Jim, the GM of the bistro, replied to the guy with his best [my words here, not Jim's] "OK, this guy's a crank, but I'm still going to try and give him the benefit of the doubt and the best customer service possible"
I’m truly sorry that you had a bad experience on Saturday. I appreciate your valuable comments, good or bad; they will help us down the road of being amazing. I would like to get some more information from you so I can look into the matter. Did you check in with the hostess at the front desk? Do you remember her name or a description? With all the empty tables, I’m surprised that you were not seated right away.
I think you would be pleasantly surprised with our food and our beer as well. We take great pride in creating high quality food and top notch craft beers. I hope you reconsider a return visit to the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens; we would love to have you.
Best regards,
Jim Hurley
General Manager
Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
To which he got the reply:
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:50 PM
To: Jim Hurley
Subject: Re: Saturday's Visit
There were too many people and not enough staff. I do not remember what the hostess looked like. When I go to a brewery I do not expect great food. I expect to find food that is edible. I am looking for things like wings and onion rings. Maybe a good shrimp cocktail. I do not want extravagant food. I would like to find food that is good with beer.
When I go to Temecula, I eat at the restaurant at the South Coast Winery. The food is excellent and the service is great. That is all I look for in a restaurant. If you sat at your bar, people had to serve themselves. What respectable restaurant does not have waitresses or waiters in the bar. The whole experience was very disappointing. My son and his friend apologized for taking us there. We bought presents for people out of town, canceled our place on the list waiting for tables and left. We were looking for a good time and a place to build memories, we did not find that.
OK. This is how it appears to me. He came. Didn't like the fact that he had to wait for a table. Took a look at the menu. It was not what he wanted. Got mad at us for that.
What fails me is why someone who is wanting wings and "a good shrimp cocktail" would go to a restaurant that doesn't serve them. We have our menu posted online. Lots of reviews, glowing and hating, can be found with simple Google search. Why spin your wheels getting angry over your own misperception? Hell, you can limit yourself all you like, but don't ever try to limit us. I won't have it.
Also, the comment about sitting at the bar and having to "serve yourself" is confusing. He recognized that we were short on staff that day (OUR fault, to be certain). However, he meant "bar area" as we always have bartenders on the job. We rarely have roving service in the area where they decided to plop themselves and sit. This might be a mistake on our part sometimes, but it's nonetheless the case. Sitting and twiddling thumbs and getting frustrated serves no purpose. Asking someone "how do I get service here?" serves a big purpose.
His last line really hit home though. Indeed, 'building memories' is why we're here! It's a team effort however, and sometimes guests make the mistake in thinking that they're not part of that team. That they get what they get...if they're lucky they'll like it, and if they're unlucky they won't. But they can sometimes think that they have no influence. They do! I would suggest that a guest do what they would do in nearly any other situation when they want/need something. Ask!
From time to time we'll get an email from someone letting us know that there was a problem with their food the night before when they were here for dinner. I have emailed back with an apology and asked what the server / manager said to try and find out why it wasn't corrected on the spot. "I didn't want to make a scene" is the response. If you get nothing out of this missive of mine, please get that if you go to a respectable restaurant you should assume --- yes, assume --- that they want you to be happy. And if you are not happy with something, they would like to know about it so they can make it right! Hate to complain? No problem...don't! "Excuse me, my entreé is cold" is not a complaint. Unless it's delivered like one (which is your choice if you want to do it that way I suppose). However, I would simply suggest that you deliver the message to you server as if they WANT you to have the proper temperature food! It's an opportunity for the restaurant to make it better.
We want to make happy people happier. We want to help the not-so-happy people get happy, but we need their help. You are as much a part of the solution than the restaurant employees are.
The unhappy-and-want-to-stay-unhappy people should stay home. You know who you are. Chances are most of us have actually been that person before. Well, some of us.
Standing in the airport, hearing the news about flight delays, cancelled flights during a weather event, etc., we've all heard the angry guy in front of us in line yell at the airline representative behind the desk "I'm never flying this airline again!!!" Heh. Cool. Glad to hear that. I'd hate to have to sit next to a guy like that on the plane.
