Business: We Have a Problem.What Are You Going to Do?

Having worked in public relations and received an education around marketing, I have a tendency to pay more attention to various ways that a business goes the extra mile to satisfy a new customer in hopes of turning him/her into a regular customer. Human tendency to focus on pessimism tends to mean that businesses have to travel many extra miles complete with hoops to jump to get a good recommendation from a customer while one minor mistake can cause that customer to travel many miles to bad-mouth the business. The speed and accessibility of the Internet makes traveling to bad mouth a whole lot easier. Though given the cynical nature of both employees and customers during the economic crisis, the trend is less about getting an extra mile and more about fighting to get even one mile. I think I dragged that metaphor for enough miles..

One personal example that stick out in my memory-mainly because it happened about two weeks ago-during a date at San Francisco's Pier 39. We spent the late afternoon watching sea lions, window shopping through the various souvenir stands and unique shops, watched street performers dazzle crowds with their talents, and casually chatted about everything & nothing while taking in the scenic views. The late afternoon turned into early evening and we decided to savor a meal that captured the feeling of Pier 39: Seafood with a view of the pier. Out of the many restaurants, we opted for one and waited in anticipation.

The miscommunication between servers was probably the first sign of trouble. Our table was ready in one minute, but was already taken by the time our server led us there. Things sort out within five minutes. Things begin to look up when our energetic waiter charms us with the various preparation methods available for our choice of seafood. Even the off-menu choice sounded tempting. But my date and I gazed into the view of the water, things went beyond odd. We heard the ruckus of servers and the manager arranging tables for a large party. We would not mind such a large party except for the fact that the manager was setting up this table for ten in front of the emergency exit behind us. There has to be something bloody illegal about blocking up an emergency exit just because a large party wants to be seated sooner. My date tried to keep cool and probably would have let it slide... provided I did not accidentally set something on fire that would clearly demonstrate why buildings have emergency exits in the first place. The final straw came when the waitress managed to hit a drinking straw with the plate, causing the drink to spill onto the camera and bag of souvenirs that rested on the table.

My date got the manager's attention and brought all grievances to him. He apologized for his actions but seemed to have any idea what to do. I did not want to directly command him what to do to appease us. After all, the ball was in his court to fix things. We had such a good time earlier at Pier 39. It would be a shame for his restaurant to be the final thing that tarnished the experience. I wanted to see what this manager could do.

It looked like the only thing he did was redeploy us to another part of the restaurant away from the emergency exit. I was not sure what to make of that decision. It certainly got us away from seeing the sight while keeping the people in the vicinity from seeing us. But after that, we never saw the manager again for the rest of the meal. This was certainly looking bad for him and the restaurant.

It was after we finished our well prepared meals of fish and received the bill did we notice the efforts to assuage us. The kindly manager put drinks on the house and took off 50% of the tab. It was quite a surprise and did wash away most of the sting to the point I will not call the restaurant the worst part of the date.

Now had the manager interacted with us after redeploying to give an apology, that would have been the push needed to list the name of the restaurant as the best service we received.