Experience Stories
July 2006

Customer Experience. C'est What?

It was St. Patrick's Day 2006 and we were searching for a Irish style pub which wasn't overly rowdy when we came across C'est What Brew/Vin Pub - Restaurant on Front Street in Toronto. It's web site boasts that it has "old town charm that appeals to Bohemians and Bay St. bankers alike." As all five of us are young professionals we felt we would fit in and decided to give it a try.

Upon entering, we approached the hostess and asked for a table for five to which she rudely replied "good luck. The tables are booked solid." It was apparent she was having a bad night. However, she mentioned that we could stand at the bar and have a drink if we pleased. As the place wasn't overly crowded, we decided to enter.

After ordering drinks we noticed an empty table towards the back of the establishment. Before we sat down, we made sure to verify that we could use the table with the hostess to which she replied "be my guest." The table was set up with four chairs and as there were five of us, we asked the table beside us if we could borrow one of their unoccupied chairs to which they courteously agreed to. Within 30 seconds of adding the chair to our table, the manager stormed over and almost pulled the chair literally out from underneath one of the females in our party. He remarked that our table was a table set up for four and not for five. He was visibly upset while saying this. We apologized as he returned the chair to the neighboring table. It was obvious that the other customers in the area of our table were as astonished as we were by the outburst exhibited by the manager. After he left, a customer at a table adjacent to ours asked us "what is his problem?" to which I replied that we were unsure as the extra chair in no way inhibited traffic flow or the visual appearance of the establishment. After all, it is a pub!

Within a few minutes of the managers temper tantrum, the female who's chair was taken away from her decided to sit beside her boyfriend (sharing his chair) in order to join in on our conversation. Minutes later, we were approached by the pub's "bouncer". He told us that he had been instructed to remove us from the premises. When we asked him why, he mentioned that we had angered the manager. So we asked to speak with the manager to discuss the problem and we were told that he did not want to speak with us. When we asked if we could at least finish our drinks as we had just received them (we hadn't even had our first drinks for more than five minutes) he replied "no" and told us that we had to leave immediately.

We were not the slightest bit impaired (we were on our first drink), rowdy or rude to this manager or anyone in the establishment to warrant this type of behaviour. Furthermore, we were all well dressed and easily fit in with anyone else in the place. We were made to feel like criminals when we feel we didn't do anything wrong. Unfortunately I think the manager was overly stressed due to the holiday and decided to take it out on us. Neither of us (nor any of our family members or friends) will ever set foot in this place again!

Parker (Rosedale)

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Delta Airlines exceeds expectations!

Great Customer Experience #1.

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Dallas,Texas on Delta airlines. Being a frequent flyer, I have had many good and bad experiences with different airlines. For the flight to Texas, I was assigned a middle seat between a large male and a relatively large female. Without saying anything to the flight attendant, he tapped me on the shoulder and said "sir, you look awfully cramped in your seat, I have a spacious aisle seat for you in the back of the plane".

Great Customer Experience #2

Upon my return, while at the Dallas/Ft.Worth Int'l airport check-in counter, I was worried I was going to miss my connecting flight in Atlanta and without asking the ticket agent, he asked if I would like to change my flight out of Dallas so I would arrive in Atlanta with plenty of time to catch my connecting flight. Most other airlines would charge the customer if they wanted to change their flight.. This was the best customer experience I have ever had when dealing with airlines, and will definitely fly with Delta in the future

Norman (Halifax)

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Experience Stories
October 2005

Does No Frills Mean No Smiles?

I'm not the most demanding customer in the world and don't expect much in the way of service, but my trip to No Frills has to have been one of my worst experiences ever. I only had three items, so went to the Express Check-out. Big mistake. The store was busy and the short line-up grew quickly while I watched in horror as the oblivious cashier spent what felt like ages s-l-o-w-l-y breaking out coin rolls into her money drawer.

The zero personality cashier at the Express Check-out did not smile, did not speak and did not apologize for the delay or say "thank you" to a single customer. This employee didn't want to be there - and she showed it in spades.  

Elena

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West Jet Experience Is Outstanding

West Jet is the best customer service experience I have ever had. The staff are so friendly and full of fun. Whenever I take one of their flights I always feel so welcomed and wanted and appreciated. The staff just have a ball doing different aspects of their jobs. I usually get annoyed very easily when I haven't slept in 30 hours, but when I step on that West Jet flight I know it's going to be fun, relaxing and enjoyable. Highly suggested for anyone wanting a good flying experience.

Jennifer

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Buying a Light Bulb - the experience was "light"!

I needed a specialty light bulb, but had no idea what I'd have to go through first before 'seeing the light' at the eighth store I visited! Here's a summary of my experience.

• There were no "thank you's" for the business from any staff in any of the eight stores.
• Only one of the eight retailers had the specialty bulb in stock. It was out-of-stock at two locations. At three locations it was not determined whether the bulb was carried and no one seemed too interested in finding out.
• No proactive help was offered anywhere; not one retailer offered to locate the bulb at another affiliate or local competitor.

Overall, I'd rate this experience a 1 out of 10.

Roger (Toronto)

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Yes, Bathrooms Are Part of Shopping!

As parents with young children, we are constantly amazed at how little attention is paid to bathrooms in retail stores. Not only are they hard to find most of the time, but way too often they are disgusting - dirty floors, broken locks, no supplies, no place dry or clean enough to set anything down. They sell kid-type merchandise so I guess they want my business, but do they understand what it's like to shop with kids? I think not.

Laura & Joe (Calgary)

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Yzza - nice, but not so easy.

I read about Yzza, Liz Claiborne's new store for style-conscious women age 35+, and wanted to check it out for myself. This wasn't as easy as it might sound, since I had a really hard time finding out where the store is - nothing on the Liz Claiborne site, no listing in the online phone directories (don't get me started on those). Finally found an article that mentioned "Colossus Centre", so I took a chance and off I went to find it.

The Yzza store doesn't feel like an impersonal warehouse-type outlet store. As soon as I walked in I was welcomed by one of the two staff members working on a Friday afternoon. She explained how the store is organized (in colour groupings) and proudly told me that all their merchandise is Liz Claiborne (however, the tags all said "Yzza") and that nothing is priced over $100. She told me her name, asked me for mine, and invited me to browse around and to ask her if I needed anything at all - very nice.

The dressing rooms must have been designed by a man though. I took in about eight items, all on hangars. There were three hooks, but they're too close together to hang hangars on all three simultaneously. And there was no place to hang my own clothes while trying things on. In the end, I selected two sweaters and a great pair of jeans, but they don't carry belts at Yzza; she told me to try the Liz outlet.

She was very gracious as she rang up my sale and wrapped my purchases with great care - two colours of tissue paper, Yzza sticker and a neat bag. I wasn't blown away by Yzza, but I'll probably go back...mainly because my salesperson was so nice.

Sheila (Aurora)