Monday, February 21, 2011

I Complain, Therefore I Am

I wouldn't say I complain ALL the time but my pet peeve is poor customer service so yes, I guess I can get a bit ranty when I am unhappy. A couple of days ago I was unhappy, thus this post.
I was looking for a great barbecue place which I heard Georgia has plenty of so I immediately went to Yelp because if hundreds of people say a place is good, it usually is. We found Jim and Nicks Barbecue which was highly rated by everyone who chimed in on Yelp (it is a chain but all of their ratings were four stars or higher so we decided to try it out).
The food was good but in the reviews everyone raved about the cheese corn muffins that they continuously bring to your table. We received two small muffins each, none when we asked for more, and the waitress, as my husband put it, "was friendly to everyone...except us". Eek.
At the end of the meal a lady who said she was the maitre'd in training came to see how our meal was so as tactfully as possible I told her I was a little disappointed that it didn't live up to the wonderful reviews it had received. I also told her I had looked forward to the famous corn muffins but the tiny sample we received were all we got even when we asked for more. Immediately the lady was apologetic (southern people have such a friendly tone of voice, it pretty much makes you not want to argue as opposed to, say New York...but I digress...). Within a couple of minutes we had a big batch of muffins in a to go container (she saw that we were finished with our meal) and she gave us a piece of lemon meringue pie for dessert at no charge.
Needless to say, I was super impressed with how she responded to my complaint and we will definitely eat there again.
Overall, I think that businesses want to do a good job. Sometimes an employee is having a bad day, sometimes the business gets overwhelmed and understaffed, sometimes things just don't work out well but it is always a win-win situation when, if the customer is unhappy, they give the business a chance to rectify the situation, and if the management hears of a problem, they get the chance to fix it instead of having disgruntled customers leave with a bad opinion of a place.
So now I am back to happy and looking forward to my next plate of barbecue!

3 comments:

  1. I once had a restaurant manager apologize for the lack of service we had received, but offered nothing further. Most of the time, they do want you to leave happy though. I know it's hard when they are really busy and understaffed. It's always nice when you are offered a free dessert.

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  2. I agree...free dessert can change my whole attitude :)

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  3. Your situation sounds like a win-win. And yes, we, southerns, do have a certain charm, LOL

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