Sumer Morenz: We’re in Walnut Creek, California, and we interviewed a couple of business owners to see how they train their employees to give great customer service. Let’s check it out.

Dylan: My name is Dylan Ponicsan. It’s diPietro Todd Salon. We’re at 1919 Mt. Diablo in Walnut Creek and we’re going to celebrate our first year opening next week. It’s a high-end salon. This is our fifth location, our first venture into the East Bay. We’ve been in the business in San Francisco for 22 years. We pride ourselves on customer service. We think that separates us from a lot of the other salons. We’re good at it. We’re passionate about what we do.

Tanya: My name is Tanya Pearce and I’m here with Sunrise Bistro in Walnut Creek. We do healthy eating. We make our own jams, syrups. We’ve made our own bread for 30 years. We don’t use any hydrogenated fats or oils. We try to stay away from sugar as much as possible. We have a wide range of…you come here to eat healthy or we have pancakes. All the goodies that everybody loves.

Dylan: It’s a long training program. It’s a two to three year training program that everybody goes through and it’s not only doing the best cutting and coloring but also a lot of customer service. Really, a simple formula of quickly determining what the client wants and give it to them and knowing your product and knowing your trade and knowing your skill and being able to offer all of that to every client on a personal level.

Tanya: We take it from a family aspect so we try to treat every customer how we’d want to be treated ourselves in welcoming them and try remembering their names, treat them as a family member, which I remember what they eat, drink…something that they leave feeling special, cared for so they’ll bring their families, you know, the referral business and we don’t do any advertising. It’s all just word of mouth and good food and come in and feel like you’re part of the family.

Tanya: We try to kill them with kindness. Always with a smile, make them leave happy no matter what. Even if it’s killing us at the same time as it’s killing them to have to leave, even if we have to give them a cookie or a morning bun, not necessarily giving things away but just making them feel that they’re heard and that we’re trying to cater to them and their needs.

Dylan: It doesn’t happen often. It’s usually with a miscommunication and again, when that does happen, it’s very important to do whatever you can to make the right whatever you can. We do this because we love it, because we like to make people feel good. If they don’t feel good, we feel awful. So whatever we could and then we feel good.

Sumer: Customer service, it’s a vital part of any business. I’m Sumer Morenz with D&B Digital TV and I’ll see you next time, right here.