Lettuce Experience

Hello All-

It's been a very long time since my last post.  Hope everyone is having a nice summer.

I wanted to share two examples of recent customer experiences...



Lettuce Entertain You
About a month ago, we received a postcard for a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant Frankie’s Scaloppine at 900 N. Michigan Ave. downtown for $25 off a meal, good through 6/27. I think they were targeting people in the suburbs to come into the city and dine at one of their restaurants. During the day on Saturday, June 23rd, we thought it would be nice to head into the city and go there again for dinner. My wife Karen called the restaurant about 3pm to make a reservation. They simply replied that “they stopped taking reservations for the evening, but walk-ins were welcome.” So, we decided to make a night of it. We arrived about 7:45pm. The host informed us that they had a private party on the inside and were not taking anymore people. We asked about the “outside” area (not really outside) of the restaurant, which was still serving many patrons. There were at least 5 open tables right in front of us. The host then went on to say that the private party would be spilling out soon and he could not give us a table.

If the person on the phone in the afternoon told us this, it would not have been a big deal, and we just would not have come into the city. However, in sharing this with the host, he honestly couldn’t care less. His only response was that the person on the phone probably thought we lived in the neighborhood. My wife and myself were really incredulous over his lack of empathy or interest in the situation. My wife even asked him, “you really don’t care, do you…you would just prefer we walk away.” He really didn’t say much, so we did just walk away feeling really angry. We know how much emphasis founder Rich Melman places on customer service, so we were really shocked. We drove close to an hour into the city on a Saturday night, parked, for nothing? After walking around afterwards trying to figure out how to salvage the evening, we ended up at other Lettuce Entertain You restaurant Mity Nice Grill. We had an excellent dinner and great service. Afterwards, we even complimented the manager on both.

With the help of a friend who had contacts with lettuce Entertain You, I was able to get my story to a company executive.  A few hours later, I was contacted by the Managing Partner of Frankie's, who offered his sincerest apologies.  He then said he would send us somethiing for our trouble, hoping we would give them another chance.  Later that week, we  received four $25 gift cards in the mail along with a nice personal letter, again, offering us their apologies.

I was impressed how they dealt with this situation and made a real sincere effort to win me back.  We will be making our reservations soon!

Apple
This past Sunday, I visited our local Apple store because my iPod stopped working the day before when I was out for a run.  As usual, the store was buzzing with activity.  I had forgotten to make an appointment, but when I showed up, there was a cancellation so I only had to wait 10 minutes for my apointment.  When my turn was up, the store consultant looked over my iPod for a few minutes, then took it away to further investigate for a few minutes.  When he returned, he said my iPod had gotten a little moisture in it (sweat), which caused it to shut down and stop functioning.  He then handed me a new iPod with no questions asked.  I was very impressed by the ease and resolution of my experience.  They certainly have my loyalty!


Do any of you have any good or bad experiences to share??