Last weekend my family and I were in need of a restaurant to
eat at. My sister-in-law and her husband
and six kids were in from out of town and we had our family of four, for those
of you counting that’s 12 total. My sister-in-law
called Texas Roadhouse and was told it could be anywhere from 2.5-3.5 hours
before a table would become available. When
you have hungry kids to feed you don’t want to wait that long. We knew since it was a Saturday night we
would be hard pressed to find anywhere super fast but we didn’t want to wait
over 2 hours. They called around to several other restaurants and settled on
Logan’s Roadhouse. My brother-in-law called them at
6pm for “call ahead” seating telling them that we would be there at 7pm and how
many were in our party. The woman who
answered the phone told him that it would be no problem, they would be able to
accommodate our party of 12 and that our table would be ready when we
arrived. My sister-in-law and her family arrived
at 6:45pm and we weren’t far behind. At
around 7:10 we had some hungry, anxious kiddos and some grumpy babies so we
inquired at the hostess station about how much longer we might have to
wait. We were told that they were
waiting on a large party to clear out and then we would be seated. Twenty-five to thirty more minutes went by
and still we were left waiting. My brother-in-law,
again, went to the hostess station inquiring about our wait time and informed
them, again, that we had called ahead and what we were told about our table
being ready when we arrived. The lady
and gentleman at the hostess station informed him that they weren’t really sure
how much longer we would have to wait and that “call ahead” seating is pretty
much pointless with a large party. (what
a lie!) My brother-in-law came over and explained to us what they had said and we all
decided that we needed to turn in our pager and find somewhere else to
eat. It was clear that Logan’s was not
interested in our business, the inconvenience that they caused us, or our 8
hungry kids. We turned in our pager,
called a local pizza restaurant (who was almost equally as busy), Pizza King, and they were able to seat us
within 5 minutes of us arriving where we had a wonderful meal.
Some may ask why I’m sharing this story. Why am I “bashing” an obviously busy
restaurant, what did I expect, and what do I want out of this.
To answer your questions I’m sharing my story
in hopes that businesses and people alike will see situations like this and
learn from them. I’m not looking for a
payday or any compensation, I’m hoping that others will see this as a “what not
to do.”
"Ok, so why didn't you just write an email to the customer service department privately instead of complaining here?"
Well,
here's the funny thing, upon navigating through Logan's website
intending to do that very thing I stumbled upon a tab labeled, "The
Experience." So of course I had to know what their stance was on "The
Experience" and clicked on it and found this little gem:
"Logan's Roadhouse revisits the classic roadhouse from days past and brings it to life in a modern way through its welcoming hospitality, attentive service and kickin' upbeat atmosphere."
Sadly
even though this is their motto regarding the experience they wish
their patrons to have, I experienced none of those! As a small business
owner I know
the importance of customer satisfaction and will do anything I can to
right a
wrong. It was completely understandable
that they were busy and that we would have to wait a length of time in order to
be seated. What was not understandable
was the complete lack of empathy from the employees we encountered and how
uninterested they seemed in providing customer service to their guests. The point of “call ahead” seating is so that
customers can confirm a seat and put themselves on a list so as to avoid
waiting in a crowded restaurant for a table.
It’s a form of convenience and in the past I’ve never had an issue using
it at various restaurants. While I do
not believe that the lady who answered the phone was lying to us about
our wait
time or table, I do believe that the she along with the employees at the
hostess stand were/are poorly trained and were uninterested in creating
a dining experience. Upon our first visit to the hostess stand,
Logan’s employees should’ve explained either the miscommunication in our wait
time or offered to make it right. The
employees offered to neither instead they did nothing and lost 12 patrons, lost
the revenue, and any further business from any of us.
Here is how the evening should have gone:
My brother-in-law calls Logan’s, we are placed on the “call ahead” seating list, we arrive when we said we were going to, we were seated in a timely fashion, and our family was able visit after not seeing each other for over a year without any complications. However, because I realize that we don’t live in a perfect world I understand that most likely that we would would’ve had to wait and here is how Logan’s should’ve handled it: We should’ve been notified upon arriving that our table was not in fact ready and that we would have to wait “x” amount of time. Should we have had to inquire about our wait time/table the hostess should’ve then apologized about our wait time, inquired about the details of our party (group size, how many kids, highchairs, etc), and then made it a priority to get us seated as quickly as possible. If necessary they should’ve gotten the manager involved in order to make sure their guests were completely taken care of.
Here is how the evening should have gone:
My brother-in-law calls Logan’s, we are placed on the “call ahead” seating list, we arrive when we said we were going to, we were seated in a timely fashion, and our family was able visit after not seeing each other for over a year without any complications. However, because I realize that we don’t live in a perfect world I understand that most likely that we would would’ve had to wait and here is how Logan’s should’ve handled it: We should’ve been notified upon arriving that our table was not in fact ready and that we would have to wait “x” amount of time. Should we have had to inquire about our wait time/table the hostess should’ve then apologized about our wait time, inquired about the details of our party (group size, how many kids, highchairs, etc), and then made it a priority to get us seated as quickly as possible. If necessary they should’ve gotten the manager involved in order to make sure their guests were completely taken care of.
In conclusion my family has decided that in the future
dining at Logan’s Steakhouse is not an option for us and I hope that others
have a more positive experience. Have you
ever been on the tail end of bad customer service? If so, how did you handle
it? Were you satisfied with the results?