When Companies Do Wrong
We are all over that. We rant and rave and wag our fingers about what should and should not have taken place. We shake our heads and mutter about the lack of good customer service or good service, period.
But what happens when companies do right? Why is it that we so seldom hear about good customer service? Why is it that it's so much easier to complain about a business than share a good story about one? Think I'm exaggerating?
Check out the Naughty Businesses category to the right of this blog. Then the Complaints category. There are so many posts, I don't have the energy to count them all. Then check out the Above and Beyond category. There are just four posts.
So, if you guys don't mind humoring me today, perhaps you can share a good story, a good encounter, a good experience you had with a business.
It doesn't have to be a local business, it doesn't have to be a big retailer. It can be anyone, even a nice encounter with the ice cream guy that rolls through your neighborhood. Just share some good customer service stories with us.
I'll pick the best stories and use them in a future column. Help me find a nice holiday story to write about for once. Add your comment here or write to consuminginterests(at)baltsun.com. I wanna hear from you.
Categories: Above and Beyond, Complaints
Comments
The wife and I had a really great experience at Corks in Federal Hill last June in celebration of her birthday. I made reservations for what I thought was a special fixed course dinner paired with certain wines. But stupid me, I didn't realize that I was supposed to specifically ask for that dinner situation (just made regular reservations and assumed all other customers got the same).
Well, we head over there on b-day night and discover that there actually are no other customers. There's just the hostess/waitress, the chef and us. Oops. Since the economy was kind of tanking already at that point, nobody else had signed up for that special dinner and they had to cancel it. However, they kept the place open just for us. And even though it's a moderately upscale restaurant, they were totally unpretentious and treated us like royalty. We basically got a personal chef and an extremely knowledgeable and friendly wine expert that relished surprising us with each new course. Both of them clearly loved what they did and it showed. It was a great time. So great, in fact, that they helped us get a cab home. Lord knows we weren't in any shape to drive after who-knows-how-many glasses of great wine and great company.
Just goes to show you that good customer service can be as memorable as bad customer service. Been waiting to tell that story to someone other than friends for awhile..thanks for the opportunity
DD: That is, indeed, a great story. Thanks for sharing it, bob. Don't tell me bob's the only one who has experienced great customer service.
Posted by: bob | November 14, 2008 1:50 PM