Episode 28: Lee Wells | Keep Your Customers

In this week's episode of The Ranch and Table, Lee discusses the importance of real customer service and authenticity in a world filled with fake interactions. He emphasizes building genuine relationships with customers, providing relatable and authentic experiences, and the significance of humility, gratitude, patience, and consistency in customer service. Lee shares personal stories and examples to highlight the impact of addressing customer concerns with care and sincerity, ultimately fostering long-lasting customer loyalty.

Transcript

  Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells.  Welcome everybody. Lee Wells here with the ranch and table podcast, and I am so glad  that you've joined me today. Today I'm going to do something a little bit different. 

I guess a little more different than normal, but I want to talk to you about customer service and the importance of being real and real customer service in our day of  so much being fake and so much not being real. And first of all, let me thank our sponsor today, Sterling tea. They are our friends.

If you listen to the podcast, you hear me talk about them all the time. They have the very best tea you'll ever drink. And whether that's hot or cold, doesn't matter. They offer over 200 blends of tea  and service hundreds of businesses throughout the United States. And so they are really a genuine treasure and part of our.

Our business and part of our life and part of this podcast. And so we're so thankful to have them. They bring in tea from all over the world and blend it, repackage it into. Packages and names and flavors and send it back out to be used. And so just great folks here in our area. And so if you are interested in going by their website, checking it out, sterlingtea.

com and if you use wells 20, of course you will get 20 percent off of your whole order. Go by sterlingtea. com. And grab some tea today. Let me talk to you about customer service. I want to just preface what is about to happen on this podcast by saying the act of customer service  is.  I think almost a lost art.

Let me just say,  there are some places in our area. That have been doing a great job. Do a great job. They really care. They do a great job of taking care of the customer and being consistent in their products and caring about pricing, just great folks, really good folks. And we're blessed in our area to have such great restaurants and great people running them. 

It seems like there's a lot of places these days that just doesn't, they just don't care if you're there. It seems like there's teenagers running the place. I, and nothing against teenagers, I've got some hard working teenagers, our place that do a good job, but it's almost there's an immaturity running the place.

And we know immaturity doesn't have an age to it sometimes. And I'm going to show you a talk that I gave in a business luncheon earlier this year, and I think it's going to sum up our approach to customer service and kind of put it into a An understandable format, very quick, very easy to understand.

I had a time limit of 20 minutes on this event and I hit it within just a few seconds of that timeline time limit. And I don't know, I think it's right at 20 minutes is what the video is. And whether you're watching this or listening, I think you'll understand, but we're in a situation where I was brought up to speak to business professionals in our area and and it was just a really good day really glad to be able to be there and I've been holding onto this for the podcast for a while  and been planning to do it and then things have come up and things have come up.

And this week. I had talked to some folks about being on the show, but with the busyness and the things that have happened in life recently, it didn't work out. And so that's fine. We'll just do this instead and it'll be a, it'll be a great episode. So I'm going to start this in and let you watch it, listen to it.

And then I'll be back to talk to you just for a couple of minutes after it's over. I've been asked to speak in the lane of customer service and customer retention. And my, my title today is real customer service in an Instagram world. And I'll start out by saying I'm not against Instagram.

That's not what I'm saying, but Instagram is definitely  a place where you're going to find perfect pictures, you're going to find curated. Ideas, you're going to have the right angles. You're going to have the right kind of, vacation pictures and the smiles. And it's going to, it's not going to have all the real  that a lot of times our lives have in it.

And I believe that we've seen this kind of thing for so long now that there's a new craving within our society for real, for the authentic. The other day I was scrolling through.  And I saw this picture on Facebook, so I'm not against social media, but on Facebook this gentleman had his real estate sign defaced, and as we all know, realtors hate for their signs to be thrown away. 

Any realtors in here?  Any, anybody they just hate it when when this happens and it's disrespectful. He had the idea I talked to him after I saw this picture. I talked to him for a little bit and his first idea was he was going to, get mad and upset and one of those posts where to the white Camry that cut me off today.

That goes to nobody that drives a white Camry. But, he could have done that. Instead, what he did is he painted his face, it got down in the dirt, and this went viral. And I think the reason that it did is because it's relatable, it's real, and we get it.  We're like, you know what, That's the best response that guy could have come up with and I looked last night, and it's so many shares of a four thousand 4, 200 shares on this one image that gets you a lot farther than that fist shaking ugly attitude You know yelling at nobody yelling at everybody and so the realness the genuineness of This I believe spoke to so many people  And we do the same kind of thing at Wells.

