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 This post is to highlight something I feel very strongly about: receiving good service. 

As a general rule (particularly those of us into the UK) we are all too willing to overlook poor service and the way we are treated. This may be because we are a little afraid of the repercussions of speaking up, or it could be because it’s now so easy to just go somewhere else. 

The question I want you to consider is this: why should we feel the need to change our habits, when it’s not us that’s in the wrong? 

I absolutely stand behind this quote: however if something goes really, horribly wrong from a service perspective, I don’t stop at telling twice the amount of people….oh no. I tell the whole world! 

That said, when I have a really lovely experience , I also tell as many people as possible about that so that they can enjoy it too. Which is why myself and Mr Alice were hugely disappointed and let down when we received really poor service from a restaurant that has previously been a favourite of ours. 

I’m not going to name them, but we visited during a trip to London last year to celebrate our wedding anniversary and were treated extremely well. With this in mind (coupled with the fact that food was yummy and great value for its location) we couldn’t wait to return.

 This time, instead of being met with a warm greeting and being made to feel welcome, we were met with sullenness. We were treated as an imposition because we dared to arrive 10 minutes before our reservation and they had been far too busy with Easter breakfast and were not ready.

We decided not to stay and eat, the final nail in the culinary coffin being that they had withdrawn their Sunday lunch menu and we weren’t about to pay London prices to eat food we weren’t that excited about. The response when we got up to leave? NOTHING. Rather than asking why, or even coming to talk to us at all, we were met with bitchy glares and silence from most of the staff on our way out. Yup, we definitely made the right decision!

 

How very true as wel!

After a quick rethink we ended up at the more low key Honest Burgers (thanks for the recommendation Lisa!) The staff were all friendly and keen to help us have a lovely lunch. THIS is the service we should have received and, quite frankly, what I expect. Not to mention that this was one of the best burgers we’ve ever eaten in our life!   

 Creating a positive customer experience is soooooo important- in a society were everything is so disposable, it’s how you treat people and make them feel that will get them to buy into a brand and be the most loyal. I say ‘most’ loyal because variety is the spice of life and it’s really good to try new things, but it’s also great to have those tried and trusted go-to places and brands too. 

More to the point, it should never be underestimated how delivering great service can positively impact on yourself- if you can see that you’ve made someone feel good, you’re bound to feel good about yourself and keep trying to recreate it…and who doesn’t want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside, right?

I’ve worked in customer facing environments for my whole working life, so this comes from a place of experience. I know if I’m having a bad day that it’s nobody else’s fault/problem and it shouldn’t be made as such, I understand the value of communicating with customers to keep them informed, and I know how I want to be treated so try to deliver the same standard to others all the time. It’s not impossible, and if you really don’t want to do that, then you are very much in the wrong job!

So please remember – the next time you receive bad service, it’s important to feed that back for yourself and every future customer. If you work in a customer facing environment- please be nice and treat others how you expect to be treated!

 I hope there are some points you can relate to in this post, thank you for taking the time to read.

Stay Stylish,

J 😘xx