Service Oriented

Yikes. I didn't even realize that the last post I wrote was from May! Time really flies; we're at the end of June now and with that, six months has gone by in 2010. Crazy!

Anyway, my rant for the day is in reference to a recent tweet I made about this restaurant called Pepenero. Now, just to be clear, I am in no way complaining about the restaurant itself, the company, the institution -- not at all. I am complaining about one particular individual at the restaurant, who claimed he was the manager.

The thing is, I get it when they say, "No refills", but what I don't get is, when my friend - who obviously did not know of this policy - repeatedly asked for a refill, no one bothered to tell her that the restaurant's policy was a "no refills" policy. They simply nodded, but never came back with a refill. When the manager finally came around to responding to the request, he came back with a glass of hot water (instead of fulfilling the request of additional hot water for my friend's pot of tea). Naturally, as this was not what my friend asked for, she raised a complaint. Her complaint was then met with an answer "We don't serve refills" to which she responded, "Then you should have mentioned something to me earlier." The way that he answered her after that was just so rude, that she lost patience and said that the restaurant had just lost a loyal customer. And believe me when I say she's loyal, because we have repeatedly gone there and have repeatedly received wrong orders, wrong bills, and we still went.

What surprised me most was his response to her statement, which was basically a very arrogant, "So what?" He then pointed out that the restaurant was still doing very good business, so it basically didn't matter if she never returned.

Now, I'm someone who works in the luxury business here and for me, customer service, customer satisfaction and CRM is basically the entire basis of our business (well, besides the actual products, of course). We only survive because we treat our customers well and provide them with what they need. Our customers have repeat business with us because they feel comfortable with us, they get their needs met, and we treat them with the high respect they deserve. So imagine my shock when he so arrogantly told her (in so many words) that losing her/us as customers didn't matter! I was utterly appalled and disgusted!

Don't these people understand the value of patronage these days? How difficult it is to survive in the business world if you don't have the right attitude?

Here's my two cents worth to all restaurant operators, restaurant managers, etc: for heaven's sake, please treat your customers well. Even the worst customer should still be shown respect. You can defend your policy and whatever it is you believe in, but I have always believed that you can say it nicely and rephrase your words so that they don't sound rude.

The old saying is that the customer is the king, and I can attest to it. When we give them the service, they'll come back. And if you go the extra mile, they'll come back with seven folds, i.e. more people.

Never, ever tell a customer they don't matter, because word of mouth and the power of the internet is never to be underestimated. See how many people are on Twitter and how many followers they have (and how many followers their followers have, and the list continues), and you'll know how many people can potentially be influenced.

Money

So, whoever said money is the source of all evil may just be right... And for some, the combination of love and money is just deadly.

I was recently shocked to my core when I found out this sweet, innocent young girl was stealing money from her company, which led her to being held in a jail cell for four days - and all because of what? Because her (stupid) boyfriend needed the money. So for the sake of "love" - or whatever it was they had between them, because I don't think real love would allow you to use and manipulate people - she stole from the company she worked for. When the company found out, of course the first thing they did was interogate her, then escort her down to the police station. She tried to play stupid in the beginning and say things like "I didn't know it was wrong", but at the end, she fessed up.

I couldn't get it out of my head. Why was this smart, sweet girl so easily convinced by her boyfriend to steal? She committed a crime, and didn't even get a single cent for herself! And why, oh why, did this jerk of a guy - who said he loved her by the way - even need money that badly, that he was willing to "sacrifice" his girlfriend? It wasn't a life or death situation at all.

There are somethings in this world that we can't really explain... even if they do come up with answers of why they did it, I don't think people would even get it. It might have made sense to them at the time, but it will never make sense to anyone else... Well, I don't think anyway.

On a recent twitter post, I said "It's insane how much a girl can be influenced by her boyfriend to do stupid things... :( C'mon girls, be smart!!" which got a heck of a lot of responses. So I guess it's not uncommon for girls to be influenced and used, and I don't know what their reasons are, but I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with money.

Yeah sure, I can't deny we all need money. We all need to buy food, clothes, to have roof over our heads and to once in awhile buy the things we want, not just the things we need. But we should only do it when we actually have the money. We can splurge when we can afford it; we definitely deserve to once in awhile. But when you don't have it, seriously, don't force yourself. Don't go do drastic things and commit crimes here and there just to get more money - it ain't worth it!

Technology Bites...

Do you remember a time when you weren't clutching on tightly to your BlackBerry typing away like your life depended on it? Do you remember a time when you weren't with a laptop desperately seeking a wi-fi location so that you could log on to your email or website to update something?
I do.

Last week, my life was turned upside down and around simply because my new onyx Blackberry decided to crash. I have no idea what happened, I just tried to turn it on after it suddenly restarted itself, and it just wouldn't load. I was lucky I had my laptop with me, as I was on a trip to Paris for work, but I just suddenly felt so disconnected with the entire world.

How did we get this dependent on technology? How did our lives entirely function and revolve around technology? And when technology fails me, I end up feeling pretty much completely lost. It was like I had to remind myself every few seconds or so that the world would still be there, things were still running, even without a Blackberry.

Is this a sign I need to go to gadget rehab?