An Empty Glass: How to Lose a Customer in 5 Minutes

Earlier today, I posted a blog detailing how a Yadkin Valley winery, faced with a negative customer experience, proactively addressed the issue and won a lifelong advocate. 

Not all companies know how to do this. In fact, some of the best lessons in customer service come from observing what not to do. I struggled writing his blog, trying to make it less of a rant and more of an instructive guide.

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A comedy of errors caused me to miss this year’s North Carolina Wine Festival. Suboptimal customer service from representatives for the event’s organizer assured that I will never attempt to attend the festival again.

We don’t live terribly far from Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, so I decided about a week before the festival  to pay $40 for two tickets. After completing the purchase, I got a notice that I would receive an email confirmation which I assumed would serve as my ticket. That confirmation never arrived and, to make matters worse, I mistakenly thought it was a Sunday event. So we showed up 24 hours too late.

No worries, I thought. I will just call Curtis Media, the event’s organizer, explain what happened and get a refund since they never sent the promised follow up communication. I was wrong. The woman who answered the phone made several big missteps from the perspective of customer service.

·         Zero empathy. She repeatedly found ways to put 100% of the blame on me. Granted, I was ultimately responsible for confusing the date, but there were some clear errors in the online ordering. An upset customer, on a very basic level, just wants to feel heard.

·         They never offered to look into the problem. Just making that offer would have at least made me feel as though Curtis Media was proactive and interested in making improvements to benefit others. (Sanders Ridge, as you may recall, did look into the problem we had, thanking me for helping them identify it.)

·         An argumentative approach is frustrating. At one point, she defaulted to saying no refund. Such rigidity poisons the customer experience. There was no attempt at compromise or to find a middle ground. It was a zero sum game for her – over $40.

·         I had to ask to speak to the general manager. One way to make someone feel heard is to give them an opportunity to speak to “the boss.” I had to ask for that. She told me that the GM would be unwilling to work with me, and she was right. Three days have passed and he has yet to return my voice mail message.

It is interesting to look at the math. The event boasts that it draws 250,000 people, bringing in roughly $5 million on presale tickets alone. So refunding my $40 would have cut into that revenue line by a percentage so low it isn’t worth trying to calculate. Then again, when you have that many people attending, maybe you can afford to upset dozens with poor customer service.

The unfortunate thing about this experience is that the wine festival brought in at least 30 wineries, and I am willing to bet that most, if not all, of them would have given me better customer service under the same circumstances. (In fact, Sanders Ridge was among the wineries at the event.) Since many are not close to Winston-Salem, it is unlikely that I will visit them any time soon. I definitely will not see them at the next NC Wine Festival.

In Vino Veritas: Wine and the Customer Experience

As translated, the Latin saying goes: in wine there is truth. Wine also serves as the inspiration for today’s blogs, looking at how important it is to provide potential customers with a unique experience built around exceptional service. 

These blogs will focus on both positive and negative customer experiences. In one instance, an employee’s quick thinking led to a salvaged relationship and a nice boost in a company's bottom line. The other, unfortunately, will cost a company more money than it gained.

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You hear in business school about the importance of reacting quickly to remedy customer concerns; how word of a bad experience travels faster than a positive one. While that adage usually rings true, I have also seen instances where an exceptional experience has delivered substantial benefits to an attentive and proactive business owner. 

This morning, I’ll start with the positive experience. A few months ago, my significant other and I were ambling around the Yadkin Valley, stopping at wineries trying to find a new red wine. Nearing the end of the day we saw a sign for Sanders Ridge Vineyard and Winery and, on impulse, decided to drive a bit out of our way to check it out. We pulled into the drive, walked by some friendly folks in front of the cabin and went to the bar to request a tasting.

Entrance to Sanders Ridge

Just as someone was getting ready to pour, a manager told us that the winery was hosting a wedding. There were no more tastings. There were no signs and no warnings to alert us beforehand, leaving us to walk back through the phalanx of smiling “greeters,” get in our car and drive home disappointed.

