Thanks for your thoughts.

While I can’t say what is or isn’t taught in business school, I can say that people are people and can be caught off guard by unfamiliar experiences. It may be that the chef whom I offered my complaint to has never had anyone go out of their way to complain. It may be that it was confusing or baffling or a criticism. Sure, I was telling her the food and my experience was bad but I was also saying, “Here’s your chance to do better.” She just missed out.

When I was younger and worked in retail for a large chain of camera stores, we were taught to look at the extended value of every customer. A happy customer will tell at most four people about exceptional service but they will tell more than 9 people about bad service.

Unfortunately most professions, in their training, be it a dentist or a chef don’t have any training in customer service or dealing with customers. The problem is that all of these professionals work in a service field but figure if they do their profession right they will be successful.

In my exeperience working at a mangagement training and consulting firm, I saw time and again professionals who were very good at their vocation but terrible when dealing with the people who paid their bills.