This post may seem kind of familiar since I’ve written on this topic before. However, since businesses keep screwing up customer service, I’ll keep writing about it in the hopes that someone notices and asks themselves if they’re doing it correctly. If nothing else, it lets me vent and keeps my head from exploding!
Friday night was going to be a quiet night of a little take out and catching up on all the Netflix stuff we have sitting around. Yes, we still get the DVD‘s even though we do stream movies through the Xbox too. Strangely, the technology worked perfectly within our plan – it was the take out that killed us. Let me review.
Since we wanted to get an early start, we called a local place for sushi around 6:30. This is a terrific restaurant, one we’d been too often enough that the chef knows us by sight and usually sends over an amuse bouche of something special. We’ve never had a bad meal there – the food’s great and always of the highest quality as is the service.
Anyway – we call at 6:30 and are told the food will be ready in 25 minutes. At 7:00, I sat in the car as the Mrs. went in to collect dinner. At 7:15 my phone rang – the Mrs. The restaurant was a madhouse – there was a concert nearby and apparently the place was overrun with both diners and take-out orders. She’d spoken with others who had also phoned in orders and were waiting long past their promised pick-up time.
When the food was available – 60 minutes after we’d called – we took it home (8 minutes from the restaurant). We’d done take-out from there before and the food was always perfect. Not this time. The sushi was warm. The tempura was cold and soggy. The dumplings were as well. Only the soup was fine – steaming hot but also not made to order as is the other stuff. Of course, a salad was missing. Obviously part of the order was cooked and pulled together well before the rest of it was made ready and given to us. In short, a horrible dining experience and had we not been there before and knew better, one we’d never repeat (and no, I didn’t eat the sushi).
So what would I have done differently? Accepted the reality of the short-term and let it payoff in the long-term. This is a prefect example of how a crisis took a place with great food and great service right down to the level of some horrible places. The staff could not accommodate the diners they had or the take-out they’d promised and yet they kept taking more. When we called, why not politely say “we’re very sorry but we’re extremely busy and can’t do take out orders for another hour.” To the people (and there were a dozen) waiting for their orders, how about some system to communicate truthfully when the order will be ready? When my wife walked in she was told 5 minutes several times. Why not say “we’re sorry, we’ve not started your order – we’re very behind as you can see. If you’ll be patient, I can take half off your order. If you can’t wait, here’s a coupon for $20 off next time and we’ll cancel your food.” Yes, that takes planning in advance but as in any other business, a disaster plan is imperative. Yes, this is a good disaster to have – too much business – but it could have longer-term ramifications – there are lots of other food (and sushi) options nearby.
What would you have done differently had you been running the show? Is your business prepared for a similar situation?
Consult Keith 