consumers on wise use of these services.  Just as in the case with the airlines, no one wants new rules from the government concerning their industry, and they'll wiggle as much as they can to avoid it.

Although these are examples of how to invite a PR crisis, there is a lesson to be learned here.  Are there areas of opportunity in your own business where you could better serve the customer before reaching the PR nightmare stage?  I'll admit, there are opportunities where I could do so in my own business, but they aren't always as high on my priority list as they should be.  'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' only applies in so many situations and customer service is not one of those.  Your customers are your life-blood and are not to be taken lightly.  Think proactively.  My father always had written somewhere on his desk, 'Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance'.  The 5-P Theory.  Jet Blue, American Airlines, and the payday loan boys did not plan ahead and are now suffering the consequences.  Learn from their mistakes and you'll be leaps and bounds in front of your competitors.

George W. Daye, III
Founder and President
BarServ Mystery Shopping Services

Amazing what employees on the front lines will say, even when interacting with customers.

I visited Target on Carrier Parkway and I-20 in Grand Prairie yesterday to return a faulty DVD player.  I approached the counter after hearing "Next!" called by the woman working the customer service area.  I placed my box on the counter, handed the woman the receipt and was promptly ignored.  As she held the receipt, she looked to another woman who worked there and said, among other indiscernible grumblings:

-"No one had better write me up for nothin'.  I didn't do nothin'"
-"I don't need this job"
-"They know I'm only here until I can find something better"
-"Who wrote me up?  I better not find out who did that"
-"I never checked out the keys.  Someone must have written my name in there"
-"She (the supervisor) doesn't know what she's talking about"

I stood there for at least a full minute while she carried on about getting written up for something having to do with checking out keys.  She then turned her attention to my transaction but continued to grumble under her voice about the supervisor.  So as the customer and based on what I heard, I can now assume Target management is incompetent, Target jobs are not valuable, employees have grudges against Target management, Target has a checkout system for keys that does not work effectively (good to know if I'm the criminal type), and one of the supervisors is an idiot.  Is this the type of impression I should be given when visiting, of all places, the customer service counter?

I choose Target over Wal-Mart for a reason.  I've dealt with Target enough to know their customer service is excellent, so this seems to be a staff training issue.  I'd like to hear from anyone else via the comments section who has had an experience similar to this