Hot Chocolate, Greensleeves and BT.

I have had two quite different experiences of customer service this week that I would like to tell you about as both have left me with very different impressions about the customer service that I received.


The first came from a café that I visited. Billy dog and I had gone for a walk on Porthtowan beach on a cold and blustery afternoon and were about to have a soaking as we could see a band of rain approaching us from over the sea. It was then that I noticed that the beach café was open and had a sign up outside saying that dogs on leads were welcome. I felt around in my pocket and found that, amongst the dog treats, I had £3.78 which would surely be enough to buy a hot drink and shelter from the imminent shower. We went in just as the first drops of the heavy down pour started. At the counter I found that not only did I have enough money for a hot chocolate but I could afford it to be topped with squirty cream and marshmallows. Result! The young woman who took my order said that she would bring the drink over to me.


Billy and I took our seats and awaited my order whilst feeling smug that we were sitting inside in the dry and warm as the torrential rain poured outside. The café wasn't very busy, there were maybe 10 - 12 other customers there and I could see that there were 4 staff on duty, the girl that took my order, a pot wash and 2 preparing food. After a few minutes the girl I spoke to went through to the pot wash area and was chatting to the bloke on kitchen porter duties, she started eating a sandwich. There was one person preparing a food order and the other staff member was on the phone. I waited and no hot chocolate arrived. I couldn't see into the kitchen area very well from where I was sat but assumed that my drink was being made in there. A few minutes later the girl I had ordered my drink from came out into the seating area and wiped down a few tables, she then returned to eat some more of her sandwich, still no hot chocolate.


By this time Billy was starting to get a bit bored so I gave him a dog treat. A customer arrived and ordered a tea which was made for him there and then and he took it to drink at a table just along from me. Still no hot chocolate and by now Billy had finished all of his treats and I'm starting to get a bit fed up that my drink hadn't arrived. Eventually I went back to the counter and asked the girl if my drink was coming, she looked surprised and looked around into the kitchen where it was pretty obvious that no one was making my drink. She apologised and set about  making my drink in a very slow and lack luster manner. By the time I left the café, I might have been dry but I felt very annoyed.


My other experience of customer service came from BT. My broadband failed the other evening and despite following the diagnostics suggested by the help desk tool I couldn't get it back up and running. The help desk suggested that I therefore phone BT.


I was dreading the call as I imagined that I would be stuck in an automated loop where I had to press 1 for bill enquiry, 2 for wifi, 3 to report a phone fault,  4 for broadband, 5 if I wanted to listen to the options again and 6 if my next door neighbours' dog is called Marigold, however much to my relief I immediately got through to a human being. The woman I spoke to apologised when I told her that my broadband wasn't working and she ran some tests. She then told me that she needed to run a test that would interrupt my phone line so would need to call me back in approximately 3-4 minutes. Sure enough a couple of minutes later she called back to say that there was a fault, she had reported it but that it might take 3 days before an engineer could get out to fix it. She apologised for the delay in getting it sorted as she said that due to the weather the engineers were very busy but said that it might be done sooner, but 3 days would be the very latest. I put the phone down feeling that although the problem wasn't yet sorted that I had received good customer service.


So two different experiences of customer service, one where I was kept waiting for a hot chocolate (with all the trimmings) and felt that I had received poor service and one where I was to be kept waiting for my broadband to  be fixed but felt that I had had good customer service. I think that the different ways that I perceived the service I received was partly due to my expectations. In the quiet café, where I could see that the staff weren't very busy and where I was really looking forward to a warming hot drink, I was disappointed that no one appeared to care about my order. Whereas when I called BT I expected to be put in a queue and have to listen to hours of automated messages, not to mention tinny a recording of Greeensleaves, played repeatedly, before I spoke to anyone, so was really pleased when I got through quickly and easily. To my non-technical mind making hot chocolate was easy whereas fixing broadband sounds really, really hard.


And the moral of the story? I'm tempted to say that we should lower our expectations but I don't think that we should do this. Lets keep our expectations high in the hope that even these high expectations will be out shone. And if occasionally we are disappointed then we can always write a blog about it. Hot Chocolate anyone?