I stopped by a fast food restaurant with my family today. The service we received was all to typical. Keep in mind that by typical, I mean poor. We placed our order, and while Grandma and Grandpa were with us, making it quite a large order, I was disappointed to find out that they had filled our order incorrectly.
The first thing we noticed was a missing ice cream cone for Grandma. The lady at the window, a manager from the distinctive uniform she wore, held up a finger at my father and said, "Oh yeah. Wait a minute." She then proceeded to make the cone and hand it out the window without apologizing.
Due to the incident with the cone, we took a moment to check the rest of our order. The associate that I mentioned before, presumably a manager, made no direct mention of us holding up her line, but was very animated about her disbelief that we were double-checking her work. We discovered that one of the sandwiches had the wrong toppings. It was not that far off, so I decided to eat it without making a fuss.
I did, however, let the manager know that it was wrong, as I would have appreciated the opportunity to coach my team on a service issue if I was in her place. Again, we did not receive an apology or a thank you for pointing out the error. She said "Have a nice day," and as we drove away I heard her comment to the rest of her team that her drive-thru times were blown for the day.
Now, compare and contrast that experience with another that my brother-in-law shared with us this week. They were at a very fancy establishment, and my brother-in-law ordered some variation of baked chicken. It came out uncooked. The server immediately whisked the meal away and rushed another serving out. The manager made an appearance and apologized. He offered free desserts as a kind gesture.
When the new meal came out, my brother-in-law dug right in. He commented to his wife that the meal was very good, but it was not chicken. It was veal. At this point my brother-in-law was happy to eat the veal that he had been served, but he let the manager know what had happened.
The manager was mortified. This was obviously not the standard he set for his team, and least of all two mistakes in one night - and with the same customer to boot! This time the manager comped the meal and sent home his original chicken order as a to go order. He said the least he could do was to allow my brother-in-law to taste the meal he had ordered the next day at lunch. My brother-in-law was so impressed with the way the wait-staff and management team handled his problem that he tipped the full amount of the meal and dessert, and he left as a satisfied customer.
What was the difference between these two experiences? Was it the fast-food vs fancy restaurant that made the difference? I say, no. Not really. Not entirely anyway. In my experience, I would have been totally happy with an apology. A coupon for a free drink on my next visit would have made my day! Had the server been snooty to my brother-in-law, or the manager pushed the blame off on his staff, even a free meal would not have made his into a positive experience.
The real difference in the two experiences was the sincerity showed by each team when the mistake was pointed out. As I said, part of this disparity can be caused by the industry that you are in, and the demographic you target. Fast food restaurants may be less likely to hire sincere, caring associates than the fancy restaurant, but surely you have been to a Chic-fil-a. They prove that this is not true. Whether you are a highly professional service provider, a multinational conglomerate or a simple mom-and-pop shop your service does not matter unless it is sincere.
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