Thanks for coming back to visit me today. I care about what you think so please leave your comments and opinions. _____________________________________________________________________

 

The restaurant saga ends happily. After I posted the story here and fed it into face book, twitter and linked-in, you can well imagine that it stirred up quite a few comments! Following the post, I wrote to the establishment and advised them that if they would like to learn of our recent experience, they could visit my blog and I provided the link. That very day, I received a return e-mail thanking me for the link and that they would find out more on their side and get back to me. Here is the reply that I received:
“Sorry for the little delay but we wanted to make sure we understood what happened and were curious to know how the restaurant management interpreted the situation.
After our research, it became clear to us the restaurant did not understood our policies. There should not have been any issues getting plates to your kids as they do not eat enough to justify even a kid’s meal. I understand, having 3, and when younger, my wife and I used to do this a lot for our kids.Anyway we will follow up with the restaurant to make sure they understand the reasoning so it can respond properly next time.
In the mean time, I would humbly ask for your home address so I can send you a little gesture of appreciation for helping us getting better.”

WOW! This response is an intelligent and professional one:
He showed initiative and leadership
He was prompt and calm in tone and vocabulary
He took the time to find out both sides of the story
He showed understanding of the client’s point of view
He gets extra points because he supports his staff and explains that it was just lack of clarity around policy
He outlines steps to be taken to improve
He states appreciation for the feedback because it offered an opportunity to improve

This is inspirational leadership. I will remember this scenario in a positive way and if ever I am in a similar situation, my intention will be to do as this man did.
What else do you like about the professionalism and leadership that this business person showed? How can you use this example in your own business? 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your comments about my recent post entitled “When is losing a client good for business?” .  I have advised the restaurant in question of the post so lets wait and see if they have anything to say. Stay tuned!

 

Tell me what you think about this. Last night my husband and I decided to take the kids out for an early supper  to a local restaurant where we eat quite often. We ordered our usual which was two meals that we would share between the 4 of us. We order this way because our kids are still too little to eat entire portions.  The menu that we ordered from was the weeknight special…two meals for just over $20.

Our waiter told us that we were not allowed to share meals with the kids and that is why they have a kids menu.  We explained that we had been dining there since they  opened and always ordered this way.

This was clearly out of the waiter’s hands so the manager got involved. After hearing us out, he confirmed that we could not share meals and that if we wanted a smaller portion, we could order from the kids menu.  I said that if that was the case, we  would feed the kids but we would not be back. The manager said that was fine by him. We fed the kids and in protest, did not order anything for ourselves.

That evening our bill came to $41 compared the $80-$100 that we usually spend there. We estimate that we ate there about a dozen times last year. We will not go back .

Did the manager make the right decision to ‘fire’ us as clients? Do people like us who go to restaurants before 6pm, with children, on weeknights and spend between $80 and $100.00 cost restaurants more than we are worth? Was it  a good business decision  for a manager to send away a family when the dining room was empty?

I would love to hear your opinion.