I’ve had a couple of weeks of horrific customer service, so I decided to focus on an example of customer service that will keep me as a customer for a long, long time.
There’s a little place called Big Tony’s Pizza in the area. Yes, they’re a pizza place, but they also have Burgers, Italian Beef, Gyros and more. There are some tables in the place, but I’d be willing to bet that most of their business is split between carry out and delivery. I tend to pop in, order and bring it home because I can run some quick errands after I order and be back in time to pick it up and I really like their burgers and Italian Beef a lot. It’s one of those “Ooo, you know what sounds good right now? A burger from Big Tony’s.” type of thing. But that’s why I started going there. Here’s why I’ll keep going there.
Not long ago I went in with Theresa and it was the busiest I’d seen it in there in awhile. I don’t think there was an empty table and people either ordering or picking up orders were 3 – 4 deep. We ordered and sat down and this time we decided to eat there. We were talking when I heard someone say something I couldn’t make out, but it made me look up just in time to see the man behind the cash register say “just a minute” to line of people three or four deep. He turned and walked over to a physically challenged man in a wheelchair who had a couple pieces of pizza and a soft drink in a can with a straw and put the straw to the man’s mouth so he could take a drink and turned back to the cash register in almost one single motion. If I hadn’t looked up right then, or I had blinked, I would have missed it. A lot of the people did miss it. But there was also this moment of “you saw that, right?” bit of silence for those who did see it.
It wasn’t that it was the right thing to do, even though that’s exactly what it was, or that it was good customer service. It was those things and there was no complaint, no fanfare, not even a break in stride.
It was done without a second thought.
I don’t know about you, but a place that employs people with customer service like that gets my return business, period. And it makes Big Tony’s Pizza a happy place for me.