For Starters

Customer service is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of a customer's experience anywhere, be it a clothes shop, restaurant, or even a small grocery store. Your store/restaurant could have the most beautiful design, delicious foods, or very unique, differentiated products. But if your service is bad, all the other good stuff you have won't matter as much. We are social creatures, and naturally, we enjoy positive social encounters, and we place great importance on them when we rate our experiences. 


By customer service, I don't only mean a hotline or a call center (of course, these aspects of service are very important too); I also mean the actual encounter that takes place between the frontline employee and the customer. The waiter-customer interaction. The conversation that takes place between a salesperson and a shopper. The cashier and the payer. These encounters are so important, and they really change the way a customer perceives his/her experience during the moment in which its taking place, as well as in hindsight. 


In a nutshell, this is what my blog is going to be about: the service I experience at different places I visit in Beirut, and how this service affects the way I perceive my entire experience. The reason I started this blog is because I'm so passionate about this subject because it truly affects the way I (and many others) see a business or a brand, and I feel that many companies, especially in Lebanon, greatly undervalue the importance of training and motivating their frontline employees, which inevitably results in bad customer service and an unhappy customer (me, most of the time).  Of course there are a few exceptions who I will be writing about later, but in general, if someone were to ask me about customer service in Beirut, the words on the top of my mind would be: bad, horrible, unprofessional, untrained. Which is really a disgrace, considering how the culture in Beirut is very shopping/eating out/nightlife oriented. 


In my blog, I'm mainly going to focus on restaurants and coffee shops, firstly, because I love eating and drinking coffee. And secondly, because from experience, the most noteworthy encounters I've had (both positive and negative) have been in restaurants and cafes, with the waiters, baristas, managers, etc. I may also mention a shop from time to time, because I've also had pretty interesting experiences at those too. 


You may be wondering what makes me think I can judge customer service, or tell the difference between good service and bad service. Leaving aside the facts that I've travelled to and lived in many places and that I'm a marketing major, anyone can judge customer service. If the employee makes you feel good, then the service is good. If the employee makes you feel bad, then the service is most probably  bad. Simple.