Michael Jordan's Weblog

...And a theme develops! (Service Recovery and effect on customer loyalty.)

For several weeks I'd been noticing that the cafeteria in our building hardly ever had metal forks available in the silverware bins. It was mildly annoying but I just assumed that I had always just missed a rush of hungry eaters. Then I noticed that it didn't seem to matter when in the lunch hour I showed up -- no forks. A colleague of mine explained that lazy employees probably just threw them away with their lunch trash.

As time went on, I was...astounded. What are we? Animals? Has it come to this that we should be relegated to the use of plastic forks for our chicken caesars, our pastas, our Burrito Day? I had to fight back.

So, finally, I asked around. Half a day later I had emails and phone calls from three Guckenheimer (our cafeteria management vendor) managers, including one VP! They were on it! This shouldn't happen! We value your business! Here's my number -- call if you EVER need anything! We had ample forks the very next day.

So, should this have ever happened? No. But would I ever have experienced Guckenheimer's customer service spirit if everything was always there when I needed it? Probably not; I would have just ate my lunch. But the screwup created an opportunity for them and they responded swiftly, politely, and completely. Now I have new respect for their customer service.

Now, about those soup spoons....