Monday, October 17, 2005
Now that's customer service.
I don't intend to review big national chains on this blog. Not that I have anything against big national restaurant chains, but it's just that they are pretty much the same anywhere. If you've been to one Pizza Hut, you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect at any other Pizza Hut in the United States. You might get a few surprises if you walked into a Pizza Hut in Tokyo, but in most cases, a sign from a national restaurant chain lets you know that you're in for a familiar experience.
While food quality is often quite uniform throughout a chain, management is going to be different. The staff will often reflect the manager's commitment to customer service, or lack thereof. Tonight I want to tell everyone about how well the staff at the Covington branch of Longhorn Steakhouse handled a slip-up.
On Saturday, my fiancee and I had dinner with two of our friends before going to the Corn Maze. Our friends both ordered steaks, one medium, one medium-well. Both of the steaks came back bright red on the inside. These were not medium by anyone's definition.
Once the waitress came back to ask how our food was, we pointed this out. She promptly took the steaks back to be cooked some more, even though both of them were already half-eaten. While they did a good job getting the medium-well steak done, the other one refused to change. On finding that the lady who ordered it was still not pleased with it, the waitress immediately offered her a choice of a fresh new steak or taking the entire steak dinner off the bill entirely, meaning that the sweet potato, salad, and the extra potato they brought out with the new steak would all be free. They didn't ask any questions or make things difficult; they just glanced at the steak and said they would do their best to make everything all right.
Now that's customer service for you.
While food quality is often quite uniform throughout a chain, management is going to be different. The staff will often reflect the manager's commitment to customer service, or lack thereof. Tonight I want to tell everyone about how well the staff at the Covington branch of Longhorn Steakhouse handled a slip-up.
On Saturday, my fiancee and I had dinner with two of our friends before going to the Corn Maze. Our friends both ordered steaks, one medium, one medium-well. Both of the steaks came back bright red on the inside. These were not medium by anyone's definition.
Once the waitress came back to ask how our food was, we pointed this out. She promptly took the steaks back to be cooked some more, even though both of them were already half-eaten. While they did a good job getting the medium-well steak done, the other one refused to change. On finding that the lady who ordered it was still not pleased with it, the waitress immediately offered her a choice of a fresh new steak or taking the entire steak dinner off the bill entirely, meaning that the sweet potato, salad, and the extra potato they brought out with the new steak would all be free. They didn't ask any questions or make things difficult; they just glanced at the steak and said they would do their best to make everything all right.
Now that's customer service for you.
# posted by Mad Scientist Matt @ 8:54 PM 
