WEEKLY FOCUS
Common Sense & Customer Service – Is it too much to ask!
The readers of my blog, will know about my passion for Customer Excellence…Similarly the benefits, and how everyone can truly make a difference…Always remembering that what you give, you get back in abundance…The mirror effect!
I regularly catch a train just one stop on a Friday evening to meet some pals for a drink. The same time each week.
On Friday just gone, I arrived as usual, at 5.15 to buy a ticket for the 5.26 train. I asked for a return ticket and was asked what time I was returning…I was catching the 7.16 back. I was then told that this particular return train would be running but that there was a disrupted service due to industrial action. The first I knew of this.
I checked that my outward train was on the normal platform. ”Yes”, I was told!
I made my way to the platform and to my surprise saw a sign on the departure board…
“The 5.26 is not running due to industrial action…The next train is the 5.56”.
This meant that I had a 40 minute wait! I was taken aback! Surely I should have been told this?
I returned to the ticket office and relayed the message to the gentleman…
Having arrived at 5.15, surely it was apparent that having arrived at that time, it was patently obvious which train I was wanting to catch…The 5.26…His reply…
“I presumed that you were catching the 5.56, as the 5.26 was not running”!
Consider the entire dialogue…The fact that he checked the return…Made we aware for the first time of the industrial action…Confirmed the platform!
In the first instance the service was brusque at best…But any application of common sense, rendered any Customer Service totally null and void.
Common sense and Customer Excellence have to work in tandem, or all else fails.
“Common sense is not a gift, it’s a punishment, because you have to deal with everyone that does not have it” ANONYMOUS