We’ll Take Care of It
October 8, 2009
By speaking up at a restaurant when things weren’t right, the restaurant benefited by learning about a problem and we benefited with dollars off our bill and an additional dessert.
Most companies will do the right thing when presented with a legitimate problem. But you need to let them know that a problem exists before they can do anything about it.
My son is on spring break this week, so my wife and I took him out to lunch at a restaurant he especially likes. He ordered his favorite dish, “The Crab,” which includes pasta, crabmeat, pancetta ham, mushrooms, and a dill cream sauce. It’s really very good, but my son doesn’t care for mushrooms, so when he orders it, he asks to have them left out.
My wife ordered another pasta dish, and I ordered a pizza with chicken and some other ingredients.
After the meals arrived, we noticed some problems. Despite his request, my son’s crab dish had a healthy portion of mushrooms mixed in, and my chicken pizza was missing – you guessed it – the chicken.
Now this wasn’t a particularly big deal – my son took out the mushrooms and gave them to my wife, and I didn’t even notice the missing chicken until after I had eaten a few slices. And at that point, it wasn’t really worth taking the time to have the kitchen prepare two new dishes.
But when the waitress came by to ask if everything was okay, we mentioned that two of the dishes weren’t prepared quite as we had ordered them. She apologized and said, “We’ll take care of it.”
A few minutes later, a manager appeared, added his own apology, and said that we wouldn’t be charged for the two dishes. He also added that if we saw anything on the dessert menu that looked good, he would give it to us on the house as well. Of course, upon hearing that, my teenage son took charge and promptly placed his order.
All totaled, the manager credited us with around $25 worth of food. And he did this because we brought the problem to their attention.
Now, in the grand scheme of things, a few missing ingredients at lunchtime is not a major problem. But all too frequently we don’t even mention the more serious issues. What if it was a missed appointment for a cable TV installation that caused you to miss an afternoon of work? Or a late delivery of parts that caused you to slip a key deliverable? Or a call center operator who treated your customer rudely?
If you don’t let the company know about the problem, you don’t give it the chance to correct the problem. You don’t give it the opportunity to analyze and improve its processes. And ultimately, you don’t get what you paid for.
Any company worth doing business with, whether a restaurant or a large corporation, will welcome your feedback and thank you for taking the time to call. It will go out of its way to correct the situation and compensate you for your inconvenience. And it will make certain that you are happy with the outcome.
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