Secret Shopper

Our oldest daughter, Brittany, works as a server at a family restaurant in Carlisle. Brittany’s been serving at various restaurants for most of her adult life and has tons of experience.

The other day the manager announced there would be a secret shopper in the restaurant that day. She then told the servers that they all need to give their best customer service.

Well, Brittany was one of those servers. And in classic Brittany fashion, she walked away and promptly forgot.

And you guessed it. The secret shopper showed up at her table.

If only she didn’t forget! She got blasted in the post-interview and then was fired on the spot.

Yeah. No.

She loved Britt, and later in an article with the local newspaper, she referenced her by name in a fabulous review.

We’re so proud of Britt. She didn’t need to upgrade her service because she was already exceptional. Consistently exceptional.

None of those wonderful attributes would be worthwhile without that keyword. Consistency.

This is a bright spot in the world of customer service, which, in my personal opinion, is underwhelming at best.

Many customer service people are simply not friendly, not fast, not apologetic, and actually seem taken back that they even have to serve people. They’re in the service business, for God’s sake!

Anyone in customer service, and that’s most of us, should take some advice from Dan Sullivan, well known Strategic Coach. He offers such a simple message: The 4 Keys to Referability:

1. Show up on time.
2. Do what you say.
3. Finish what you start.
4. Say please and thank you.

I’d also say – be friendly.

Brittany has these down. Consistently. We should too.