A New Adventure in Customer Service
People are sometimes surprised when I tell them I work in Customer Service. I guess that with a title like “President” there’s an expectation that I should be sitting behind a desk somewhere with a closed door, and a stack of important papers and a long list of meetings on the docket.
But that’s not me.
My favorite place to invest my time is in Chick-fil-A restaurants. Meeting you. Interacting with some of our 50,000 amazing employees. Refilling a sweet tea (we call it “Refreshing a beverage”), hearing your stories and learning all about the communities we have the privilege to be part of every day.
That’s what I love to do and that’s what I hope to do with this blog.
Lets hear some of your Chick-fil-A stories. I want to share the ones you’ve already told me. I want to talk about friends and family and the special adventure Chick-fil-A started all those years ago. More than anything I want to step into a virtual restaurant that stretches around the world and explore a new way to be in Customer Service.
Because that’s what I care about.
I’m in Customer Service.
“Hi, I’m Dan Cathy and it’s nice to meet you.”
This post is categorized Live and tagged customer service
Nice to meet you to Dan. I’m in customer service as well. It give us (your employees) a sense of pride when we see you in your pajamas playing the trumpet at grand openings, doing interviews on tv, starting blogs to connect with us, and all of the million and one things you do during your busy busy life. Thanks for being out among us. The presidents and CEOs of other companies could and should take a page (if not pages) from your book.
Dan, last week I was in Orlando for Campus Crusade for Christ Sr Leadership Initiative. We started talking about Chick-fil-A. One lady said her neighbor told her she would have paid Chick-fil-A to hire her son if she’d known how great it would be for him! A kid who wiggled out of every chore popped up on a Sat morning after 2 weeks at CfA and when asked to mow the grass said, “My pleasure, Dad.” And immediately went out and mowed it-no grumbling-no grousing. What an influence your company has on the lives of millions.
Hey bro! Love the company big time.
What gets me is the CONSISTENCY. I have been to Chick-fil-A’s around the country. They are amazingly consistent.
I always feel special with my family when there. THANK YOU!
Thanks Charles. We are trying to make 2nd Mile, 2nd Nature …all day, every day, by everybody, everywhere!
Dan
I cant thank you and the whole family here at Chick Fil A enough. the lessons and life experiences i have learned while being a part of the Chick fil A family have helped mold me into the person I am today> I have worked with some great operators who have not only helped me professionally but personally as well.It is very uncommon in the buisness world that a person in your posistion in the size of company that Chick Fil A is as involved with each and every employee, most CEO’s and Presidents are stand offish thank you for breaking that image. Please continue the great job you are doing helping people grow personally and professionally God bless you and your family
Thank you for allowing me to say thank you! Thank you for opening my eyes to the ministry of loving people everyday with the pleasure of serving them. Yes i knew you could love others, lift up their spirits, encourage them, etc, but i was very unaware how much joy it could be while serving them food! I’ve only worked for cfa a little over a year and yet it’s been a full and rewarding experience that I would recommend to anyone. I love seeing the responses of guests for all the fun things we get to do for them that seems to brighten their day so much. We just started doing a celebration of a free meal deal for every 100th guest thru out March, boy has it been pure fun to see their faces as we tell them they have won!
Thank you for the systems you have put in place to make our stores stand out in the crowd among other fast food places and thank you for keeping the operators inspired to always go the extra mile in every thing they do to teach us to keep pushing forward to excellence. I look forward to continue the journey!
Dan you are already doing today what other companies are ‘planning’ to do tomorrow! I was thrilled reading the interview you gave to T+D (Training and Development) magazine where you said ‘if it’s raining, somebody will run out with an umbrella and escort you into the restaurant. Someone will notice your name on your credit card and welcome you personally. Someone will take your tray, get you some catsup for your waffle fries, and hand you a straw for your lemonade. She will pull out your chair for you and offer to grind fresh pepper on your salad. And while you’re enjoying your meal, you’ll notice there are real flowers on the table. In this scenario, you got what you paid for, but you got a lot more.” I wrote about the great things you talked about in my book BRIDGES TO THE CUSTOMER’S HEART (AuthorHouse 2009). I was particularly captivated by what you said about the umbrella on a rainy day. On page 94 of BRIDGES I wrote ”When a company and its people develop the Do Whatever It Takes To Satisfy The Customer mentality, things start to happen. People start seeing little things like rain as important, the umbrella becomes important, answering mails become important, being courteous becomes important, being polite on the phone becomes important, everything becomes important, the customer becomes important, not just in the printed mission statement hanging on the wall or in the annual report. The customer becomes the center of the company’s universe. Bridge twenty nine is a state of mind, it must come from the heart.” Dan I know CFA will one day inherit the earth. Keep up the great works. Looking forward to meeting you some day soon.
Paul Uduk (Author, Bridges to the Customer’s Heart)
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