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Last week when we had our first gloriously sunny day, after about 10 days of rain here in Southern California, I decided to take a drive up the coast to Malibu for a late lunch with my daughter at Gladstone's, a seafood eatery perched alongside Pacific Coast Highway on the last spot of land at the end of Sunset Blvd.
I was pleased to see that Gladstone's had an online reservation system, so I reserved for 1:30. I also called to specifically request outdoor seating overlooking the ocean. It was good that I called, because the hostess informed me no one could sit outside that day, because NCIS Los Angeles was on site doing a shoot for the show! Well, that was a fun piece of news and I was happy enough to accept a table inside, knowing I'd be able to observe the action of a TV shoot. I also hoped I'd get to see Linda Hunt in person, or perhaps LL Cool J. I was curious if he was as big and tall as he looked on camera! I requested a window seat.
When I arrived, I walked right past LL Cool J as I crossed the patio on my way in. What great timing! I expected him to be 6'4" or something, but he looked to me to be about 5'11". Satisfied my curiosity!
Inside, I told the hostess my name, that I had a reservation, and that I'd requested a window seat. She made no move to cross my name off the reservation list, but she did inform me that "window seating is not a reservation, it's a request." OK, yeah, I know - that's why I reminded her of the request upon check-in. Better perhaps for her to have said, "Yes, I see your request and I'm sorry that we don't have a window seat available right now. Would you like to wait for one, or take another table?"
Anyway, we had a fine time at our meal, except that we both ordered fish & chips and the fish was really terrible. Surprising for this restaurant, but whatever.
Here's where the weird customer service gaffe comes in.
The next day I received an email from the reservation system, stating that I had made a reservation, but apparently had not honored it. The system asked if I had any comments to make.
What does this sound like to you? Kind of like "You didn't show up for your reservation! Would you care to explain yourself?" I felt like I was receiving a mild scolding - automated, no less!
Well, I responded, saying "Yep. Made the reservation. Arrived right on time. Walked past LL Cool J on the way in. Had great service. But I ordered the fish and chips and the fish was low quality and poorly prepared. What's happened to your menu! Every other time I've eaten there it's been excellent!"
Two days later I received another automated email asking if I'd like to give a rating or review of the food I'd had at Gladstone's.
Obviously this effort to provide streamlined online reservations is not being executed well by the staff, and the automated follow-up emails that attempt to engage in communication with patrons are not well designed and certainly are not responsive to patrons' comments. What a weird customer service experience the whole thing added up to be!
So, if you've got a system in place to streamline operations, make sure your employees use your system properly, and if you've developed an automated email process to engage in communication with your clients or customers, take a look at the flow of communication and response to make sure there's human review and interaction as part of the process!
Ann Baker is CEO of Publicity Pros, and creator of the small-business publicity building services PR-123, SocialMedia-123, and WebTraffic-123. She can be reached at Ann@PublicityPros.net.
