Sales, Social and Tech

Customer service is a vital component in any F&B outlet. With social networks, a customer's experience at a cafe is multiplied when a post of a unhappy or pleasant experience can be easily seen and shared among friends. A friend, who would visit Cedele every week for a meal, shared her disappointment about the customer service at Cedele @ T2 on Facebook. So disappointed that she decided that she would be better off having her morning coffee at the opposite cafe. She wrote , I think the service staff at this outlet should reflect in their service attitude. 1. We informed them that there is a fly in the pastry cupboard and their collective response was "It's out of our control. " 2. The food was all served cold and they were upset when they served us the wrong order. 3. A general lack of enthusiasm and servitude in their attitude; they obviously dislike their job. By the way, I visit Cedele every week for a meal and I have never had lousy food or service (my f...

"Patience and understanding" - These are just two words that describe how the staff at a Chili's Grill and Bar treated a autistic girl in her demand for her "perfect" burger. Such act of kindness has gone viral with 800K+ likes on Facebook. Anna Kaye MacLean, from experience, always expected her outings with her autistic sister to be difficult. But the staff at Chili's Grill and Bar proved Anna otherwise. Anna's sister refused to eat her favourite cut cheeseburger because to her the burger was "broken". Wrote Anna , So I asked her, “Why don’t you want it?”. She replied, “It’s broken. I need another one thats fixed.” Then it dawned on me why she wasn’t eating it. It’s because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly. When Lauren came back to check on us, I asked if we could order another che...

If you thought Parisians are rude, wait you read about the administrator of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia Facebook Page. A customer visited the Les Deux Garcons Malaysia shop but was disappointed in the services. So naturally, she turned to the shops' Facebook Page. This customer even made a suggestion to the shop to label their macarons for their service staff felt they did not have to answer queries from in shop customers. How did the Facebook administrator respond? Well.. this Facebook administrator to go to Paris and face the wrath of real Parisian as this customer has too much to complaint. The next step that came naturally for the administrator was to delete the pst. When this customer put in another post, the Facebook administrator replied "We have no time for bitches". You can catch the drama unfolding between the administrator and Fans here .  The management of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia has since apologi...

Seth Godin recently post his definition of customer service. This is something where Singtel can learn as it looks to tackle the viral complaint about its 3G services. Wrote Seth Godin ,  "The only purpose of 'customer service'... is to change feelings. Not the facts, but the way your customer feels. The facts might be the price, or a return, or how long someone had to wait for service. Sometimes changing the facts is a shortcut to changing feelings, but not always, and changing the facts alone is not always sufficient anyway. The customer who seeks out your help isn't often looking to deplete your bank account. He is usually seeking validation, support and a path to feeling the way he felt before you let him down." Seth has hit it on the spot about customer service. When the complaint about Singtel 3G coverage went viral , Singtel went the traditional method of addressing the complaint with facts. This of course didn't work. The c...