In the before times, I worked in fast food; a girls gotta have spending money in high school. The experience, I think, molded my customer service beliefs into what they are today.
I find myself critiquing customer service in the food industry each and every time I go out to eat. It only takes a little effort to go from a mediocre experience to a real crappy experience and vice versa. My husband and I visited a local fast food restaurant this morning for breakfast. The woman working the drive thru hands me the large diet coke I ordered with a stack of napkins on top of it. She says “I over filled it a bit, sorry”. There was soda dripping down the side of the cup. Crappy experience.
On the opposite side of the coin, I hit the McDonalds on Friday’s for a biscuit and soda. The lady working the window is the nicest woman. She calls me doll and wishes me a great day every single time. Stellar experience, I’d hire that woman in a heartbeat.
There’s been debate in the past about who HR’s customer is; employee or the business. It doesn’t matter who we label the customer, they’re both the customer. HR often gets a bad reputation but I think a lot of it comes down to bad customer service. Kris Dunn said it best “The secret to great HR – find a way to say yes.”
Good customer service isn’t rocket science; whether you are serving biscuits, helping an employee understand FMLA, or developing a headcount budget for next year.
