During my recent trip to San Francisco I saw two examples of customer service,
one that was so unbelievably over the top good and one that was well in quite
the other direction.
So I just want to share my experiences and how I will forever remember and
speak about one of these places in a great light and the other one (if I do
mention them) in a not so hot light.
Never forget…your customers are your lifeblood and how you treat them will
determine how successful and long lasting your business will be over the coming
decades in a changing country and world!
Enjoy the stories:
1) THE GOOD
Jill and I went to Sodini’s Italian Restaurant in North Beach in San Fran for
dinner on our last night. Beyond it having the best mussels, clams, fresh made
bread, pasta, wine, etc we saw the owner extend himself so beyond what he
needed to do in terms of treating a customer right I wanted to share what
I saw and urge you to go to Sodini’s in North Beach if you like Italian and ever
go to San Fran!
They had about an hour wait and a table of six came in, he told them the wait
and they said they were going to go somewhere else. He said hold on a second
and he called a different Italian restaurant about two blocks down. They said
they had room and he reserved them a table and told them the directions.
He also gave them a bottle of red wine on the house to take home with them
and he said to tell the owner of the other restaurant Hello from Sodini’s and to
make sure next time they are in town to come back and see Sodini’s.
Bottle of wine, sets up a reservation for them at a rival, and tells them to say
hello to that rival.
That is extending your service above and beyond but what is sometimes
necessary in a customer service oriented era! One that will hopefully get
passed through social media channels for sometime for Sodini’s.
2) THE BAD
I’ll be brief because I don’t like to complain much but we took a Lincoln to the
airport instead of a cab. The driver got us there and said $45 was the price.
I gave him $60 and asked for $8 back, leaving him with a pretty good tip for
thirty minutes of service. He comes back out of his car after a few minutes
(during which I think he hid his small bills) and said he only had $2 for change.
So instead of saying you know what I’m sorry I don’t have change let’s do this
for $40 instead and I’ll eat the tip (he was the owner of the Lincoln and his
service so he could do so) he gave my two dollars back and he wound up with
a $13 tip from me and said sorry see ya later.
So the moral of that story is…I will only take a metered cab in San Fran ever
again and my entire view of those Lincoln car companies has unfortunately
changed forever.
So I leave you with this…
1) TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE YOUR BEST FRIENDS!
2) Go to Sodini’s in North Beach in San Fran
3) Never get into a black Lincoln town car in San Fran instead of a cab…
and his name was George and he is the owner but out of respect I’ll leave
the rest of his info out of it!
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