Customer Service - A few Tips
Had a real bad day., aah rather real bad week...only positive being a short but neat trip squeezed inbetween to chicago last week. Its always nice to be back in windy city, no mater how sad the weather is - there is so much you could do in this city. A little bit of shopping, a little bit of drinking, a little bit of dining all unplanned but ending quite well. I have always noticed that these unplanned trips somehow ending pretty decent after gather a lil momentum.
Anyway here we were at a Irish pub right around Rush St, no great shakes, sober settings and mediocre music. The place could have still passed as ok in my book for the 'Stella Artois'.What made the place suck was this annoying waiter who was getting on everyones nerve there. A little bit of service is always a welcome but too many questions and too many visits to the table - you are getting overboard. This waiter for some reason would come back every second to check how we were doing, i mean a waiter checking on you is not uncommon in this part of the world. However excessive attention is just annoying. For the service or the excess of it we under tipped the waiter deliberately. I understand that a good service is tipped around 18% of the bill in chicago....usually my standard are much lower - hovers around 10% ...considering the service we got you could very well guess the tip was < 10%. Anyway the waiter came back to me with change, Sweet Revenge !!
It makes me wonder how people coming from different parts of the world cope up with tipping. culture. Tipping is a cultural thing, something like greeting - different in different parts of the world, conventionally in a country like India where services are so cheap you are not expected to tip. But most other countries you are expected to tip and tip liberally. The other day i heard a waiter at the bar counter say "he is a nice fella but a bad tipper" ... goes on to say how important it is to tip. But it makes me wonder why one has to tip seperately, why cant the tip be priced in the bill, something like a standard service charge. For one it would spare me from guessing what i must tip each time i goto the restaurant? Also how do i decide which service to tip, in general you tip at a restaurant, when you get a haircut, when you take a cab .... that almost includes the entire gamut of services i would ever need. But interestingly not for all services you are expected to tip., a few of them include airline stewards, the bank tellers, the postman. Wonder how service provided in the latter are any different from that provided in a restaurant ? So what determines a tip ??
Anyway as i had mentioned earlier, i had a bad day, stuck in a two hour meeting bombarded with rather unreasonable expectation from the customre, work that has piled on an on which made my friday longer than monday. I am breaking my head on this issue when i get a call at my desk.
Lady: Hi, is it CGX company (i am calling my client CGX)
Me: Yes !! (I work for HP, but techically speaking i work of the client premise and the phone i am using is my clients)
Lady: I have bought one of your product and i need some help with the expiry date. I cant find the expiry date and not sure if i could use it.
Me: Ma'am you have reached the wrong number could you pls check the 1-800 number on the product.
Lady: I have tried the 1-800 number but i guess its not working, could you pls get me to the concerned.
Me: Hang on ma'am
I could have chickened out in other situations, but this was goofup was of my making, i messaged sharon who had once told me she had worked for product service, with great hope that she might be able to help me out, i messaged her. Fortunately for me she was still around unfortunately she dint have the number, however she gave me the board number. Any number would be good...with great hope i gave this lady the board number hoping that they would put her to the right contact.
Now you have heard stories of how CSR's having gone to great lengths to satisfy customers. But here i am trying to helping an aggravated customer for an organisation i dont work for. Aint this super human ... is somebody from CPX reading this :-)
Anyway here we were at a Irish pub right around Rush St, no great shakes, sober settings and mediocre music. The place could have still passed as ok in my book for the 'Stella Artois'.What made the place suck was this annoying waiter who was getting on everyones nerve there. A little bit of service is always a welcome but too many questions and too many visits to the table - you are getting overboard. This waiter for some reason would come back every second to check how we were doing, i mean a waiter checking on you is not uncommon in this part of the world. However excessive attention is just annoying. For the service or the excess of it we under tipped the waiter deliberately. I understand that a good service is tipped around 18% of the bill in chicago....usually my standard are much lower - hovers around 10% ...considering the service we got you could very well guess the tip was < 10%. Anyway the waiter came back to me with change, Sweet Revenge !!
It makes me wonder how people coming from different parts of the world cope up with tipping. culture. Tipping is a cultural thing, something like greeting - different in different parts of the world, conventionally in a country like India where services are so cheap you are not expected to tip. But most other countries you are expected to tip and tip liberally. The other day i heard a waiter at the bar counter say "he is a nice fella but a bad tipper" ... goes on to say how important it is to tip. But it makes me wonder why one has to tip seperately, why cant the tip be priced in the bill, something like a standard service charge. For one it would spare me from guessing what i must tip each time i goto the restaurant? Also how do i decide which service to tip, in general you tip at a restaurant, when you get a haircut, when you take a cab .... that almost includes the entire gamut of services i would ever need. But interestingly not for all services you are expected to tip., a few of them include airline stewards, the bank tellers, the postman. Wonder how service provided in the latter are any different from that provided in a restaurant ? So what determines a tip ??
Anyway as i had mentioned earlier, i had a bad day, stuck in a two hour meeting bombarded with rather unreasonable expectation from the customre, work that has piled on an on which made my friday longer than monday. I am breaking my head on this issue when i get a call at my desk.
Lady: Hi, is it CGX company (i am calling my client CGX)
Me: Yes !! (I work for HP, but techically speaking i work of the client premise and the phone i am using is my clients)
Lady: I have bought one of your product and i need some help with the expiry date. I cant find the expiry date and not sure if i could use it.
Me: Ma'am you have reached the wrong number could you pls check the 1-800 number on the product.
Lady: I have tried the 1-800 number but i guess its not working, could you pls get me to the concerned.
Me: Hang on ma'am
I could have chickened out in other situations, but this was goofup was of my making, i messaged sharon who had once told me she had worked for product service, with great hope that she might be able to help me out, i messaged her. Fortunately for me she was still around unfortunately she dint have the number, however she gave me the board number. Any number would be good...with great hope i gave this lady the board number hoping that they would put her to the right contact.
Now you have heard stories of how CSR's having gone to great lengths to satisfy customers. But here i am trying to helping an aggravated customer for an organisation i dont work for. Aint this super human ... is somebody from CPX reading this :-)
posted by Sunil B at 10:39 PM
1 comments
