OK, I have a burger confession. I am positively, absolutely a lover of all things burger. And the other night, I was in the mood for a good one. I had been to Burger Up a few times in the past and knew that I liked their food. (I lost a bet to Aaron West and had to buy him a burger. I still think he’s had to buy me more burgers from losing bets, though. I’m just saying!)
The place was packed with a line out the door. So instead of waiting, I headed straight to the bar and sat there. Now, it’s a funky kind of atmosphere—the kind where you can either get great servers or weird you-should-be-glad-I’m-serving-you servers. Hopefully, you know what I mean.
It turned out that my server, Troy, was a really nice guy with enough cool ink on his arms to rewrite War and Peace. He jumped right in, gave me a menu and started taking care of me. When the food came out, it consisted of this gorgeous burger with white Cheddar cheese, Benton’s bacon, and Jack Daniel’s maple ketchup. Sitting next to it in a silver cup was an order of truffle fries, with what I believe was Parmesan cheese. AHHHH!!!! Loved it!
Normally, I’m not a big fan of ketchup. In fact, I’m not an admirer of tomatoes that aren’t vine ripened. But this ketchup was rockin’ my world that night. So much so, I asked my waiter, who was elbow deep in the sink washing glasses, if I could have some extra to see if it would go well with the fries. Now here’s where my night just got better.
Without skipping a beat, he said, “SHOOT yeah!” with a look that said, Dude, is that all you want? Ask me for something difficult already! He quickly dried off his hands, went straight to the kitchen and reappeared quickly with a stainless steel ramekin of the red liquid fantasticness. C’mon!!! I can barely get the folks at the other burger joints to look at me when I’m ordering! It’s a thing … I like to be looked at.
This kind of customer service makes me want to come back time and time again. It wasn’t just him taking care of me. It was him making me feel like my request was the smallest task he had accomplished that day. And we all know how badly some servers make us feel for requesting just about anything. He made me feel like he had been waiting all day to take care of ME.
That’s how you do customer service. Do you think he got a bigger than normal tip? SHOOT yeah, as well as a repeat customer in me. I will bypass my normal burger joint, which costs me less money, to go to Burger Up and receive better customer service.
As a leader, you have to ask yourself the question: Is my team treating customers like this? If not, why? Not only did HE get more money in his pocket for doing so, but the restaurant profited, too—not because of the great food but because of the awesome service.
Question: How does this kind of customer service effect your decision to patronize a business?
Not only does this kind of service cause me to return, it causes me to tell other people!
I keep seeing tweets from my friends in Nashville about this place. It wasn’t open when I moved down to Atlanta from Nashville, so I haven’t had a chance to try this place yet, but everyone says it’s amazing.
Me and my roommates have been going to Mellow Mushroom on Tuesday nights for trivia night. We’ve had 4 different wait staff so far. The first two women who waited on us the first couple of weeks stop by our table and talk to us each time we’re in there even though they aren’t our waitresses. We’re even on a first name basis with one of them so that we can request a table in her section now. They make sure we have what we need and ask us how we’re doing with trivia.
The two guys that we’ve had were a different story. They both took a long time to return to our table, one guy went out for frequent smoke breaks and reeked heavily of cigarette smoke (not what I want to smell on my waiter). Other wait staff kept getting our refills last week because our waiter was so slow.
I’m definitely more likely to leave a larger tip for a waitress/waiter that goes out of her/his way to make sure I have everything I need than one who I have to ask for a refill every time. Good service can make a huge difference in a restaurant. If a place has terrible service but great food, I’m still likely to go to the place with average food and great service.
And that’s why you’ve been there 4 times, correct?
I went to the first Quitter Conf and had a great weekend visiting Nashville last summer. Burger-Up was one of the places we went and loved it!
For me the service makes a HUGE difference in where I choose to patronize. I believe strongly in “voting with my money,” so when someplace crushes-it I like to encourage that.
Preach it Deacon!! (sorry, I had to :-))
We all get to vote with our money…great comment!
My dad used to call that “voting with your wallet”.
I love it!! Great perspective.
I love the question: Is my team treating customers like this? If not, why? Good thought to think about even if you are…I bet you will put more effort into it.