We have some t shirts that we've made. We have one for a Google review, a one star Google review that we received. And they so kindly said, Overpriced burger, absolutely no flavor.  And everyone has their opinions, even if they're wrong. It's possible  to have this opinion. It is fine. 

Instead of getting upset and getting mad and just, typing in a horrible response, we just replied with the back of the shirt which says, Voted Best Burger Every Year.  We sell a lot of t shirts that say this. We have another one that's a green shirt, you may have seen it. It's a two star Yelp review and it's about our pickles. 

I've never once said we make pickles or our pickles are special, but this review just trashed our pickles And so we made it sheesh. I'm on the second third printing of that shirt We sell so many of them and I think the reason that works is we can relate to that We work hard in our businesses.

We give all that we can give We work more hours than we can count and then to have people just come by and flippantly say You It's not worth it. It's not good. It's you're doing a bad job. How come you can't have better pickles? It's so frustrating,  but being real, I think is the answer.

Being genuine is the answer.  And I think being real in a fake and filtered world is what helps us stand out at Wells. When I was starting out the restaurant, we didn't have. Any restaurant experience. I'd never operated a restaurant before, and I knew we had pretty good beef. We'd been selling beef for a year or so, and I had a lot of compliments on it,  and I knew we could make a pretty good burger, but that's about all I knew. 

And the second thing I wanted to happen is I wanted people to feel  the way that I want to feel.  When they sat down in my chair, when they sat at my table I wanted them to feel at home. I wanted them to feel like they were having a burger out on the ranch with us  backyard, sitting down in a home environment, in a comfortable, peaceful feeling.

And that's one of the best compliments I get on a regular basis as we feel at home here. And that's the one thing that I have really  tried to do. The best that I can do. Make people feel like they're right at home. And then, of course authenticity is always gonna win, and then another thing you can take home with you today is that  relatability rocks.

And the more relatable we are, the more authentic we are, the better chance we have at connecting with people,  and having people feel comfortable coming back and, And befriending us. And then it becomes more about the relationship than it does the product. I think whenever we can get to the place where our relationships with people  are stronger, even than our products that we offer,  we have a customer for life. 

Even if you make a mistake, even if your pickles aren't the best, even if you charge a dollar more for your burger than the guy down the street, once you have a relationship with someone and. You're relatable, and you're authentic, and you're real.  Then you have someone that's going to give you all the mercy and all the grace that you need to make those mistakes that are going to happen, because no one's perfect.

It just is going to happen that way. And I want you to look at this guy right here. I know you know who this guy is. Oliver Anthony.  He's a pretty good singer.  In his terms, he's a decent guitar player.  He he's a millionaire now  because of one thing.  There are more talented people.

There are better singers. There's better guitar players. There's better video producers  than what this gentleman has. He has in spades  a relatability.  He has in spades a ability to connect where everybody is at right now in his songs.  Are they the most well written? I don't know. Are they? Are they the best songs ever?

Are they gonna be classics forever? And our grandkids listen to him? I don't know.  But I know right now, today  he is very relatable  and people get it.  Because he's real. If you notice, you can't really see on this picture, but if you pull this picture up on your phone later, not right now you'll see that he's got sweat on his shirt. 

Cause he's standing literally in a field, in a, in the woods,  he's got dogs over on his left side. They're just sitting against the tree and old pickup truck,  but he's real.  And his message is real and he's relatable.  Real customer service is I think what this world is looking for.  The second part of this talk today is  the customer part. 

And I think that we all do well to remember that we're all customers.  As soon as you step away from your desk, as soon as you step away from your position,  the rest of the day, the rest of the week, the rest of your life, you're a customer.  And when you walk into a restaurant, you expect to be treated a certain way.

When you walk into a health food store, you expect to be treated a certain way. And  what better way than just to remember how I want to be treated,  how I want to feel  because I'm a customer too.  And then we look at the fact that  people never forget  how you make them feel.  They'll forget exactly what you said. 

They'll forget exactly what happened.  They may get a detail wrong with something that, that happened the way it happened and in the order it happened, but they'll never forget  the way that you made them feel. And if we can make folks feel like family,  if we can make people feel like they're doing  the best that they can do,  and we're doing the best that we can do,  Then we can have the kind of service  that's needed. 

Four things I want to talk to you about our service.  And and I know that we know this. I know that we practice this, but just as a reminder,  service with humility.  There's nothing more attractive  than humility. I would challenge you to come up with something that is more attractive and more Magnetic  than true humility. 

