Why Average Is Never Good Enough

I dined with my family last night at one of our son's favorite restaurant's in the North End. We used to frequent the original restaurant when it was located elsewhere and considered the place to be one of our favorites. We've also eaten at the new location a number of times.

Last night's meal was average (and I'm being very generous here). Some of the food came out cold and the rest was tasteless. The sole waitress had more on her plate than she could handle. I walked out the door telling my spouse, "Never again, will I return."

In the highly competitive restaurant business, (or any business for that matter), you can't be great sometimes and average others. If you are, it will just leave a bad taste in people's mouths and they'll take their business elsewhere.

Here's what went wrong last night and what could have been done to prevent this.

• The owner, who is typically there, was not in the building last night. Now I don't expect him to live there 24/7, but when he's not around, he needs to make sure his staff has the skills to operate the restaurant in his absence.
• Wet towels were on the floor, due to some heavy rains in the afternoon. Not what I would call an appealing atmosphere to dine by. In fact, my Kate Spade bag is hanging out to dry this morning, as it was soaked from me placing it on the ledge next to my seat, which I later found out was also wet. Why were wet dirty towels left laying on the floor? Didn't any staff member notice? Every member of the team should be charged with removing such hazards. And when they don't, they should be held accountable.
• Our waitress never checked in to see how our meal was. She had her hand's full, as the restaurant appeared to be understaffed. I get that it's a Tuesday night, which is a slow night in the restaurant business. However, your customers don't really care about that. They are paying the same price for a meal on a Tuesday night, as they would on a Saturday night. They deserve to have a great dining experience, every time they spend their hard earned money with you.
• Part of our meal was cold. The pasta was hot and the meatballs were cold. After much effort, I was able to flag down the host to came up with a solution that we thought would work. He offered to send over meatballs that were just taken out of the oven. By the time the meatballs arrived, our pasta was cold. The host should have had the chef re-do our meals, and if they really wanted us to come back, they would have taken these dishes off our bill.

What this service failure really comes down to is an owner who hasn't properly trained his people. As a result, he's lost a customer that he could have had for life. He also now has a Yelp review warning others to think twice before booking this restaurant.

Your assignment: Secret shop your business. (Or if you'd like, I can do that for you.) What was the experience like? What improvements can you immediately make to insure your customers remain customers for life?

? Matuson Consulting, 2018.

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