And I'd prefer they not come to our restaurant.
3 comments:
Really thoughtful, and something I wish more people would read/understand than probably will (although I'll be sending this around).
Having worked for many years as a server and a bartender (neither currently) the frustrations of the customer you describe ring true, and there is little that could have been done to appease them. That said, there's little (I think) that can be done to prevent people from going to places where they're simply not going to be comfortable or happy at (if there even were such a place for them). And a place like yours is always going to attract that type because it IS so much different than a "typical" brewery/restaurant/brewpub/bar.
So a question for you... you both ask that a customer treat their server as if they're trying to make them happy (i.e.: if there's something wrong, give the server an opportunity to fix the problem, as opposed to just complaining about it), but also mention that: "Your job is to decide if you like it or not. If you do, great!"
Isn't that a bit contradictory? How would you like to see customers interact with the service/manager/yourself in a situation where, say, the meal was under-salted. Everything else fantastic, it's a busy night, people don't want to wait for a re-fire, have noticed this problem before on previous visits but only sporadically, and are worried that this may just be an issue here (lack of proper seasoning). Do they just chalk this up to a recurring issue and try to decide whether or not this will impact future enjoyment? Mention it and cross fingers that it's something the changes? More broadly... how should a dedicated customer that sees/experiences something that seems like a problem address it if it's not something that's fixable in the moment? I suppose the answer may simply be: "tell us" because the intent/motivation of the person addressing the issue will clearly delineate itself from someone whose expectations were clearly just off.
I ask because I think it's a difficult question... what IS the point where your honest intent to please your customers conflict with the reality that there's only so much you really are going to do to please them?
And is this a bad example because there's plenty of God-damn salt in your recipes?
Cheers, have a good weekend.
Derek,
Thanks for the additional perspectives!
I have an answer to your questions....
First, you ask if there isn't a contradiction between the "we'd like to fix what's wrong and make you (the guest) happy!" and my philosophy of (paraphrasing) "We do what we do, and your (the guest's) job is only to decide if they like it or not."
No, there is no conflict there. The reason is that the 'making people happy' is referring to correcting something that isn't correct. Such as fixing the meal if it didn't come out correctly for some reason. Hell, even replacing it if the guest just didn't like it. The 'we do what we do' refers to the fact that we're not a chicken sandwiches, fries and wings joint. If someone's looking for that, I can't satisfy that...and if they're stuck on that kind of fare for the eve then they should head someplace that serves it. However if someone's expecting that their food comes out correctly (such as 'hot' for example), then it is indeed our responsibility to make sure that happens.
If the expectation is 'buffalo wings' then the guest's and our goals are not aligned.
If the expectation is great service, really cool and unique atmosphere, food coming out as it is supposed to, etc., then the guest's and our goals ARE aligned.
And if we failed at any of those kinds of things, we'd like to fix it. On the spot if at all possible.
What if someone doesn't want to 'wait for a re-fire' (restaurant-speak for re-making and improperly delivered food item if anyone else is reading)? Fair enough. Then we, as a restaurant, need to ask ourselves and the guest what else we can do. If the item came out wrong and they ate it anyway, it still came out wrong. As such, I think we should remove it from the bill. We would ask that they let us know.
One of the principle things that I wanted to convey here -- and I know you know this -- is that a guest doesn't need to be the 'angry guy' in order to get something corrected that should be corrected. While we will indeed respond to the angry guy as best as we can, we are even better at responding to the 'reasoned guy' who might be on the way to getting upset but has chosen to communicate with us what the problem is, and how we might be able to fix it, before it gets to the blow-their-top phase!
Thanks for taking the time to respond, Greg, and specifically for clarifying/answering.
It's interesting to hear somebody really lay out their customer service methodology like this on a more public forum (you know, as public as this blog is, anyway). And, for what it's worth, how much this rings true in the limited experiences I've had at your restaurant. Hopefully as time passes you'll have fewer people looking for buffalo wings coming through... and hopefully this is at least partially because there are more brewpubs that are trying to elevate the quality of their food (and more fine restaurants incorporating good beer).
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