the Way of the Turtle

Customer Service Done Right
Saturday, November 28, 2009

First, a bit of background - Ann is allergic to shellfish, and most types of fish give her an upset stomach, which led to a very unpleasant experience several years ago when we had dinner at the Miyako Japanese Steakhouse in Guilderland. We made a reservation for one of the hibachi tables not realizing that all the food would be cooked together, and several folks at the table ordered dishes that included shrimp. After seeing the food being cooked Ann let the waitress know she would need hers cooked separately and got a very negative reaction - not only did the waitress grumble repeatedly that she should have been informed of this ahead of time, she also charged us extra for Ann's original portion of food that needed to be discarded and when we objected to that became fairly nasty, insisting that it was all our fault and we were the ones who were being unreasonable. Needless to say we decided never to eat there again, and whenever I hear one of my friends discussing the possibility of going there I make sure I relate our experience. (In all fairness, I have to say that everyone else I know who has eaten there has had a very positive experience, so maybe we just caught them on a bad night.)

In contrast to that very poor dining experience, our meal tonight at Outback Steakhouse in Clifton Park was a fantastic example of how to keep customers coming back. Ann's dinner came with a ceasar salad, which when she tried it had a slightly fishy aftertaste. She asked the waitress about it, who said that the dressing included anchovies, apologized profusely, and immediately offered to replace it with another salad with a different dressing, then apologized again when the she brought out the new salad and checked that Ann was all right. A little while later one of the managers came out and also checked that she was going to be OK, apologized yet again, and made it clear that she would do anything reasonable to make it up to us. Rather than take advantage of that, we thanked her for her concern and spent a few minutes after she'd left commenting on what a nice contrast it was to our experience years ago at Miyako's, and how great it was to find a place that actually treats customers well rather than as an inconvenience to be endured for as little time as possible. I have no doubt we'll go back there at some point in the future, and I will happily recommend them to anyone I know looking for somewhere to eat in the Clifton Park shopping district.

JMH