A good response for good service!

[marty]

A friend and I went to Applebees recently--when I still had some extra cash to spend before I knew it would be tight. They just passed the liquor laws in my town so that restaurants can now serve liquor. So we ordered some frozen daiquiris, and when they brought it, she brought me half an extra glass. "Oh it's on me," said the waitress. "I got too excited with the ingredients and added too much!" The two bartenders, including her, gave us 110%. Fantastic service the entire time. Brought our food out at the right time, checked up on us at all the right times even when they had a full restaurant. So I went online that night to Applebee's website and sent in a compliment.

Now I gotta wonder, is it so rare that people actually leave compliments? Because I received this email a few days later:

"Dear Marty,

We're working hard to be America's favorite neighbor. Glad you noticed!

Marty, your email meant the world to us. We strive to provide outstanding service and greatly enjoy hearing that we have attained that goal.

I'm passing along your compliments to the <my town> team. As I'm sure you know, comments such as yours provide a powerful motivational tool. While it seems many only focus on negative experiences, it is a kind and rare individual who takes the time to recognize great service. Thank you so much for taking the time to share such positive feedback.

Thank you again for your kind words of encouragement and letting us know of your dining experience. When we get letters like yours, we know we've truly provided outstanding service!"

[blas]

I sent a letter (yes, old school style) to American Eagle Outfitters at my local mall so that upper management could know how outstanding and helpful and accomodating their staff is, and how they strive to satisfy customers and make clothes shopping enjoyable.

They sent me a response back quite similar to yours. I guess more people complain than compliment.

And when I'm impressed, I let someone know. I still have to send a letter to Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and My Best Friend's Closet.

[magician5]

My wife and I were having dinner at a mid-range restaurant (fake Irish Pub) and the waitress was attentive, friendly, and went out of her way to see that we had all we needed.

We tipped extra-well, and on the way out the door I saw someone who looked like a manager. Now, maybe it's because I'm 6'1" and fairly wide (I've heard of people being a bit scared to mess with me even at times I'm just on "idle"), but I'll never forget his reaction.

"Are you the manager? That waitress that served us..." His face fell and he put on an immediate look somewhere between concerned and perturbed "...was wonderful! She made our meal a real joy, and we wanted to let you know."

And at that point, if I read his face right, he was thinking "Oh! What? Oh, it's a compliment! Hmmm..."

I guess he doesn't hear much from happy customers.

[Ratha]

I once sent an email to my power company telling them how pleased I was with their service and how quickly they'd dealt with a recent power outage. I was surprised and amused when I got an email back thanking me for my kind words.

After reading through the stories here, I can imagine the kind of crap they must have been getting, so it pleases me to know I brightened someone's day.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've seen a few letters come into the bookstore praising good service. They always got posted in the breakroom near the schedule. Don't know if the managers ever responded, though.

[Damien]

I sent an email to a hardware store chain back in Australia once in praise of the kind CSR's that came to my aid when i was knocked down by a cyclist (not looking where they were going, nor stopping).

I wasn't badly hurt at all - just grazes and bruises, they sat me down and got me some water and applied first aid.

The response was wonderful - ad a tad surprising - these busy people went out of their way to help me, so o course i would praise their kindness. I was able to remember the employees' names, so i made sure they got a mention.

The corporate folks sentme a 2 page letter thanking me for my kind words and saying that they are glad that I was okay. They also said that the employees in question will have the 'kind words' relayed to them.

[thehippie777]

Prolly about 99% of comments sent to customer services are negative. Most people who enjoy their experience or in the very least are neutral about their experience will say NOTHING. Why? I presume it has something to do with motivation. If someone is upset or angry, they are far more motivated then someone who is pleased. Extreme emotions tend to bring out a type of "motivation".

It was awesome that you mentioned your great experience, and very obvious that they field negative feedback 99% of the time.

[edible_hat]

I work for an independent store, so whoever's at the counter at the time is the feedback department. Compliments are so few that we remember the customer when they come back (even if it's 6 months later, as happened recently).

There's one old lady who always complements us whenever she comes in, between that and the easter basket she gave those of us who worked on Good Friday, she could commit murder and have 10 people ready to give her an alibi.

[crazylegs]

People expect 'excellence' over normality, so when they get excellence they don't notice it as much as poor service (or perceived poor service). The human brain logs losses more keenly than gains, which is another reason why compliment letters are less likely to be written.

[wanderingjoe72]

I love doing this kind of thing. I called Olive Garden the day after our visit to compliment one f the best servers I have had there to date. I think they were surprised that someone called the next day as usually most people will forget after a day. I know if someone goes out of their way to compliment us at work, we get a monetary recognition with it. I always hope that a compliment of good service sweetens the pocket of the employee that provided it.

[wanderingjoe72]

I love doing this kind of thing. I called Olive Garden the day after our visit to compliment one of the best servers I have had there to date. I think they were surprised that someone called the next day as usually most people will forget after a day. I know if someone goes out of their way to compliment us at work, we get a monetary recognition with it. I always hope that a compliment of good service sweetens the pocket of the employee that provided that service.

[MrBrightside]

When I was working at Lowe's in outside lawn and garden I got not one but two letters like this in about 2 months. The only downside to this was that I became a management poster boy. Besides that those are the kind of things that make your day when you work in the service industry.

[otakuneko]

It's even more rare for a tech support rep to hear such a thing. If a caller ever asked me about how reliable (DSL/FIOS) is, I usually told them my perspective would be pretty skewed. No one ever calls in just to say, "Hey! It's WORKING! Keep up the good work!" I only hear about it when it doesn't work.

On that note, odd as it may sound, I've sometimes thought about calling up AT&T and telling them I'll never switch to VOIP because my landline is so utterly reliable. Seriously I can not recall a single instance when I've picked up my phone, and not gotten a dial tone. At the very least it'd give some beleagured CSR a break from that full queue of unhappy customers.

[reimero]

When I worked as a server at Steak & Ale some years back, management told us flat-out that the number of negative comments was on the order of 10x the number of positive comments, and that people who had bad experiences were 5x as likely to tell their friends to stay away as they were to tell them things were great.

The point was that we had to work hard to keep people happy with the goal of winning repeat business, and that a single bad experience could be far more harmful than 5 good experiences.

Since then, I've made a point of not only tipping well for excellent service, but also providing management with feedback when service has been excellent.

[smileyeagle1021]

well, considering in 3 months I've gotten 3 letters praising me... which on a grave shift is impressive considering we so rarely deal with customers... I've only had one complaint and that was from the douche who was upset because I refused to release the confidential negotiated rate for expedia

that said... I've almost never seen compliment letters for anyone else... and yes, I do try to send compliment letters when appropriate.