Restaurant Hopping: Lessons for every consumer facing business
Thursday night, 7 friends, 3 restaurants, multiple insights. Pretty much sums up the Thursday gone by.
The recent pace at which new restaurants are opening in Mumbai, especially an erstwhile business district in central Mumbai is astounding. But with so much competition around, the high mortality rates of these businesses are a surprise for no one. And so it is that every few days a group of us friends gets together to try out a new place – before another one bites the dust.
This last Thursday was no different and the chosen restaurant was a brand new “Freestyle Bar and Kitchen” or in simple words, a chic fine dining restaurant where getting a reservation is the privilege of a chosen few.
One of us bravely volunteered to get our group a reservation. After an intense period of uncertainty from being placed on the waitlist (we take our job of trying new places very seriously!), we hear back from the restaurant on Thursday afternoon confirming our reservation. As congratulatory messages are exchanged on our Whatsapp group, the harbinger of this information breaks to us another piece of critical information. The restaurant has very politely but sternly informed us over text message that our reservation is confirmed for 8:00pm. If we aren’t inside the premises by 8:15pm our table would be given to someone else. We must also keep in mind that there is a dress code of no open footwear and no shorts for men and kids below 15 yrs are not allowed for dinner.
And then if we do manage to get to a point of having a meal there, we should give the table back for the second seating at 10:00pm. They look forward to welcoming us! 🙄
Off course we’ll have to obey! In any case, why should they consider that we were going there to relax with friends and generally have a good time! Their rules are oh-so-important, aren’t they!?
Between 7pm and 8pm there is complete chaos on the group – someone’s stuck in traffic, another in a meeting. One is coming from across town and is never on time and another may need to drop out. One of us needs to get there by 8:15pm!! I volunteer. Running out of the house shoes-in-hand, I make my cabbie drive like a maniac. 8:12pm I’m at the reception desk, already drained out from all the frenzy. The guy at the desk is promising another group of people a table if its guests didn’t arrive in the next 3 minutes. I finally manage to grab his attention and claim our table, pitying the others who may get there maybe just a minute or two beyond the 15 minute hold time.
First look at the insides and I’m impressed. Excellent decor, good lighting, good music. Yes! Good choice!
But there’s a catch. 90% of the tables are empty!! Wow! I guess maybe most people will turn up in the next couple of minutes and so I settle in, waiting for my friends to arrive.
By 9pm we have downed a couple of drinks (with orders being mixed up, a genuine mistake one can pardon) and munched on a few appetisers, portions so small that an ant would look gigantic in comparison. Off course, I exaggerate but you get the point! But by now our opinion is made – this place joins the rank of ones where the food looks much better than it tastes. We scour the menu one last time and ask the servers for recommendations trying to find something that sounds even remotely appetising but sadly, there is none. Looking around for inspiration doesn’t help either as most tables continue to be empty! It’s 9pm!! Only one hour to go before the next sitting starts. Where are all the people because of whom we were waitlisted!?
The decision is made. Our main course will be at another new restaurant that has opened a stone’s throw away. We get the check and leave. Nobody really cares. No niceties usually expected at fine dining restaurants are exchanged.
Just to try our luck one of us tried walking back in after about 30 minutes of us leaving and was very nicely ushered in the direction we were previously seated saying we were enjoying our meal at the far side of the restaurant. Off course, no one was there!
On to the second restaurant. This one is a stark contrast to the first. A humble “thali” (fixed menu Indian meal) place, two people in the group are thrilled to have the opportunity to try their famous thali while the rest settle on a-la-carte. We soon start placing our orders. But this Thursday life wasn’t meant to be simple.
The restaurant has a policy. Off course it does! And it turns out to be rather absurd – they will serve a thali only if there are at least 4 people ordering it. And those 4 people cannot sit at the same people having the a-la-carte menu!!
Now, we’ve all heard of restaurants that serve unlimited refills in their thali prohibiting individuals from sharing. And that’s a reasonable request. But this one was a fixed portion thali! So the same logic doesn’t apply. And above all – why 4 people and why should they sit on a separate table!? We are still trying to figure that out. The restaurant servers and management (whom we explicitly asked) didn’t have a clue! Just following orders, they say. By now we had given up and decided to just go with the flow. The two thali requests had to be dropped — what good is sitting on separate tables when you are out together!?
We were having such an interesting night that someone in the group suggested we should do desserts at a third place to complete the evening. And so we set off in search of more interesting experiences, finally deciding on a dainty little cafe, decked up in mint green and white pastels, exuding an almost old-world charm. As we walk into the cafe we are welcomed by the smell of freshly baked pies and puddings (keep in mind its almost midnight by now!) and despite all the hodgepodge of food our stomachs have so graciously taken in, we are raring to go!
One look at their dessert menu and we know we absolutely wanted their “Mood Elevator” fondue, a new addition — mood elevation was exactly what we needed! We excitedly call the server over to place our order but alas, this Thursday was just not our day! The server informed us they don’t do that particular fondue (even though the word new is plastered all over it on the menu). Seeing the disheartened look on our faces, the server goes on to recommend other menu favourites to us. But since we can’t get any mood elevator, we settle for a couple of chocolate mud cakes and a red velvet. Same ol’ tried-and-tested desserts – so much for mood elevation!
As we continue our light hearted chit-chat, the partially open kitchen door makes our heads turn. The unmistakable smell of freshly baked goodness floats through the air. And the smell seems to be floating right to us! Soon enough we have their chef at our table, a piping hot cookie dough pudding in hand. As compensation for not having our originally requested dessert, the chef decided to bake us a pudding. Something they were in fact to introduce in their menu the next day! (It had crossed midnight by now and so he was well within his rights to serve this!) The pudding turned out to be finger-licking-good!! Show stopper of the evening, without a doubt.
So in the end, an evening that started out in disappointment at the all-hype no-substance fine dining restaurant, was saved by the genuine care and “sugary goodness” of the chef of a tiny little cafe. One lost a customer (and probably many more through bad word-of-mouth) while another gained a loyal customer and a brand ambassador.
As they say, all’s well that ends well!
And finally, the lessons, if they aren’t already obvious-
- Marketing and hype can only get a customer’s foot through the door. But in the end it’s all about the product. If you create all the hype around your product you better make sure it is worth the customer’s attention!
- Marketing coupled with a product that doesn’t meet the customer’s expectations is more lethal than a missed customer. A bad customer experience costs much more than no experience at all
- Policies and rules are fine — after all, we aren’t here for charity. But how much is too much? Is it when a restaurant asks a group of people out together to sit on separate tables based on their orders or when a fine dining restaurant starts to think of itself as a fast-food / casual dining restaurant where table turns are critical?
- Most customer’s are rational and appreciate transparency — customer facing employees then become the voice of the brand. Un-informed or even worse ill-informed individuals can cause long lasting damage to brand image
- It doesn’t take much to go out of the way to demonstrate genuine care for a customer but the benefits are innumerable, especially in the hospitality industry. Freedom to make the right decisions to demonstrate this care and trust from the “higher-ups” to implement these decisions is critical. Most often, this freedom and trust is not explicitly encouraged
