Harveys

I was out running some errands with my daughter today when we decided to stop for a quick lunch at Harvey's. We decided on Harvey's because I have purchased a discount coupon from a local charity that gives me 15% off every purchase at this particular Harvey's. The local manager has invested money to advertise in their community and drive business to their location. A typical type of promotion organized by "corporate" types to build the business. So let's see what happens at the actual Moment of Truth.

When I ordered I neglected to mention my coupon until I had finished telling the cashier the order, but before I had paid. I asked the cashier to adjust the total to reflect the discount. She told me she couldn't. When I asked why not, she indicated that she had already rung in the order, so it would mean she would have to re-do the order. I suggested that possibly the Manager would allow this.

Guess what? She then proceeded to revise the order to reflect the discount. Apparently she was empowered to make this minor adjustment without a Managers permission, she just couldn't be bothered.

Now, let's compare that to the young lady who filled our order. I asked for a small glass with a few pieces of ice to put into my daughters soup to cool it down. Her response was "No problem", she provided me with the ice in a separate cup. No mention of additional charge for the extra cup.

I guess the observation here is that both employees knew "what to do", they just had different attitudes towards "how to do it". Yet they worked 4 feet apart in the same location under the same management.

This is a perfect example of training that deals with the process of what you need to do -- how the cash register works, how many pickles to put on a burger etc.

But clearly the training that talks about what the customer experience should be like has not be communicated.

Yet what is the part of the experience that I remember. the food was fine, even the service of person who prepared our food was fine -- yet the final impression by both my daughter and I was "why did the cashier give us a hard time?" And why did we only get our discount when we wanted to complain to the manager? A classic example of an employee not embracing a customer-focused attitude.

The bigger question that remains is; Has Harvey's even taken the time to develop a set of customer service principles, or are they just hoping that things go well at the counter?

Let me know what you think based on your experiences.

Cheers!