Improving Customer Service

Good service is assumed and expected, so deliver it

We all know what a tip is. I don’t mean the kind of tip you get at the race track. I mean the kind you give to a waiter or waitress at a restaurant. I’ll bet you don’t know where the term, TIP, came from. The origin of this 3-letter word goes a long way toward explaining some important points about customer service.

Many years ago (of course, I don’t know how many years, which makes this cliché work so well for me) when people went to a restaurant, they would give the waiter/waitress a small fee in advance of their meal to guarantee they’d receive good service. The term that was used for this payment was, “Toward Improved Performance”, which was shortened to the popular acronym we all know today as “TIP”. Over time, however, this small fee wasn’t guaranteeing anything since the money was already handed over and the servers no longer had any incentive to perform better. Eventually patrons started holding back the Tip until after the meal. By holding the Tip as hostage, the wait staff would be more incented to perform better so as to earn a higher Tip. Hence the practice we all use today – leaving a Tip after the meal.

Wouldn’t it be great if we got paid a Tip after performing a service for a client? Not just for the money, but as an indicator of how well we did. Of course, we don’t get Tips for what we do; we get paid for what we do. If we do a good job, we get repeat business and referrals, which are much more valuable than Tips. If we do a lousy job, we get no repeat business and a rotten reputation. The principals are the same – get something good for doing a good job, and vice versa... Read More
 

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