One weekend, I visited two restaurants in Glasgow. The service at both was far too slow, and we were kept waiting for ages. And both served food of reasonable good quality. But I'd return to the second one tomorrow, and the first one left a bad taste in my mouth. Here's why:

TGI Fridays Screw Up Big Time: As it was a weekend, I made a table reservation in advance for TGI Fridays. Anyway, we wound up getting there an hour and fifteen minutes early. So, I told them I had a reservation for later, and asked whether it would be possible to get a table right away, or if we should come back at our reserved time.

We were told to take a seat in the entrance hallway and they would have a table in ten minutes. Well, we waited and waited. And nobody apologised for the delay. The kids were with us, they were bored, it was uncomfortable and we weren’t even offered a drink while we waited.

Eventually they seated us after 45 minutes, but again there was no apology for the delay. So we left TGI Fridays with a bad taste in our mouths.

How Holiday Inn Prevented A Complaint: We had a similar experience at the Holiday Inn the following day, but here’s how they dealt with it differently: Firstly, we were already given a drink and a comfortable seat. And then as soon as the waitress realised there was going to be a delay, she let us know and apologised.

So, she’d apologised before we had a problem with the wait. Then, after she’d served our food, she apologised again and offered us a round of free drinks. And we left the Holiday Inn having had an enjoyable experience - the delay didn’t bother us and we’d definitely go back.

What Your Business Can Learn From This: Never overpromise and under deliver. If you know you can deliver by Tuesday, tell the customer it will be there on Wednesday. They’ll be delighted when it arrives early.

Apologise to your customer before they have a real problem. If there’s going to be a delay - apologise to your customer as soon as you know. And be honest about how long they’ll be waiting. Most people don’t mind, so long as they’re kept in the picture.

Have a system in place so that you and your staff can compensate a customer the moment a problem occurs, without even having to think about it. And make sure your staff are aware of what form of compensation they should be giving for each particular type of problem.

A small gift or freebie won’t cost you much. But, it could save you from losing a customer, and potential referals.

Don’t Recruit a Ventriloquist Who Hates Talking

October 10, 2007

In Agencies, Lies and Lazy Girls I shared my first staff recruitment mistake.

Employing people can be tough, and unfortunately, I didn’t get it right when I tried to replace her either. You wouldn’t recruit a ventriloquist who doesn’t like talking would you? Well, I did. And here’s what can go wrong.

1) When You Write A Job Ad That Sucks - You Attract Candidates That Suck: I’d never had any experience in writing job ads. But, I wrote one anyway. And it attracted plenty of people, but not one single one was anywhere near right for the job. With hindsight, I should’ve got someone with experience to write the ad, or at least learned the basics of writing one.

2) Don’t Believe Everything Your Read In Books: By the time I interviewed the final applicant, I was becoming desperate. She was really nice, but I knew she wasn’t right for the job. For a start, the job involved making and receiving a lot of telephone calls to book in jobs. And she did tell me in the interview that she didn’t really feel confident using the phone, but she was willing to give it a try.

Well, I foolishly saw this as a challenge. I’d read somewhere that you could train absolutely anyone to do any job. And, I was silly enough to believe it.

3) If Someone Wants To Leave Hold The Door Open For Them: We practised calls a lot. I wrote scripts for inbound and outbound calls, and I would go into the other room and play customer. And my new employee got on with her job and everything seemed great. So I ignored all warning signs to the contrary.

Other members of staff said that my new assistant sounded so down on the phone, that it made them feel miserable when they spoke to her. Then after a month, a note arrived on my desk saying she wanted to leave - she was really unhappy. The computer system was too complicated, and she really couldn’t cope with the phone calls. She hated it.

Now, I really should have listened to what she was saying. She hated her job - hated speaking on the phone - hated the computer system. But, instead, I persuaded her to stay. All she needed was a bit more practice and training and in a couple of months time she would love it right? Wrong.

4) You Should Always Have a Back Up Plan: As Asako pointed out, in a recent comment, you should be looking for new staff and interviewing year round, as it is difficult to find the right people.

I didn’t do this. I carried on with the belief that against all the odds, I was going to train this woman to be the best assistant on the planet. Then we got really busy at work - we had a claims surge, and some of the staff were on holiday. And naturally, she cracked, because we now had a whole heap more of the work that she hated doing, and she couldn’t cope. So, she gave me a months notice.

Whatever Happens, Don’t Be a Doormat: The months notice came with a clause. She would do the bare minimum eg - just answer the phone, as she found it too stressful to do the whole job. Now, you should never agree to pay someone their full salary to do the bare minimum. But, I did. I figured that having my phone answered was better than nothing. And since we were short staffed and I was also covering the jobs of staff on holiday, I simply worked all my waking hours and only slept four hours a night. It wasn’t enough, and we got desperately behind with paperwork. And it took a long time to catch up.

But, it was all my own fault. And if you find yourself in the same situation, don’t recruit a candidate who doesn’t like certain aspects of the job. There will be someone out there who is the right fit - you just have to keep looking. And never try to persuade someone to stay when they want to leave.

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