The Ripple Effect: Have You Had Oprah's Customer Service Experience?

For 25 years, Connie Brubaker has focused on customer service and sales as an entrepreneur. Connie owned 3 Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurants with 50 employees for 20 years. She attributes her success with her ability to motivate her employees to do what they know they are suppose to do every day, every time.

Today as a speaker, trainer, and author, Connie shares her knowledge and experiences on the power of the relationship with employees and ultimately, the customers. You focus on people and the profits will follow.

I am proud to have Connie offer her incredible insight as our Guest Blogger!

Customer Service in Boston

I just returned from five days in Boston – clam chowder, Paul Revere Trail, the North Church, shopping on Newberry Street, lobster bakes, Boston Red Sox and more. Everywhere I go, I am constantly evaluating levels of customer service. Most of the time, my experience is acceptable – not raving, exceptional, outstanding, or memorable. Sadly, many times, the customer service falls between indifference to utter rudeness.

All across the news, one of the world’s most public figures, Oprah Winfrey, was snubbed at a Paris Hermes Shop, where a purse can cost $6,500. As she entered the open store right at closing time, one person approached her to ask Oprah and her entourage to leave. Oprah called the American President of Hermes, Robert Chaves. She asked him to be on the show as she shared with her 20 million viewers about how the treatment of one person made her feel humiliated because she was not chic enough, thin enough, or the wrong race.

The president apologized sincerely for the behavior of one single employee who didn’t know who she was. Oprah said that is exactly the point, you should not discriminate against any customers but treat all equally as guests. Chaves informed the audience that the company was doing sensitivity training but I waited in anticipation to hear that all audience members were given an Hermes purse or scarf . This simple gesture that would have overturned all negative feelings and cause a huge positive sensation. He missed a gigantic marketing opportunity.

Visiting numerous high dollar, designer, stores on Newbury Street in Boston in a hoity-toity neighborhood, I could not believe that I was not greeted in most of them. Not even a hello! One boutique had a pillow that cost $195 and no one addressed me! Not that I would have spent $200 on a pillow but napkins were on sale. I have a standard that does not allow me to purchase items from stores that do not recognize me as a customer. Even HEB & Walmart say hello as you enter. The standard is engraved in stone for me. I push the envelope at fast food restaurants – I can’t tell you how many times I have stood at the counter looking at the menu, stubbornly waiting to be approached with a simple “can I help you?” Businesses don’t seem to comprehend is that minimum attention to the simplest tasks would make the shopping experience for their clients stand out heads and shoulders above their competition. Why don’t they do it? Why don’t they care? Why do you have to be Oprah Winfrey so that when you call to complain, somebody cares?