A Better Answer Blog

Being on the front line of customer service, you never know what sort of day it's going to be. Some (lack of) customer service stories leave you staring in horror at your computer screen. Others make you proud that a person chose to do right by the customer. For Halloween, we thought we'd scare up a few customer service tricks and treats.

This Chef's Out to Get You

You always hesitate before sending a plate of food back at a restaurant. What if I upset my waiter or the chef? Would they spit in my food?

One such chef lost his job recently after a fellow restaurant employee turned him in for doing just that. The local authorities also charged the chef with food tampering and disorderly conduct.

The unsuspecting patron was also contacted by authorities and informed about the extra ingredient in his meal. Kind of makes you want to cook at home from now on, doesn't it?

Road Rage Gone Mad

A female passenger was in for the ride of her life when she hired the driving service, Uber, to take her to her destination. She didn't know the exact address of her destination, only the cross streets. For some reason, this enraged the driver enough that he pulled over the car, demanded that she exit the vehicle and then forcibly attempted to remove her from the car. When she began to photograph the incident as it was happening, he smashed her phone to pieces by throwing it down the street.

Uber suspended the driver, pending an investigation. They also refunded her trip and replaced her phone.

Way Above and Beyond

A woman was shopping Zappos.com for a new pair of shoes for her ailing mother. Her mother has problems with her feet due to many medical treatments and was nearly housebound. Zappos allows customers to buy shoes and send back - for free - any shoes that were not completely satisfactory. After purchasing 6 pairs of shoes, only two were comfortable so her mother called Zappos about returning the other 4 pair.

The Zappos representative had a father with many of the same disabilities and ended up communicating with the mother for a very long time. A few days later, her mother received a bouquet of flowers from the Zappos call representative.

Now that's putting the customer's needs first!

Thankfully there are just as many, if not more, wonderful customer service stories than bad ones. Every business needs to think about providing a positive experience to the people who keep their businesses alive. Whether your business is conducted in person or not, over the phone or not, start with hiring employees who care. Put a welcome voice in your storefront or in your answering service.