How Rude European Waiters Reinforced Our Customer-First Values

We Went On Vacation And Gained New
Valuable Perspectives On Customer Service

For My 50th Birthday, We Went To Europe And
Found That Some Service… Wasn’t What We Expected

Summary: Hi, Darryl Robinson here. I decided to write today’s blog because it’s a bit more on the personal side of things. It’s about how my wife Tammy and I gained immense perspective on our customer-first approach to the HVAC and home comfort business…after getting service of a much lower caliber on our European vacation.

As you may already know, our company Robinson Air has been serving the SW Oklahoma area with distinction for a LONG time (3+ decades). And as we like to say, ours is a story of comfort, people-first values, and thousands of happy customers (with reviews to prove it). Folks know us. In fact, you may have seen one of our quirky local commercials.

Because this is a story about customer service and a vacation we took for my 50th birthday, I thought this would be a perfect example.

We like things to be comfortease – comfortable and easy. This is our new motto for the way it feels to work with us!

What did we experience in London, Paris, and Scotland? The opposite in many cases. Impatience. Uninterested wait staff. Waiters that didn’t listen well. A lack of personal communication. Even outright rudeness.

It surprised us.

First Off, We Didn’t Have High Expectations
When It Came To Customer Service

It’s sort of a cliche to say that, for example, French people can be rude. Or that when visiting London, a city that can trace its roots back nearly 2,000 years, one shouldn’t expect to be admired as a cherished tourist.

So we weren’t expecting the royal treatment, but it gave us a really eye-opening perspective on how poor service relates to the caliber of service we strive to provide to our customers here in our area.

We put tons of focus on customer service. It’s critical. And honestly, when you live and breathe this stuff every day, you sort of stop seeing it. It can be one of those miss the forest for the trees issues. It wasn’t until we got outside our work, outside our area, and outside our customer-first bubble that we could truly see how exceptional we’ve become!

We do things differently around here.

We go over the top.

We’re the company that genuinely goes above and beyond.

And that’s just not something we saw or experienced on our travels. While it wasn’t all bad, it didn’t meet the standards we set for our entire company…on every project.

Need some examples?

• We listen!
• Our 2 AM Standard.
• Convenient reminders and follow-up calls to help everything go smoothly.
• We go out of our way to create high expectations and then exceed them.
• We put serious effort into customer service training for our service department.

And another thing, we’ll assign a dedicated member of our team to handle your needs for at least the first year after a new system installation. After that, it falls to our general service department.

How refreshing! It’s one thing to be in our local bubble and hear about our service through our thousands of 5-star customer reviews…and it’s another thing altogether to get FAR outside it and experience something different. This new perspective was invigorating.

You Can Have High Expectations With Robinson Air

If you’re considering a European vacation, I’m not saying it’s going to come with poor customer service. My wife and I had a FANTASTIC time – well worth it. But, what we are saying is that when you work with Robinson Air, you CAN have the highest expectations when it comes to customer service. We’re going to come through.

Whether you need heating repair or AC repair, new system installation, or home comfort services, my company will work HARD to ensure you feel taken care of, attended to, listened to, and respected. It’s one of our calling cards.