Eye-Popping Customer Experience

Why the number of stars on a resort’s ranking doesn’t matter to me and why they won’t ever be seeing me in their establishment again. How I returned with sunburnt skin and a toffee coloured stray cat after a day of what was supposed to be a rather enjoyable retreat at a renowned resort.

People who hang out with me would say I am as finicky as Sheldon when it comes to food. Being a lacto vegan I fall short of options when I dine out. But ask my best friend and he would tell you that the one way I survive all my outings and travels is with some taken for granted staples like a cuppa coffee, hot chocolate and caramel popcorn.

My first stop on a rather fully packed day was this five-star resort near Mamallapuram (a.k.a Mahabalipuram). At one of their fine dining restaurants I screened the menu over five times — that’s like reading five hundred names — and found only three or four food items that suited me. I decided the safest option was a serving of stuffed mushrooms for entrée, a bowl of noodles for the main course and for desserts — for a lack of vegetarian options — I chose butter toffee popcorn from the kid's menu -pity me. That’s when my always popping popcorn experience turned out to be a not so popping experience.

They served me a plate of plain salted butter popcorn. I don’t consider myself an unreasonable customer, but I sure am a self-proclaimed gourmet when it comes to popcorn. I called the steward and told him that there has been a mistake and that I ordered butter toffee popcorn and not plain salted butter popcorn. They took it back and served it again with a full layer of cheese on the top. When the steward took my order he did understand that I am a Lacto Vegan and that cheese was a no-no for me. I called him back and explained the issue and he took it back and this time the cheese was removed from the top (see I noticed a few strings of cheese still sticking on the sides of the plate — someone with lactose intolerance might have landed in the hospital for such a silly mistake) and tossed with turmeric coloured Indian spices. Am I blind?How did my butter toffee popcorn turn into spicy Indianized popcorn? This time I had had enough — I called the steward and told him not to repeat such a mistake again and also asked him to cancel my order. The head chef was possibly offended with my comments and he walked to my table, all his gruff looking six-foot body and all and stood behind me with an intimidating stance, and served the same plate of spiced Indian popcorn with caramel sauce drizzled on the top. It didn’t stop there — he tried to give me a lesson on how butter toffee popcorn is made. He also insisted that I try it. I politely took a pop-corn and pretended to taste it and then when he walked off, asked the steward to pack the popcorn — for I hate wasting food for what so ever be the reason. I could have gone on for another round, taken them to court and sued them into a hefty lawsuit — tell you what, such cases have seen the courtroom more often than you think. Me being me, I decided never to go back to this place, ever again.

My mood was awfully off. The whole day I wandered in the beach wondering about customer service and experience or a lack thereof. I took out the pack of soggy so-called toffee popcorn and tried feeding a dog and even the dog hesitated to eat it. By evening I landed up in a different seaside restaurant and unlike the five starred resort that spoilt my lunch this place would see much more of me. The chef was kind enough to personalize the menu for my lacto vegan needs and the manager had a heart-warming way of telling stories about his Sri Lankan origin. The bad afternoon experience has mellowed into a rather enjoyable evening. So later when I went for a stroll in the beach, I saw a small cat-kitten. It was rather a toffee coloured one and was sitting ever so quietly near the bin. My friends and I were playing with it for a while and it seemed to follow. I am a dog person — sorry Lavendar, I know you wanted a pup sibling — who made a rather impulsive decision to adopt this stray cat with a rather irrational excuse — I didn’t get butter toffee popcorn as I wanted, let me at least get this toffee coloured cat. Bought her home and named her Toffee — a life-long reminder of my bitter-sweet experience.

My takeaways from this…

Consistently nailing Customer Experiences:

“ It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett

We cannot become complacent about customer experiences however big we grow. And today's well-informed customers can see through all the fluff and walk to your competitor anytime they want. They will not just leave you, but they will actively turn into brand haters. If that customer is a person of influence you would lose a lot more than you expect.

Anybody can become your competitor:

Humans (who are also customers) make irrational and impulsive choices when you subject them to stress or anxiety. They will walk out your door and look for something to comfort them — it can also be a cat, while the cat has nothing to do with popcorn. This is applicable in human relationship, workplaces, and businesses alike.

See you next time with another amusing story.

Special Mentions…

Lavendar*: A naughty ten-month-old golden retriever, who makes my life interesting. *Yes with an -ar ending — numerology you see ??

Toffee: A very queen like huntress of a stray cat that is now found a place we call home

& if you want to create popping experiences you can find me at [email protected] and +919840556789

Errata: It is mamma mia (an Italian expression for surprise)