Welcome to the Inaugural Adventure in Bad Service

Good Morning,

I have been in the service industry for some time and strive to give the best service possible. When I see bad service, it just gets under my skin. I wish there was a way to just find the manager or owner or whoever is in charge and show them how the bad service they are letting happen is hurting their company or organization. Since I don't have the time or resources to go to every company or organization I see bad service at, I decided to start sharing it here.

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Today I went out to pick up lunch from a fast food restaurant, a local chain here in Louisville. While at the drive through, I saw a sign for a new food item. The sign was mounted on top of the speaker so that you could not avoid seeing it.


When I pulled up to the ordering position, I was told to wait a moment, and so I sat for about three to four minutes perusing the menu. It was then I decided to try that new feature.

The associate then asked for my order, and she was nice enough to ask if I was ready. I gave my order with the new feature, as it was listed in the sign above the speaker.

She asked me what size I wanted in that item. I looked at the sign, there was one offering, three pieces of the new food item. I read to her the sign. She sounded confused and told me to look on the main menu board for the different sizes. I looked over the board and found one full dinner with the same food item, but no other sizes.

After a few more back and forths to confirm that what I wanted was what was on the sign I moved around to pay.

Part of my order was two drinks, one diet, I am diabetic and one regular coke. She then hands me two drinks, and I do not see the depressed button on lid of either cup. So I ask her if one of these is diet. She says yes, but they are so busy she did not have time to push down the little button on the lid which says diet.

I sipped one of the drinks and luckily it was the diet, so I pushed the little button down, taking all of one half a second to do it.

I drove away shaking my head.

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Some take aways:

1. If you are going to promote a new item or service in such a visible and high profile place, make sure your staff know EXACTLY what that item or service is and can speak to it if any questions come up.

Another example of this is:

This past weekend, my wife and I went to Lexington to go on a Horse Tour. We paid for a package with a local hotel which included the tour. When we got to the hotel, NONE of the staff knew about the tour. We showed them the brochure, and they were still confused. They promised to call around and find out when and where we were to meet the tour. No call ever came that night. The next day, the staff were better. When we asked about the tour, the front desk clerk said, 'Oh, you spoke with _____. I will find out all you need and within a few moments got us our info. Why didn't the staff know that these tours existed? Even the Guest Services staff were confused.

Communicate all promotions to your staff and keep paperwork available where all your staff can find it should a question come up.

2. No matter how busy you are, you must think about the welfare of your customers. If I drank the wrong coke, I would have known, but a kid might not of and someone with type I diabetes drinking a coke is not a good thing. How about people with heart troubles asking for french fries without salt?

In our society today, lawsuits abound. A simple pushing the button, taking half a second, should never be ignored.