Bending the Rules to Satisfy the Customer

The business of business is satisfying the customer. If it succeeds, the profits come as a byproduct.

Unfortunately, many businesses forget that. Somehow to them, profits come first, the customer second. And the rules they establish for dealing with customers make that crystal clear.

A good illustration is a little episode recently at Reuben’s Restaurant in Woodland Hills. The Monday Night Football game was blaring in the crowded bar when a couple came in asking for a quiet table far from the noise.

“It’ll be about 10 minutes,” said the young woman receptionist.

The couple looked around and saw that the main dining area wasn’t crowded at all. The receptionist responded to the quizzical look by seating them immediately--next to the kitchen.

Disgusted, the couple got up and moved to a better table, only to be told by the receptionist that she couldn’t get a waitress to serve them there. The waitresses were assigned tables and that table wasn’t assigned, she said.

As the couple got up to leave, the manager happened by and rescued the situation, taking the order himself and getting a waiter.

Or take a tableau that took place in the parking lot at 2049 Century Park East. A business executive who had parked in the lot just outside the building for a little over three hours was told he owed $24.

Now, parking in Los Angeles can be expensive, but $8 an hour sets a new standard. The problem was a poorly marked lot that was supposed to be for 15-minute parking only but that could be mistaken for the main entrance to long-term parking. A protest to the attendant drew the manager from the building, who conceded that lots of people make the mistake. In fact, he said, one man left his car all night and owed $148.

In that case, how about reducing the charge, since it was a mistake? No deal. Manager or no manager, he just had to follow the rules and used that universal out, “I’m just doing my job.”

So much for happy parking customers. Then there’s sales personnel in stores. Like the saleswoman in a Broadway store who shadowed one customer apparently for fear that she might steal something instead of just offering help and letting the customer browse. Or the saleswoman in a dress store in Beverly Center who told a customer every time she tried something on that the item “looks great on you,” no doubt a line out of the salesperson’s book of instructions.

The rules often make the dressing room a special place. Consider the stores that send sales personnel around to peer in the door just to make sure a customer isn’t mishandling the merchandise, often catching the customer between changes. Or those stores that require their clerks to log a bunch of codes in an inventory book while the customer waits. Or those where the only salesperson in sight tells the customer, “This isn’t my department.”

There are good salespeople, of course, and they stand in sharp contrast to the rest. Seldom has that contrast been more stark than at a couple of Oshman’s stores.

The good guy in this story is a young fellow named Jeff at the Oshman’s in Encino. One of his customers arrived home to discover that she’d been sold a warm-up suit with a top that was size small and pants size medium. She called and reached Jeff. Jeff discovered that the store was out of the small size pants. He called the Canoga Park store and had them set a pair aside. The customer said she’d be happy to pick the item up there that evening.

The young saleswoman at Oshman’s Canoga Park wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it all. She commented to the customer that Jeff should never have done such a thing. “What are we going to do with part of a warm-up suit,” she complained.

Still grumbling, she went and got the pants that had been set aside, then with the customer still there, phoned the other store, asked Jeff whether he’d really perpetrated such a crime on her beloved store and then asked peevishly to talk to his manager.

Cooler heads prevailed. Jeff’s manager shut her up quickly by saying that he’d take the loss on the spare top if she’d just send it to him.

Clearly, business needs more Jeffs. And fewer rules.