I was out of town last week on business and tried an italian restaurant near a client. The waiter did an excellent job to recommend me stuff after I told him this was my first time there and finding out what I liked. When I asked for a glass of wine and they only do BYOB, he said, but I can get you one, I just can’t charge you. Big tip for this dude? Absolutely!!! He knew what I wanted and since I was out of town he insured I was happy. Will I be back? Absolutely!
How about when a client treats you like this waiter did for you Chris? Only makes you want to serve them more and please them. One day working onsite in doing training with a clients staff, we past the time we normally break for lunch. My client said he would go get lunch and asked what I wanted…I said anything, just some food as I was starved. I wasn’t going to be picky, the fact that he would go get it before seeing patients and allowing me to continue to answer questions from the staff and finish up meant a bunch to me. He came back and delivered me my sack and said: I got you a grilled chicken salad, I have seen you eat that before. Wow! Was I impressed? Heck yah!!! For a guy to take time out to get me what I wanted to eat when I wasn’t “his sweetie” spoke volumes to me…let a lone a client paying attention to what I would like and get me that, dressing and all??? Ummmm, I want more of these clients!
Great post Chris!
My husband and I don’t have any business ventures at the moment that require that we hire employees, but when we get customer service like that we usually have a conversation that involves “I wish we needed to hire someone right now because I would totally hire him/her.” These are the type of people that want to work, so it wouldn’t matter what you needed to train them to do. It also does tend to affect if we will go back to a place or avoid it in the future as well.
HAHAHA…that’s awesome!! I’ve actually asked people if they needed another job. 🙂
I love me some over the top customer service….you’re gonna have to sell me, though, on the ketchup…..not diggin it.
I will have to say, I just went to Logan’s for lunch. My friend that was with me was SHOCKED. I said watch this….when the waiter came he said, Unsweet tea? Yup….came back to take our order, I said, I’ll take the chicken (yeah, we’re at Logan’s, how many chicken options do we have?) He said, with the rice, mushroom skewer, and Caesar salad no croutons, right? Yup! It’s been at least 8-10 months since he’s waited on me. Lovin me some customer service!
DANG!!! It was a relative wasn’t it? JK
As a former server, that’s pretty remarkable!
I loved the description of the experience. Now I’ll have to go to Nashville just to eat a burger… thanks a lot 🙂
Bad customer service drives me nuts. It’s like inviting someone over to your house and treating them like dirt!
I understand that bad customer service is tied to low wages, poor leadership and bad work conditions, but hey, it’s not your customer’s fault that you hate your job.
I bet you that your server at Burger Up is probably not going to do that for the rest of his life, but loves the atmosphere, being around people and getting good tips!
In my work, I want to be the person people go to because I do things that are not in my job description.
The Lampo Group is an example of excellent customer service. The interactions I’ve had with your team members make me feel like they’re talking to a long-time friend. Now, THAT is good customer service.
Just what we like to hear Lily!!!
When I have a great experience, I will do 2 things – return, and tell others.
A marketing coach I listen to to improve my skills constantly talks about getting your “during unit” right because it’s key to orchestrating referrals. So many businesses only focus on getting new customers rather than creating lifetime customers, which is what all businesses should strive for.
Hmmmm…you just gave me a blog post
That means we get a free stay at the LoCurto house when we visit. Deal? Okay, good. You’re so easy. (Resist the temptation to reply to that. Once it’s online, it’s there forever. =))
As I commented below, businesses that get their “during unit” right, will succeed. It’s all about providing a superb experience for their customers. So many businesses spend so much time trying to get new customers in the door and once they do, they stop trying. The goal is creating lifetime customers and you have to be deliberate about that. It doesn’t just happen.
When I find that the customer service of an organization as lethagic and casual, I try to avoid buying the services / products of that organization. Of late, I am finding such poor services from local air carriers in my country.
I went to the first Quitter Conf and had a great weekend visiting Nashville last summer. Burger-Up was one of the places we went and loved it
When I find that the client service of an organization as lethagic and casual, I try to avoid purchasing the services / products of that organization. Of late, I am finding such poor services from local air carriers in my country.
Wow that burger does look awesome I don’t think we have one of those restaurants where I live, but Cook out is pretty close and really good.
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daRosario USDA Organic White & Black Truffle Mayonnaise is made with organic mayonnaise with organic truffle pieces. It is a great way to make BURGER UP burgers into something special; dilute with plain organic mayo and use as dip for their house fries.