Before my CustServ days, I would only think of customer service when I got a Wow! or a Blah! service. Now, it’s different. I have been customer-service-conscious ever since I started this customer service blog. When I go into any establishment, even before I enter the door, I would always tell myself, “let’s see how the service here is.”

Last Saturday, we went to Shakey’s Pizza in SM Mall of Asia. It was lunch time and so we had to wait for a table to be available for us. We were ushered to the chairs outside the restaurant and given the menu so we could place our orders ahead. So far, okay.

About five minutes later, we were led to our table, and our table was set. We didn’t wait long for our food, except for the pizza. But we understood the delay about the pizza because we were told that it would take 15 to 20 minutes to be ready. Fine!

Right after our food was served, the waitress asked us, if we had everything, and we said yes. The food was done in the usual Shakey’s delicious way, but I wanted to make special mention about the patience of the waitress assigned to us.

We had kids with us, and so we would often call her out and ask for more water, more ice, more iced tea, more tissue, more gravy, more food! There was even a time when we ordered something but meant something else. But to check, she repeated our order calmly. Not once did we have a hard time calling her attention, and she didn’t show any signs of impatience or irritation. She was in her smiling, friendly demeanor all the time.

I liked that experience. Now, I want to go there again and see if I’d get the same Wow! service with the other waiters/waitresses there.

If I were hungry for customer service, ConnectedCustomers.net is hungry for better service. It shares how T.G.I. Friday’s in Tom’s River, New Jersey adopted the “ESP System” to provide better service to their diners.

In Shakey’s we had to call out for a waiter, in that TGIF branch, the customers had to buzz the waiter. Check out how they do it.