Twice in as many months I have found myself asking this question out loud, as I was let down by service people in my area. People who have come through for me in the past. It has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and forced me to vote with my wallet.
The first incident/offence: I made an appointment in person at my local nail salon. I have been going there for several years and while I've been let down before things have been more than positive by far. My appointment was for the next day at 12:30. Since I've been going for years, I am on a texting basis with my nail artist. So I text her the day of to confirm times. That's when the bomb gets dropped! Yes my appointment is at 12:30 but can I come a bit later. Usually when I get this question it's at most 20 minutes after I'm scheduled. This time it was a full hour!
I noped pretty hard on that and found somewhere else that would take me. I now go to this new place permanently.
The second incident involved my son. He has been growing his hair but still needed a trim, as it was really messy and scraggly. A barber shop wasn't going to do the trick this time. So I called a place I have been taking my daughter, somewhere that could cut his curly hair properly. We decided on an 11am appointment, meaning I would have to take him out of school. At least his hair would be cut and styled before he went to the teen dance that night.WRONG! I took him out of class and down to the salon. He was happy and looking forward to a fresh style, but before we even got inside the stylist comes around the corner with their take out lunch. He announces they had been trying to get a hold of me ( I had no voicemails or missed calls) because they had other customers come in and were now really behind "but let's reschedule him for Tuesday!" Annoyingly, I was too dumbfounded to speak my mind, I just muttered something along the lines of "fine" and we left. It took until 1pm to find somewhere in my town that could fit us in on a Friday.
My question, is why do they even take appointments if they can so blatantly disregard them? Is this a problem about poor time management? Are there that many people ignorant to the phrase "customer loyalty"? I can't feel confident in your service, no matter how good, if you can't honour my time. And I certainly won't be recommending you in the future.
Oh my gosh, I'm 42 and sound like my 80 year old curmudgeon grandfather!
Has this happened to you? Do you feel any guilt in taking your business elsewhere after having been a faithful customer?
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