What Do You Want in Return?

Waiter, there’s a bug in my soup!

What do your customers want when they aren’t satisfied?

It’s an interesting question, and one you might want to think about. What do you want when you’re not satisfied with something? Sometimes I want my money back, other times I just want to be acknowledged. What about you? Do you want a refund? Do you want a replacement? Do you want an added bonus, or do you just want to hear “sorry”?

I’ll give you two examples of things that have happened to me:

I mentioned the train experience the other day. I don’t expect my money back, nor do I want it. I would like to be acknowledged and told that they heard my voice when I took the time to write in.

Another situation, I was at a nice restaurant, and while eating a large, green salad, I came across a crawly bug with antennas. It freaked me out to say the least, and I quietly pushed it away. Someone noticed and came over. I explained there was a bug in my salad, showed them, and they apologized profusely. Uh-oh, they wanted to do damage control. Some people want to scream and yell, and let everyone know how wronged they are. I’m not one of those people. I’m happy just to have it resolved quietly and go about my business again.

They removed the price of the salad from the bill, and then the manager came over to patronize me over and over again. I simply said, “I’m aware things happen, thank you for removing the salad from my bill.”….but because he was in “overdrive” mode, he went on and on and on…which really just annoyed me. Enough, I said okay, let’s move on….You need to be able to read someone, and know what is overkill.

Be genuine, simply apologize and make amends. Don’t drool over me, and suddenly try to make me a queen for a day (and if you’re trying, you comp the full meal, not just the salad)…I didn’t eat anything else there at that point. (I haven’t been back to the restaurant, by the way. It will take me awhile…things happen, but I was skeeved, what do you want?)

Genuine concern and acknowledgment go a long way; schmaltzy patronizing has the opposite effect.