Tale of Two Restaurants
About ten years ago a new Chinese restaurant named “Green Apple” opened several blocks from my office. Their location was barely visible from the street. I don’t remember how I found it, but I did.
They offered a lunch special with soup, salad, main course, and rice at a thirty percent introductory discount. That certainly appealed to me. More importantly, the ingredients were fresh, the seasonings delicious, and their service excellent.
Several months later I was disappointed when the discount disappeared, but I was hooked. By then I had become a regular. Today, when I tell my wife that I am going to Green Apple for lunch she will ask me to bring her home their outstanding Kung Pao Tofu.
My friend Deborah and I have lunch together once a week. We alternate between our three favorite restaurants. One is Green Apple. After many years of enjoying a culinary status quo, I suggested that we try a recently opened French bistro located across from Green Apple.
Spoiler alert. We do not plan to return.
The place was empty, other than the young French couple who had opened the restaurant. The menu was difficult to read and understand, the food was good but not great (buckwheat crepe anyone?), and overall the experience didn’t warrant a return visit.
Years ago there was a hamburger restaurant near downtown Los Angeles that I loved. When they opened a satellite location in Encino, not far from my office, I dropped by for lunch. The food was excellent, similar to the downtown location, but the manager behind the cash register was rude. I remember that he spoke disrespectfully to a man who had come in with a large party. He then added injury to insult by saying, “If you like the food you’ll come back. If not, you won’t.”
Wrong. Perhaps he was someone’s brother-in-law, but clearly this manager had never been trained in customer service. I predicted the Encino branch would last no more than one year. In fact, it closed three months later, no doubt after insulting many never-to-return customers. No surprise there.
I live in a city where restaurants are outstanding and highly competitive. Isn’t that like life itself?
We all have choices of who we hang out with, and from my point of view the only thing we do with friends every day is customer service. Are we pleasant? Do we listen? Do we let our friends know that we really care about them?
Worth thinking about, and perhaps paying it forward.
Alan