Overcooked Overcome
Sitting in a restaurant with my dining companion, after a less than wonderful dinner, I was contemplating the credit card receipts I had just been given to sign. The first one was for $126.30, but this total had been crossed out. The second one was labeled “Final” and was for $96.46.
When Ray, our exceptional waiter, had handed me the bill, he mentioned that he had shared our food complaints with the manager who had decided to offer us a discount. Now I considered how much to tip.
We wound up at this restaurant because I happened to receive a $20 off coupon for it. Testimonials gave the food good reviews, it was not too far away, and they had outdoor seating…perfect for the beautiful evening. And as an inveterate restaurant explorer, I’m always up for the adventure of trying a new place.
Things started off nicely. We were seated at an outside table with a beautiful view of the surrounding hills. The restaurant had a small but interesting wine list that yielded a good Ravenswood Zinfandel. The menu was eclectic with a number of dishes that especially caught our attention.
Ray was friendly, knowledgeable, and patient as he answered our questions about the food, the restaurant, and where he had worked previously.
Unfortunately, while the setting was quite nice, the waiter wonderful, and the menu interesting…the food was a different story. When my companion’s lobster bisque arrived, it looked like crab soup. And tasted like it.
We called Ray over and asked him about this. He clarified that this was, in fact, the lobster bisque but it had some other things in it. Without pause he offered to replace it with another appetizer. Within a few moments, a nice onion soup appeared.
Then the entrées arrived. The flatbread was burned and the rare steak I had ordered was clearly well done…not a bit of pink and oozing juices to be found.
I have a number of famous chefs as clients. All have told me that if I ever find anything wrong in their restaurants, I should tell them immediately, as that’s the only way they’ll know that something needs fixing. With this request in mind, we decided to politely offer some helpful comments.
When Ray returned, we shared our further dismay at the entrees and told him my chefs’ story. He immediately offered to replace the dinners. We declined and said we would make do with what we had, but added that he really needed to talk to the chef.
When he brought the discounted bill, he explained that he had found out what happened to the steak. Seems someone else had ordered the same dinner at the same time and the plates got confused. One of the other waiters had a woman complaining about her rare steak as we were discussing my overcooked one.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we discussed our experience. We decided to return sometime and give them another chance. Why? Perhaps we showed up on the chef’s bad day. But mostly because their service was great and the manager, unasked, handled our problem in a satisfactory way.
Absent such customer service the restaurant would have wound up with their name in this missive and my not-so-nice review on Trip Advisor (where I seem to be a highly rated reviewer…meaning lots of people read my reviews).
Great customer service can overcome all kinds of problems and stop bad publicity in its tracks. Poor customer service and at best you’ve forever lost that customer; at worst, you’ve lost a lot of business when their story is widely shared.
As for Ray, I figure he must have been thinking he was going to end up with a miserly tip or perhaps nothing at all. Imagine his surprise to find that in spite of the food problems his performance earned him a generous reward.