Gratitude.  If I see everybody that walks in my shop as a dollar sign,  I'll never treat them as a human,  but if I could look at them as the human that they are, the customer that they are, relate to them because I'm a customer too, all of a sudden  we're people we can relate, we can understand  and then patience. 

This is one that we could probably spend 20 minutes on,  but nobody wants me to.  20 minutes of patience, I think everyone would be having to go somewhere else and be somewhere else. But here's what I mean by patience.  Knowledge is both a gift and a curse.  You know what you do, and you do it very well.  You know your products that you sell, and you know what they do, and you know how much they cost, and you know  how to lay it all out real quick. 

But the curse of you knowing that so well is the fact that your customer doesn't always know what you're talking about  We have to realize that People are ignorant. They're not experts when I sit down across from a loan officer. I don't know what all those numbers mean I get the general idea But they know it backwards and forwards and they understand they're just pointing at stuff sign here sign here  I don't know it's a blessing that they understand it so well, but it's a curse to them as well because they forget that.

I don't know.  Patience, slow down and help somebody. When people walk into our restaurant, it's an old thirties house  and  it's not laid out exactly the way a counter service restaurant would be laid out.  And people come in the door and they look around  and they're lost because you can't, that's a dining room.

You have to walk through the dining room to get to the Ordering counter.  And then there's another dining room on the other side. Those of you who've been there, you understand what I'm saying. It's confusing.  We have to remember to have patience with every person that walks in there because even though we know exactly how it works, we have to explain it over and over.

Nowadays I just say it's only weird the first time.  And then you get used to it and then you know what to do  and it's easy.  And then finally,  consistency.  My mom taught me from an early age.  You have to be consistent every day with how you treat people.  You don't get to take one day off and be a jerk.  If y'all have been to my restaurant, mom. 

You don't argue with mom, not even now.  I say yes ma'am a lot.  She taught me you have to be nice every day. You have to be kind every day. You have to be consistent. With your kindness every day because if you slip it up, if you mess it up, if you take a day off and you're having a bad day, it's very hard to get back on track.

It's hard to convince someone  once you've ruined that. And so consistency in our products and consistency in our handling and talking to others.  I want to leave you with this,  the solution.  The solution is when you have an issue, a customer service problem,  when you have something come up that  you have to deal with  and you're at the place where you're either going to make a customer for life or you're going to run someone off for life. 

I want you to remember this one phrase. We're going to remove  the differential.  Let me tell you what I mean. Somebody says to me, you didn't bring my fries.  I have two choices of how I can handle that. I could number one, say, show me a receipt.  And what that does is begin to create a differential between us. 

It begins to develop a conflict whenever I am assuming or maybe  insinuating that they have  maybe not paid for something and they're asking for it, or they're trying to get something over on me. Can I just say that I've never had anybody that I know of try to steal fries  Now, maybe in your business, this is a problem, but with our clientele, with the folks that come eat with us, I don't think anyone's ever tried to steal 2 and 50 cents worth of potatoes from me. 

But you'd be surprised  how people treat that.  So what we do, what I do when someone says, you forgot my fries. I say, what's what order of fries? What size fries? Be right back.  Because I would rather lose 2 and 50 cents on fries. and keep a customer for life,  then make a big deal just because I can, just because I'm in charge, just because I'm the owner, just because I can build this big differential if I want to.

Let me get a manager. You ever heard that?  Get me the owner.  All of a sudden now you're building this big chasm between where you are and where your solution ought to be.  You're making this big impossible thing now that's probably not going to end well.  And if I can Never go there. If I can never make it happen.

If I can just completely ignore that conflict was ever that now, sometimes you can't do that. You're not going to give away a car or, there's some things you have to be hard on, but in general when you can reduce that differential,  it can cause a customer for life.  Whenever I was  walking through the restaurant, this is just a couple of weeks ago. 

I saw a man and a woman, and I think it might've been a son and his mother.  And the man had eaten a keto meal and had a keto bun and  went by and checked on him, said everything alright, and he's man, it's good, delicious, all that.  Came back around and checked on him again and he had finished his plate, just a pile of napkins. 

But the lady with him was just pinching pieces of her burger from the side and still had most of it there. I said, ma'am what happened? What's wrong?  What's wrong with your burger?  And she said, Oh, it just doesn't taste right to me. And I said, tell me what's wrong.  She said, that's just, it's a, it's spicy or something.

