Local restaurant owner gives advice on customer service
Restaurant owner and Dallas-Fort Worth businessman Charlie Pham knows the secret to running a successful business. It isn’t having the latest and greatest technology. It isn’t blowing the budget on a fancy atmosphere. The secret lies in how you treat the customers. Pham says that customer service is everything.
The Man with The Baby
“When I was building up Pho95 on Arkansas [in Arlington, TX],” Pham says, “I had a customer that walked in with a baby. The customer ordered his pho and was ready to eat, but the baby kept on crying and crying.”
Pham watched the customer take the little one outside so as not to disturb others in the restaurant. The man stayed out for some time soothing the baby.
“I turned to the manager and told him, ‘Keep your eye on that customer. When that customer walks back in, I want you to offer him another bowl of pho since his bowl will be cold when he comes back in.’”
The manager did as Pham asked and took him a fresh, hot bowl of pho.
The customer was surprised by the act and replied, “No, no, you don’t have to do that. This is my fault, not yours.”
But to Pham and his staff, it didn’t matter. The point was to make that customer feel welcomed and appreciated.
Provide Quality Customer Service
Pham says that the same customer comes in every week and usually brings friends and family. “You see, that one act of good quality customer service kept that customer so happy that his experience not only got us more customers but a lifelong customer.”
Customer service has to be a business’s number one priority, above anything else. If you don’t take care of your customers, they won’t be customers for long. Going the extra mile and delighting them with service like no other is worth every penny.