A while ago I used to review bars for a newspaper — somebody had to do it — and I still remember one venue where I got particularly annoyed about the standard of customer service.
Actually, it wasn’t the customer service, it was the self-serving attitude of the bar staff that got to me.
An older colleague and I went to this Brisbane city pub for lunch. There were only two other customers — two men who seemed to be in their 70s, who were watching horse-racing on the television.
Behind the were a young man and a young woman, who had cranked up the volume on the some hip-hop music they were playing.
It’s not my favourite genre, my friend didn’t like it at all, and I’m sure it interfered with the other customers’ enjoyment of the races. Given that they were buying beers and placing bets across the counter — don’t worry, that’s legal in certain pubs in Australia — surely their interests should have come first.
Nope. I wrote about it in my review, and I don’t know if anything happened as a consequence, but it was — and is — a serious reminder about customer service.
The staff are there to look after you and to create an atmosphere conducive to your enjoyment (and, hence, your willingness to spend money). They are entitled to a pleasant working environment, but not to take control of it.
Of course, it may have been the case that we weren’t the target audience, and they were doing their best to get rid of us — but my feeling is that that wasn’t the case, because everything about the place screamed “old blokes’ bar” to me.
(However, one afternoon a couple of years ago I went into a Goth bar in Barcelona, because I was curious. The staff did serve me a drink, but asked me very nicely if I wouldn’t mind leaving before their usual clientele arrived.)
I was reminded of all this by the following tweet on my timeline:
I know it’s meant as a joke, but it is a reminder of my broader point: the customer experience involves much more than how good the product is and how efficiently you are served.
