Employees Make the Grade at City Mill

Staying sharp with customer service means listening to what customers have to say about their experiences. At City Mill, customers can post comments on social media sites like Facebook and Yelp, but many of them choose to use the store’s Customer Service Card. And the company takes every comment seriously.

City Mill, which has eight locations on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii, has the comment cards available in the store or in a digital version online. The cards let customers rate their experiences at the store and leave their compliments or complaints.

Then, each card goes straight to Steven Ai, president of the company. Ai reads and signs off on each card, and usually writes a note, such as a thank you to the employee the customer may have mentioned in their comments. Store managers use those cards at staff meetings to recognize employees or use them as teaching moments to show examples of what it means to provide good customer service.

If a customer reports a bad experience, someone at the store will follow up to ask what went wrong and look for a solution.

“We’re always looking for feedback from our customers, whether it’s for our service or our product mixes,” says Caleb Hanisee, store manager at the Ewa Beach location. “That feedback allows us to constantly improve, because if we don’t, it could be easy to become complacent.”