With my “real” job, I work in an extremely competitive market. Over the years I have come to realize there is little to no difference between the product I represent and those my competitors carry. The only difference is our people! Therefore; I stress customer service to both my customers and to my employees to ensure that we stay ahead of the competition. Since customer service is such a valuable aspect of my business I am always evaluating my experiences as a customer to learn from others on effective and ineffective manners to properly handle customer service. In my opinion the single most import aspect of customer service is actually listening to the customer.
Most recently I had a bad experience in customer service and believe it or not it was not in a restaurant, nor a large scale department store, but it was on the water. The week after Christmas my fiancé and I went to Islamorada with her family for some rest and relaxation. We had an inshore charter booked for Monday, an offshore charter booked for Tuesday, and Wednesday we planned on going to Key West to eat, shop, and sight see. We flew in on Sunday afternoon and upon arriving in south Florida we realized the weather was not too sporty. With winds blowing out of the north east at 20 to 30 knots and a small craft advisory we called our inshore guide and expected him just to cancel our trip for Monday over the phone. Instead he insisted that we meet him at the marina at 7:30 am the next morning to evaluate the weather! We all climbed into bed early Sunday night to prepare for the early morning and listened to the wind blow all night. We arrived at the marina the next day at 7:30 am sharp and then waited around until 8 am for the guide. He finally showed up and asked us if we wanted to fish! The small craft warning was still up, the bay had 2-foot white caps with the tops blown off, the wind was still steady 20 to 30 knots and not expected to lay one bit, the temperatures were around the mid forty mark and only expected to climb to the mid si