I used to work across the street from a well-known franchised bagel store.  I ate there because it was convenient.  But the food was prepared terribly!!   Cream cheese an inch thick across the entire bagel, hole and all.  Tuna spread across the bagel unevenly, extra in the hole it seemed.

I always used to think to myself, “Do these people even look at the food before wrapping it up?  Would they serve themselves, their spouse, their child this food?  I think not!”

The other day mrDiva and I had One Of Those Days.  Carsick babyDiva, accidental separation of adults at the beach, dead car battery.  We got home, looked at the food in the fridge, and said (nearly simultaneously) “delivery.”

He really wanted Papa Razzi pasta, so I called to find out who provided delivery services for them.  Turned out it was Dining In, so we placed an order with them.

Except from the time we started our order and the time it took to correct their misbehaving web form that wouldn’t take our credit card, the delivery time changed by 45 minutes.

We weren’t having any of it.

mrDiva called Dining In and I daresay his hackles were up.  But their customer service rep was delightfully human.

“That doesn’t sound good,” she said, “that sounds like a long time!”  She went on to work some magic that had our food delivered sooner.

Over orichette and penne, we discussed what was so good about her service.  It was that she was human in her response, while still doing her job and not disparaging her company.  She was exactly the opposite of the bagel sandwich-makers – she gave us her honest reaction while working to resolve our problem.  She was herself.

I don’t think this happens enough in sales and customer service.  Service is so script-oriented that rarely do you get an actual human reaction to a complaint or request.   And this experience was more than just empathy or assistance, it was a real person on the other end of the phone showing me that she was a real person who was also trying to solve my problem.  Having that interaction made me really like Dining In.

(And no, there’s no WAY you’d eat that bagel.)