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| - I would have given Grapes a zero rating if I could. My wife and I ate there Thursday night. She ordered the fish, I had the fettuccini with sausage and chicken. Naturally we ate a bit off of each others plates.
Not long after dinner I felt a little sick and later that evening both my wife and I were really sick. Lasted two days. We could still go to work, but wearing running shoes was a must, if you know what I mean.
I called the manager Saturday morning to tell them about our experience. Here's a lesson in customer service. Rather than telling me that you sold out of the fish and the pasta that night, and that no one else got sick, why not apologize.
If I were running this place, I would have said sorry and meant it, I would have refunded the cost of the meal ($41), and I would have sincerely asked for a second chance. That I would have accepted. Instead, Grapes has lost a customer for life. Neither my wife nor I will ever eat here again. And I will be sure to tell all of my contacts about my experience. BTW, statistics show that a satisfied customer will tell about 40 people in total, a dissatisfied customer will tell 250. And those stats reflect word of mouth not internet.
Think of the math. If we ate there twice a month, that would have been about $100 per month, less the cost of food and overhead. That's about $2,400 per year, multiplied by the number of personal contacts who will listen to what I tell them about my experience.
And to add to it, I was considering having my new business kick-off celebration at Grapes. About $2,000 for this one time event.
The restaurant business is tough. Cranky customers (yeh, maybe me being one of them), long hours, food issues, hiring/firing employees, etc. Tons and tons of headaches. Why add to the problem.
Grapes could have handled this much better. I tell my employees, everyone makes mistakes, that's human. It's how you handle the mistakes that count. Better to offer a sincere apology and mean it, and request a second chance. Handled correctly, who wouldn't give someone a second chance.
While I don't like what happened, had Grapes handled this professionally, they may have retained a customer, perhaps for life.
Gotta run, if you know what I mean.
Grant
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