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2 posts tagged service

Dec
28

Power to the Customer! More evidence that customers dominate the conversation

Last night I posted some thoughts about the Ocean Marketing episode as an example of how bad customer service can effect your firm. 

Closer to my Utah home, now, another story has come to my attention, and it involves the Snowbasin ski resort east of Ogden. Earlier this week, a young man was coming down the mountain (not sure if it was a skier or boarder) and he was told to stop by a ski patrolman for going too fast. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for Snowbasin, this encounter was filmed. 

You need to see the video here, but be warned first, there are two instances of the “f-word,” but it’s critical to the story.

This went viral on some boarding and ski websites pretty quick, and really caught fire in Utah’s Twitterverse. By about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Snowbasin responded on its Facebook page.

First things first, yeah, at least Snowbasin responded with something.

Second things second, that’s a C- response. Yesterday, with the Ocean Marketing thing, we’ll remember that after all the e-mails went public, Paul from Ocean Marketing apologized, but it was an apology more along the lines of “I’m sorry I got busted” than “I am really sorry I have failed to serve a customer.” This statement from Snowbasin is dripping with “I’m sorry we got caught.” 

The video of the ski patrolman was quite shocking. Even if he were in the right, an employee of ANY business should never, ever, under any circumstances, tell a customer to “shut your f***ing mouth.” It is flat out unacceptable. While Snowbasin acknowledges that the incident happened, even saying it shouldn’t have happened, they fail to say “I’m sorry.” They fail to apologize. They released a statement that had probably been so looked over resort management that it lost all meaning. 

What’s more to Snowbasin, this video going viral has prompted postings from other current and former Snowbasin customers who say this type of encounter with ski patrolmen happens more than just this isolated incident. 

Snowbasin’s response needed to have an apology element to it. It also needed to address the actions that the resort plans to take to make sure this type of incident doesn’t happen again. This is what I would have liked to have seen from Snowbasin.

On Tuesday, an incident with one of our ski patrolmen happened on our mountain that involved the Snowbasin employee treating a customer poorly, including use of vulgar language and a harsh tone. We in Snowbasin management apologize both to the customers involved in this incident, and to all who have seen the video that has been posted online.

The behavior shown in the video is not in line with our company values, and will not be tolerated amongst employees of the Snowbasin Resort. We are investigating this incident further and upon the conclusion of our investigation will take appropriate disciplinary action against employees involved. We also have contacted the customers involved in this incident to offer our sincerest apologies and have initiated the process to make this right. Snowbasin is the resort that it is because of our customers, and we never want to lose sight of that. If you are ever on the mountain and see a Snowbasin employee engaging in conduct that does not meet the standards of what you should expect from our employees, please notify us ASAP at 555-5555 so we can investigate and address your issue. 

Thanks to all our customers. We appreciate your business and feedback, and while working to resolve this issue, will constantly work to improve the service we provide.

Not that hard, right?

Dec
21

On tipping your waitress

Every so often in Cache Valley, the issue of tipping becomes a hot topic in the Herald Journal’s letters to the editor. Someone will write in a letter, as in this case, saying “oh my daughter is a waitress and got stiffed on tips twice last week, humanity sucks!” 

Listen. First of all, I think that people who say “servers aren’t entitled to a tip” need to stay at home and cook for themselves. When I go out to a restaurant, bad service will still elicit a tip of at least 10 percent (I’ve never completely stiffed someone, meaning, I’ve never had service so bad I didn’t feel like I could leave without paying for the service.) 

When you go to a restaurant, you’re paying menu price for the food, and the implicit contract is that you’re going to pay a certain price for the service. You are paying through gratuity because the restaurant is only paying the server $2.21 an hour, which will be just enough to cover taxes, and thus you are paying the wage. If at the bare minimum the server gets food from the kitchen to your table, I think you’re obligated to pay at least 10 percent. If the service is acceptable, 15% should be the norm. For exceptional service, your minimum should be 20%. I’ve tipped upwards of 100% in the past for great service. I also worked in restaurants for five years in high school and my first few years of college, so I learned to appreciate the value of rewarding service workers. 

Yes, writing a letter to the editor on behalf of your daughter is tacky, But the reality is that in Utah, people are generally more stingy with the tips, and that is both not fair, and is very low class. If you can’t set the baseline at 15% for gratuity when you go to a restaurant, then stay home and cook your own food. You don’t deserve to have good service at a restaurant.