When was the last time you praised someone for giving you great service? Are you one of those people who is only too happy to complain when things go wrong, and ‘takes it for granted’ when things go wrong for you as a customer? If you are, I urge you to think again.
These days, with social media and other forms of communication so easy to access, it is tempting to complain about poor service via Twitter or Facebook – most large companies have social media accounts but a number of them don’t know what to do with them!
Take Wetherspoon’s, the U.K.’s largest pub chain. I go to one of their pubs in Peterborough, ‘The Draper’s Arms’ once or twice a month, sometimes for breakfast (excellent value at £2.99) and sometimes for a few drinks with friends. The service in there is always friendly and efficient – I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually find great service in ‘chain’ pubs, and I wanted to recognise the team at ‘The Draper’s’ publicly. I ‘tweeted’ a message about it and included Wetherspoon’s Twitter name @jdwtweets in my tweet.
Guess what happened? Nothing. Nada. Nowt. Then I looked at Wetherspoon’s Twitter feed, and realised what I had done wrong. They are only set up to deal with complaints, not praise. It appears that they do not have a system in place to take praise messages from customers to front-line people. I find that unbelievable, particularly as they have a reputation as a great employer. I wouldn’t mind working for them, they seem to work hard and enjoy it in most of their pubs, and that is the key to a great job for me!
What a missed opportunity though! I wonder how many other large businesses are not set up to receive individual commendations for great service?
Ever heard of The WOW! Awards? www.thewowawards.co.uk They are a great way of helping your customers to nominate individual members of your team for brilliant customer service!