Seth Godin wrote a blog post today entitled Looking for yes. In this post, he summarizes his interactions with companies and individuals that continually make excuses/throw obstacles in the way of satisfying a customer- these companies answer “No” instead of looking for a way to find a “Yes.” Seth also shared his interaction with “Yes” companies and indidviduals that will go out of their way to accomodate a customer- these are the companies/individuals that stand out by generating repeat business and raving fans.
This post inspired me to share a recent interaction with a Qdoba manager which I would classify as a “No” experience. I hope he somehow finds and reads this blog. It would just be another opportunity for him to create a “Yes” though I am sure he wouldn’t even realize the opportunity if it jumped out of the screen and bit him.
I recently obtained a coupon at Cardinal Fitness for a free naked burrito with the purchase of any burrito of equal or lesser value. This coupon had an expiration date of 3/31/09.
I attempted to redeem the coupon at a Qdoba location that I frequent at least once a week and received the following objections:
“Where did you get this?”
“This coupon was only good last month.”
“I see the coupon says 3/31/09 as the expiration date, but that is written in.”
After I refused to accept his objections, I was made to feel guilty about using my very valid coupon with the following remarks:
“How many more of these do you have- is this your last one?”
“I will honor it this time becuase I know you come here alot, but I could get in big trouble for this.”
So let me just recap this experience. I am a loyal customer at your store where I regularly pay $7.00 for ONE burrito. And you are going to give me a hard time about using one coupon, accuse me of changing the expiration date on the coupon (basically calling me a liar), then tell me that I could be getting you in trouble because you are honoring one of YOUR coupons, and finally you are going to check to make sure I do not have any more coupons for your store. Great job! Great job at delivering HORRIBLE customer service. I will still eat at Qdoba no doubt at some point in my life, but NEVER the store where you work. I can also promise that I will tell as many people as possible about this experience and encourage them to tell others.
And I am sorry but you will soon find out that negative word of mouth has no expiration date…
I had this experience at a restaurant once and had similar feelings, in fact I don’t think I ever went back to this [nameless] restaurant, which was local i.e. not-franchise. How could you not accept your own coupon? Being a frequent customer- and always having paid full price prior- it was very disheartening. It’s amazing to me that businesses take this protective, withdrawn mindset to heart instead of reaching out to customers! So DMac- how about that trip to McAllister’s…?
McAlister’s is a “yes” company. I should do a “yes” case study on them. They would blow Qdoba away in a customer satisfaction survey.
I had the same experience. I had a black and white printer and they would NOT accept my coupon because it “wasn’t in color and could have been photocopied”. So what!?!? photocopiers CAN copy in color idiots!!! I hate the qdoba by my house because of the lack of customer service. The other thing that gets me is that they don’t put the whole scoop of queso on the burrito and then you ask for more and they say it costs like 80 cents. Thats SO DUMB! I already paid $8 for my freaking burrito and now you want to charge me for what I already paid for?!?