Good and bad customer service I’ve experienced recently
I thought I’d share with you two recent experiences of customer service.
Bad Service
The first was in a local supermarket’s café.
My wife and I decided to have a full English breakfast. We picked up our trays, ordered our hot food from the counter, served ourselves a couple of pots of tea, and paid at the cash till.
We then discovered that the cutlery drawers were empty.
We also saw a number of other customers milling around the area waiting to pick up knives and forks.
We waited for perhaps 10 minutes, in which time no member of staff could tell us what was wrong, or (more importantly) bring out any cutlery for us to eat our meals with.
After another 5 minutes, a supposed ‘jack of all trades’ member of staff (he had been drifting between table clearing duties, sweeping the floor, and doing  things  in the kitchen) wandered back with a handful of cutlery he had “found in the staff canteen“.
For all of this time, the food serving staff were still dishing out meals.
To sum up:
- There was a lack of staff coordination.
- Whoever was in charge of staff was not managing them properly.
- Staff did not seem to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
- No reason or apology was forthcoming for the lack of cutlery.
We’ve been before, and generally things are good. We’ll probably go back. However, if it had been our first visit, we most likely would not have returned.
Good Service
This example of good service came out of a difficult situation.
As I’ve previously written, we had to put our cat to sleep last week, and as we needed an emergency appointment and had no vet in the town we now live, we had to sign up with a new surgery.
Not only were the staff professional, kind and supportive, but one week later we received a hand-written card and a small packet of flower seeds, wishing us deepest sympathies.
That was a lovely and unexpected touch that made us smile after a difficult situation.
We’ll be very likely to use that surgery in the future, should we have to.
Conclusion
It’s a shame that the negative story took longer to tell than the positive story. However, it’s another reminder that customer / client / visitor service is highly important.
We can’t get it right all the time, but acknowledging and rectifying our errors, and adding the personal touch, can do a lot to boost our reputation and customer loyalty.
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November 21st, 2007 at 10:17 am
Re: Bad Service
I recently had severe problems with my ISP – Toucan Residential Ltd ( Toucansurf part of Tiscali).
Although I tried to be reasonable with this company, their continuing attitude and ineptitude
has forced me to take further action. Currently I am receiving threats from debt collectors,
although my bill has incorrect charges on and is under dispute and passed to the ombudsman.
Browsing though forums and broadband comparison sites, I realised how many
peoplehad been stung by Toucan. Toucan has a very aggressive debt recovery
team, they had me in tears and tearing my hair out on a couple of occasions as
they don’t understand the simple words “the bill is incorrect and under dispute”.
Even when one bill was corrected and I reset up a direct debit, which was
shown with a date and the payment due to be taken, they still threatened
me for non-payment and tried to disconnect my service.
I’ve heard from other people who have faced similar problems with them,
most typically pay and try to move on, because the debt collection phone
calls/emails/letters do not stop and they can’t take the stress.
This isn’t a whine about poor speeds and minor inconviences caused by
techincal problems, this is the fundamental question of how to fairly treat customers.
That shouldn’t include harrassment and threats when there are issues on the account.
Along with some of the people I’ve talked to about this we have set up a webpage
to highlight these problems with Toucan, perhaps if we can get OFCOM to take action
against one company, maybe its possible that other ISP’s using the same tactics
may reconsider their position as well. Perhaps the broadband market in the UK
could be a fairer place and provide better customer care.
Please take a quick look at the site and let us know what you think.
If you have a newspage or newsletter for broadband matters could you consider mentioning our campaign:
‘www.toucansucks.org.uk is the home for the campaign for fairness to Toucan customers.
Toucan Residential Ltd have a reputation for poor service and aggressive debt chasing, we
are highlightling these problems to try and get Toucan to alter its policies.
If enough people tell us their Toucan stories we will pass a petition to OFCOM and to the Office of
Fair Trade, showing how this company is treating its customers. Perhaps if
we can get OFCOM to stamp down on the scare tactics of one company, other ISP’s may
be forced to improve their customer service stance as well. ‘
Any help you can give in this matter would be appreciated.
Regards
D Snape
http://www.toucansucks.org.uk
August 15th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
hi i too have been having problems with this company.i applyed for internet, but when i recieved my modem equipment to activate to the internet, was unable to do so, i tried several times and even phoned tecnical help line, but they was unable to help. when i contacted toucan about this problem they told me to upgrade my computer. equipment that was sent was not compatable with my computer and so i sent it all back within 7 days of recieving them. they are still sending me threatning bills from last year that i owe them 284.30 for a years internet service. even though i explained to them and had cancelled with them, i would still have to pay. why sould i pay for a service that i never recieved, went with talktalk and was able to connect straight away with same computer as before. has anyone else had same problem. i am well within my rights not to pay them,am i?