Archive for the 'Customer Service' Category

In my last post I talked about the problems I had at Chipotle Mexican Grill along with the inability to access their Flash based website. I just wanted to post an update and exemplify great customer service.

I contacted Chipotle restaurants through their online comment form and explained the problems that I had experienced. Their representative, Joe Stupp, wrote me back within a few hours and offered to address each issue that I had. Joe explained that I was overcharged and offered me a coupon for additional items at no charge. He said he would contact the local store and update them on product pricing. He also explained that they will be redesigning their website soon, which will make navigation and alternate browser access much easier.

Bottom Line: Joe is a nice guy who actually cares about his customers.

With this type of customer service, I’ll be an even stronger Chipotle evangelist in the future.

Thanks Joe!

Technorati Tags: customer service, restaurants

I am a Chipotle evangelist. I love the food at these amazing Mexican restaurants. The meat is flavorful, tender, and tasty. The rice and beans are seasoned just so. And the Salsas are the best in the business. You can custom blend the ingredients to make the best tacos, burritos, or Mexican salads on the planet.

I heard about the restaurant chain in one of Seth Godin’s audio books. The story of Founder Steve Ells and his passion for gourmet food is one that all restaurant chains should follow. I have evangelized countless people about the great food at this fast growing organization.

That is why I am so upset with them right now.

Yesterday I visited my local store in Temecula. I ordered the hard shell tacos (they come in a group of four) and when asked what type of meat that I wanted in them responded, “One of each in the tacos”. The preparer scooped one of each type and passed the tacos to the salsa area. I had them put the same salsa on all of them. I was then rung up and the bill came to over 8 dollars. I questioned the bill (since I always order the tacos this way) and I was told that since I ordered the tacos with different kinds of meat I would be charged the individual taco price. What! There is no individual taco price on the menu.

The bill should have been in the five dollar range and since I had the audacity to order them with different kinds of meat I was charged over 8 dollars. A three dollar premium for choice? This doesn’t make any sense since they scoop the meat into the tacos right in front of you. It doesn’t take any more labor to scoop four types of meat than put four scoops of one type.

I was furious to say the least and, when questioned, the manager said, “that is our policy.”

What?

I paid the bill and went out to my car. I pulled out my Treo browser enabled phone and tried to access the Chipotle.com website. Since the website REQUIRES Flash and my phone is NOT Flash enabled I wasn’t able to get any contact info. I wasn’t able to access the site at all! I was really mad now.

I can’t believe that in 2006 they don’t have a way for you to OPT OUT of the Flash intro and access a normal text web site.

I personally want Steve Ells to know that this is unacceptable and that this Chipotle evangelist is mad.

When I got home, I was finally able to access the site and through trial and error found the contact page. I left them a note and I hope they will respond back.

Note to the Chipotle web designer… your Full Flash site is not intuitive.

When you are an evangelist for a product you take pride in telling other people about the experience. You put your name and reputation on the line. You share your unique story. It’s even more important when you tell them the creation story of the product.

I hope the marketing people at Chipotle are listening.

Give us choice and give us an accessible website.

Simple…

Enough said…

Technorati Tags: Restaurant, Customer Evangelism, Marketing

I am spending considerable time working through time management issues on my job with the advent of some new California State regulations. The state has mandated a new indentifier program for all students as part of the No-Child Left Behind act and the data reporting is very time consuming. This is on top of an already hectic tech schedule. My frustration level with E-mail overload hit a new high this week. I was out for over a week with my Dad’s memorial and you can imagine what I found when I returned. Where does it all come from?

I found an interesting article on Genuine Curiosity today by Dwayne Melancon about keeping your inbox clean and using the GTD add-in for Outlook from the David Allen Company. I have used the GTD add-in for over a year now and I find it to be very useful. They fixed the major shutdown glitch over the summer and now it works very well. When I first loaded the plug-in I was able to reduce my inbox from over 1100 e-mails to just a handful. Dwayne’s post today gives some additional tips for KEEPING the inbox clean….

When I first got my inbox to empty, it became like a game of “whack-a-mole” and I became obsessed with keeping it clear at all times. That kept me from doing planned work, since I was so busy cleaning my inbox all the time. If you’re on that treadmill, here are a couple of tips to break the addiction:

* Schedule some uninterrupted time to get your email done each day and try to stick to it.
o Be aware of how many messages you typically handle in an hour, and keep an eye on how many you get each day so you don’t under-schedule this block of time. One morning, and one late afternoon block might work best - it’s all up to you.

* Turn off your email alerts and “dings” so you don’t get lured by email’s siren song when you should be doing something else. Emergency scanning is OK, but…

* Remember the two minute rule - and try to stick to it tightly for at least 3 weeks to see if you can develop a habit.
o Gadget Alert: For me, using the GTD add-in for Outlook has been a big factor in being able to stick to the two-minute rule - it makes it easy for me to quickly file, delegate, and defer items that would take more than two minutes to get done.

Dwayne’s post came at a good time for me. I set aside some E-Mail only time this week to get things under control.

To see how the Outlook add-in works check out the video link here.

Do you ever feel like you are alone in the management world? Do you find yourself with a tough management situation and you wish you had somebody to confer with?

Well now there is a place to go to ask those tough management questions and pose those what if problems. It’s a new online resource called “Never Work Alone.” Three of the best “management” bloggers out there have put together a blog and a Google group to ask the tough questions and work through some real business scenarios.

If you have visited the blogs Slacker Manager, Genuine Curiosity, and Random Thoughts of a CTO, you already know the collective mind power of this group is awesome. Add to that the wisdom of many group members and you end up with a very productive site. Login and become a member today and add your two cents to the mix!