And I don't even know why I did this. I reached down and I put my hand on her hands and I said, ma'am, you don't have to eat anything here. You don't like,  I said, let me have it. Let me take it. to the kitchen. I'll bring you anything you want. What do you have on it? What can I bring you back?

And she told me what was on it. And so I went to the kitchen. I said, throw that in the trash. Make another one. No seasoning. I told him what to do,  carried it back out, let her have it.  And I went on about talking to people and milling around. I was at the front table when you come in the door  and I was talking to a couple of couples that were sitting there  and  I felt something, someone grabbed my hand as my back was to that aisle and I turned around and this lady had now grabbed my hand  and she said,  that was the best burger I've ever eaten. 

I said, wow, thank you.  She said,  I have cancer  and I'm on so many medications right now that just mess up my palate and I can't taste right and nothing tastes good  and that was the best burger I've ever had.  I said, ma'am. I'm so glad that you let me fix that. I'm so glad that we have this understanding that you can come back and get it any way you want it.

Anytime you want to. 

If I would have walked up to her and said man, what's wrong with that burger?  And she said there's something spicy on it.  I could have said you can order it any way you want to order it.  We'll do it any way you want to do it  next time. Just tell us how you want it. We'll do it. We'll do it right. 

There wouldn't have been a next time.  There would not have been a second chance with her.  She was already going through more than I can even understand right now. She was already in the middle of  a fight for her own life.  She wasn't going to come back and give me another shot.  But instead,  I made a customer for life. 

Everybody she talks to about Wells Cattle Company,  she's going to have something nice to say.  Because  of one thing. 

Just being real.  Just seeing a problem and fixing it.  Just making it go away without any pain.  Making it go away just because we can.  One of the, one of the best compliments that I've ever gotten in this, in closing, my, my preacher's coming out  so I can get you listening one more time.  One of the best things that's ever been said about us is even in our bad reviews, we get a few of them. 

Everybody does,  but even in a lot of our bad reviews, it'll still say something about.  But the people were really nice.  And even in the negative and even in the ugly,  there's still room in there to be nice. And if I could just leave you with one thing today is  people are looking for real,  nice  people. 

That's the key  to customer service.  Thank you very much.

I hope you enjoyed listening to that talk. I hope you  enjoyed those thoughts and the things discussed there. I just want to just sum up by saying  we have a responsibility. To our customers. It's not optional. It's not something that we choose to do or not to do.  Our customer service in the way that we handle our customers in the hospitality element  of our business, whether you're a restaurant or some other type of business.

Whether you're large or small doesn't really matter at all. It is an obligation that we have to care about our customers and it is my firm belief and I believe I just Proved it through this speech, but it's my firm belief That if we will take care of people and we will do our very best for them Those who choose to be in our business those who choose to be in our life  If we can take care of them, they will take care of us.

If we will do a good job, a great job, an excellent job of  caring that somebody chose us today to do business with, that will put us in a completely different category of business than anybody else in, in a relative business to what we're doing. The caring, compassionate.  Call it love, call it care, call it concern, whatever the terms that you are comfortable with. 

But when we do that,  We are different and we stand out and we do a really good service to our community at being somewhere that people go to and enjoy being at and it brightens their day. And yes, they're doing business and yes, it's transactional. And yes, there's money involved and there's service involved or whatever it is, but you can also at the same time, brighten someone's day.

You can also at the same time, care. About where they find themselves in life today. And the more we do a great job relating to the customer in a world that's so fake, in a world that's so calculated, so filtered, so perfect looking on the outside, the better we will do in business. And so I hope you take that to heart today.

And I hope it, it helps shape the way you think about business.  And today's been brought to you by our friends at Sterling T. They are great folks and doing a great job, great customer service. Uh, they're just fantastic. And use that, that Wells 20 at checkout to get your 20 percent off your order.

And they'll know that you came from us. And then also our other sponsor. Is it's Fate Creamery and they are fantastic folks as well with great customer service and a great product just a top of the line, the best ice cream in the world, in my opinion. I hope you go by and see them.

They'll also do a 20 percent off for your order. If you ask and tell them that you are asking for the ranch and table. So I really do hope you go by and support our sponsors, help them out, help us out. By going by and talking to them and and buying something from them. And so thank you for being here today with me.

Thank you for just being great people and living your life the very best that you can. And if you're in business, taking care of people the way that they deserve to be taken care of.  I'm Lee Wells on the ranch and table podcast until next time we say audios, farewell, goodbye, good luck.  So long.