I often hear people say, “You can’t really teach someone how be a great service provider; people are either born that way or they’re not.” Which makes me smile and shake my head. I certainly know that service didn’t come naturally to me—and in fact I cringe when I think about how badly I […]
Can you think of the last time you received an order, either one that was delivered or something you picked up yourself, only to get home and realize the order isn’t right? Something is missing, the quantity isn’t correct, a dietary restriction wasn’t adhered to, the list goes on… It’s frustrating, for sure. It ends […]
The security of the familiar in our lives has quickly been overpowered by uncertainty and concerns around safety, rendering many of the ways we regularly do business either much more difficult or, sometimes, even prohibited altogether. Perhaps you experienced a few, if not all of these shifts: adapting work schedules to accommodate new needs at […]
When clients ask us to help them develop customer service training for their businesses, we always start by helping them articulate and document what “great service” means to them. That’s because effective training starts by defining what the trainees will be expected to know or be able to do at the end of the training. […]
At Zingerman’s we’ve done a lot of work over the past few years to introduce effective measurements to assess the quality of our service work. We do things like mystery shopping, customer callbacks, and track complaints, order accuracy and late deliveries. All have helped us compile data that we use to guage the effectiveness of […]
Becoming what‘s known as a “third place” is a status that every community-oriented business should want to achieve. I first heard the idea of the third place in reading Ray Oldenburg’s book, The Great Good Place, originally published in 1989. Here is the key concept: As Oldenburg explains, the “first place is the home; the […]
As we all know (and as I’ve covered in the last two articles in this series: Low-Cost Service Tips in High-Stress Times, and MORE Low-Cost Service Tips), great service is about getting the big and small things right. In this third installment of basic but useful service strategies that we put into practice at Zingerman’s, […]
Great service is about getting the big and small things right—and in this tough economy, keeping customers happy has even greater significance. Therefore, here is the second installment of basic but useful service strategies that we put into practice at Zingerman’s. Some of these can be implemented one at a time, starting tomorrow morning if […]
In part one of a three-part series, we learn about rules for greeting guests (and, yes, there are rules) and boosting the service skills of long-term employees. In light of the tough economic times, great service is an even more compelling area for focus than usual. I doubt any of us can afford to risk […]
IN RECENT ISSUES, I’VE FOCUSED ON THE INFORMATION WE’VE GLEANED FROM THE ZINGERMAN’S EXPERIENCE INDICATOR (ZXI), or what others in the business world refer to as the Net Promoter Score. Part of me thinks I should switch to another topic but as the findings keep coming and continue to have a positive impact on our […]
Some time ago, I spoke at the Inc. 500 Conference in Savannah. The biggest perk was to hear the other presenters, such as former President Clinton. The presentation that had the greatest lasting impact on Zingerman’s was by Scott Cook of Intuit. Intuit makes Quickbooks, Quicken, TurboTax and other accounting software. Cook talked about the […]
Children are an ever-more-important element of our work in the food world. At the Deli, kids of all ages come in at all times of the day with parents and grandparents. At the Bakehouse and Creamery, which are located in an industrial park, parents show up with kids after school or around scheduled classes in […]
