Customer Service or lack of training or do people lack tact and diplomacy

I travel quite often and had two instances of poor Customer Service in the last two days. In Hindsight it seems to be a trend.

First example came Thursday in Virginia. I had an hour wait for a meeting and decided to stop at a Cracker Barrel for a bowl of soup. I was propmptly seated and had a good bowl of Beef Noodle soup and a drink. I got the check and headed out to the cash register.

I gave the check to the cashier and she asked me what I had for lunch. She told me that this could not be my check and again asked me what I had. I told her the soup and she looked at me like I was trying to cheat the Cracker Barrel. She went around the counter and tracked down my server and got the correct check. I had not looked at the check since it was so small I did not know how it could have been messed up. When she came back to the register there was no attempt to apologize for the oversight in giving me the wrong check. I wish I had not left a good tip at this point.

How should this have been handled?? The cashier could have said that she needed to check with the server that there may be an error on my check or could have just taken what I ordered and enter it in the register and then talk with the server about the error. In a normal year I will eat at an out of town restaurant approximately 150 times.

Will this experience affect my choice of restaurants in the future. A similar poor service (waiting 15 minutes for a waitperson to come to acknowledge my presence in their section) has already had a negative impact on the IHOP chain. IHOP is at the bottom of my list of restaurants at the moment.

Then last night, I flew into Peoria and on my way home stopped at the Kroger's near the Airport in B'ville. I had quite a cart load. You know never go to the grocery when you are hungry! So I had a large amount of groceries. As I was checking out I realized I had missed one item. I asked the person bagging if I could put my cart near the lane and go back and get the item. So I placed the cart at the front of the store and found my one item. It was after 8:00 P.M. and there was only the one lane open. It now had quite a line so I went throught the U-Scan lane for my $1.49 item. I am leaving the store with my cumulative purchases when I get half way across the parking lot I her a female voice yelling "Sir, Sir." to which I ignore not thinking they are looking for me. Then I hear the Salvation Army guy yelling as well. So I turn around and the Kroger employee is looking for me. She then yells across the parking lot " Did you pay for your (item)?" I told her how I had paid for it.

This could have been a positive had the Kroger employee came to the car since I had a whole cart full and simple asked me if I had found the item in question and if I had any trouble in the Uscan lane since that was the only option other than the lane that she was working at.

I have seen many instances of great customer service and tend to give larger gratuities if applicable or write letters to the company. In the last 3 month's I have sent out 5 letters to companies where the employee had gone above the call of duty.

One instance was a flight out of Bloomington on Airtran. The airline was getting ready to close the door on the plane and a familly of four came in. One was a baby in arms. They were sitting a few rows in front of me. The stewardess helped the family get settled and she got a little snack., etc for the kids. This calmed the frantic parents and kids, who were surely worried that they would miss the plane. This little extra action by the Airtran employee made the whole plane trip more enjoyable for the whole cabin. Feeling that if she had not made this extra effort the kids would have been noisy and not content with the surroundings on the crowded plane. Airtran was in receipt of a letter for this employees efforts.

I do not think we reward good experiences as much as we should. We are always vocal to our friends about bad experiences.