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When you get great service, say so!
By Lauren | January 29, 2009
My friend Sally got so caught up in watching the Inauguration Day celebration on television that it was almost six o’clock when she realized that she had nothing edible in the house for dinner. She drove to the supermarket, where there was a sale on king crab legs, and Sally asked for them. Luckily, the bright young man working at the seafood counter took a sniff and questioned whether the crab legs were really fresh. Instead of selling Sally seafood that might or might not be a little “off,” the young man recommended that Sally buy something else, steering her to a less pricey product. Thanks to that young man, the grocery store lost about $20 in revenue that day, but gained a permanently loyal customer. Sally was extremely impressed with the young man’s honesty and concern for her family’s welfare, so she did something very few people think to do:
She talked to the manager.
To Sally’s surprise, the manager seemed genuinely astonished that anyone would take the time to praise a member of his staff. He clearly was far more accustomed to dealing with customer complaints than kudos, and it took him a few minutes to realize that Sally was grateful, not angry. Once the message finally sunk in, though, the manager’s face lit up, and he promised to put a positive note in the young seafood salesman’s personnel file.
It’s easy to complain when you have a bad experience with a business, but offering compliments when things go well gives management positive feedback and encourages employees to keep up the good work. When someone gives you particularly good service, take a minute and tell that person’s supervisor. It’ll encourage the business not only to avoid getting it wrong, but to keep striving to get it right.
Topics: Business Ethics, business communications, customer relations, ethics |
January 30th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Exactly right, Lauren.
To speak up only about the negative is completely counter-productive, and if you are going to speak up when others make mistakes, I feel that it is critical to apply a degree of consistency and also speak up about the positive actions and initiatives of others.
A similar lesson can be applied in an employment context as well, particularly when it comes to the performance review process.
In order to be truly productive, the performance review process should highlight both the positive aspects of an employees’ performance as well as any areas for potential improvement.
Performance reviews which focus upon negative aspects only are counter-productive, demoralization, and do little to inspire workers to strive to achieve continuous improvement in their performance.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
That’s actually pretty inspiring! Good service and honesty like that is hard to come by. I think that young man will go far.
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:40 am
[...] presents When you get great service, say so! posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “It’s easy to complain, but when you get [...]