Unfortunate, eh? Not so fast. This is where the winery turned a negative experience into a positive one. I emailed them the next day to express my frustration. Within a half hour, I had a response, apologizing for the confusion and offering me a gift card for two free tastings if we gave Sanders Ridge a second try.

Jennifer thanked me for alerting her to the issue – the winery had not placed a private party sign at the entrance – and she directed me to the Sanders Ridge website to look at their upcoming events and restaurant menu. We accepted her offer and returned a few weeks later.

This allowed the winery to fully win us over. During our second trip, the owner was there, telling us stories about building the cabin, wine making, and more. He was unaware of our first experience – it wasn't something we wanted to advertise – validating the sincerity of his conversational state.

We also discovered that Sanders Ridge offers bird watching (a favorite hobby for my significant other), zip lines, and a nice restaurant. They are working quite hard to offer customers a wide range of memorable experiences, and we wouldn’t have known about any of them if my email went ignored. My significant other turned to me as we left last weekend and said, “I think I’ve found my new favorite winery!”

Empowering employees to make those types of customer service decisions can be critical to maximizing revenue and income. We found a new favorite wine – Sweet Kate – and we have since bought several bottles, exposed our friends to their wines and made a return trip. And it was all because of the responsiveness of one employee.

I feel so good telling this story, which makes it difficult to discuss the negative customer experience. Let’s take some time to absorb the positive vibes; I will return to the blog later today to assess the suboptimal experience. And yes, it also involves wine!

B-School Lessons From Chuck E. Cheese

It's hard to imagine learning about business at a place where the mascot is a goofy rat that wears a purple baseball cap and gives a thumbs up sign. But there I was, at Chuck E. Cheese's, offering my daughter an occasional treat of skee-ball, hoops games and pizza.

Yes, this venue is the one with the mantra, "Where A Kid Can Be A Kid," but I inadvertently found myself learning about the business end of this active playground.

I had just finished a game of street hoops (you can't go to a place like this and not play the games) when I noticed that the machine was dispensing half as many tickets as it had in the past. I used to play this particular game repetitiously to help pad my daughter's end-of-day ticket haul.

Thinking something was wrong with the machine, I mentioned the issue to the restaurant manager, a tall, lanky guy who looked like he had been overexposed to all the loud noises and flashing lights. His name might of been Kip, but that is irrelevant.

Anyway, "Kip" told me that there was nothing wrong with the machine. Sensing my interest in why the outpouring of tickets had been muted, he explained that Chuck E. Cheese insists on making on average 16.1 cents for every quarter played in one of its games. So you take the overall inflow of quarters and tokens and subtract the ticket payouts since those are redeemed for "valuable prizes" such as gummy lips and Whoopie cushions, what the company calls the "cost of entertainment and merchandise."

Every few months, management reviews a print out of each machines input of tokens and output of tickets. Kip explained that there are certain machines, specifically games of chance like the machine that lets you try and push tokens down a chute, bring in tons of tokens (I believe he said $6,000 worth of tokens monthly).
In contrast, the street hoops game had gotten too generous, particularly when adults rack up big game after big game after big game. Management decided to tweak the output, reducing the ticket outflow in half and subsequently tempering my excitement for playing it.

 Maybe they had this guy in mind when they made the adjustment. Well done!

Chuck E. Cheese's was launched by Nolan Bushnell, who also founded Atari and Pong, in May 1977. The first Chuck E. Cheese's was located on Winchester Boulevard, in San Jose, Calif. Today, the chain is owned by CEC Entertainment Inc. in Irving, Texas, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol CEC.

Last year, the company made $55 million off of $821 million in revenue. BTW: cost of entertainment and merchandise made up just 8% of revenue in 2011; most of the revenue comes from selling greasy pizzas and fountain drinks.