An Englishman, Irishman and an American

If I asked you who the best nation were for customer service the chances are that you would say America.  They are certainly perceived to be the best at customer service within the world and definitely do treat the customer better than many nations.

However, after your 30th “have a nice day” it can become a little bit tiresome and possibly also appear to be a little bit false at times.

If I then asked you who the worst nation in the world were for customer service the majority of you would most likely answer the British.  Although as a nation we have improved in this area over recent years we are certainly still perceived to be one of the worst in the world at customer service.

The following little story gives a slightly different perspective and anecdotally it would show the Irish to be the best at customer care, in fact head and shoulders above everyone.

Whilst walking through a small village in County Cork a year or two ago at around 10am I stopped in a pub and asked for a cup of coffee.  The girl working there looked slightly bemused but said “of course have a seat over there” and pointed to a booth at which I duly went and sat down.

After about 5 minutes some coffee arrived with a selection of biscuits and I then took my time and had a read of the paper.  The girl asked if it was okay if she ran the hoover around a bit and I answered that this was fine.

Having finished my coffee and feeling refreshed I was ready to proceed on my journey and I went up to the bar to pay.

The girl’s reponse surprised me somewhat – “I can’t take any money for that I am afraid”.

I insisted that I settled the bill but she was adamant that I couldn’t pay.  I therefore asked why having looked after me so well I was not able to pay her and her reply said it all -

“Well I can’t take any money for two reasons.  First of all Sir we don’t serve coffee and secondly we are not actually open for another hour!”

This willingness to serve the customer whatever they wanted regardless of policy or rules demonstrated a truly customer centric attitude which many would do well to adopt.