In my lifetime I have had way too many times when I felt the business I was dealing with took advantage of me in one way or another. In most cases it meant a financial sacrifice for the disputed action.

I lived in a small Colorado town population 3,000 and there was a popular pizza restaurant on the main street which was also a state highway. There were not many restaurants in the town so the pizza place got a lot of business. The original owner ran the restaurant for about five years and then sold it to the main cook that worked there. The cook had a residence built over the restaurant and lived there. The food and service quality declined dramatically after the cook took ownership. My two children and I lived across the street from the restaurant and went there to eat about once a week. On a Friday night I ordered a Hawaian Pizza for our family for take out. When we got it home, sliced it and got ready to enjoy it, we suddenly realized the pizza crust was just like a plastic frisbee you could not even bite into it. I took the pizza back to the restaurant and told the waitress the problem. She said she could do nothing about it, only the owner could decide what to do. I ask her to call him which she did. I spoke to the owner and explained the problem. His response was my wife and I make the Pizza crusts daily exactly the same and there is no way that is a defective crust, you do not know what you are talking about. That really set me off. I invited him to come down here and try the pizza. He declined the invitation. After a long conversation he said the next time you come in and if I am here I will give you a $25 credit slip. I thanked him and went home. They did not offer to give us another pizza that night, which I thought was strange.

I worked for a community college in the small town. The college was offering a continuing education course in “Small Business Public Relations” that they claimed would increase that business dramatically. I sent a letter to the Pizza Restaurant owner and suggested he take this course. I recounted our bad experience and told him that he needed instruction on how to run his business to make it more profitable. The business had declined significantly after the cook took it over. l did not hear anything back from the owner, but we did eat in there periodically.

Several months after the “Small Business Public Relations” course was given. My two children and I are sitting in a booth having pizza when the owner asked if he could sit down with us. He did not know who I was and that I was the one that had complained about the plastic pizza and I was the one that sent him the course information. But that night one of his servers told him that it was me that was guilty on both counts. The owner said “I want to thank you for recommending that course at the college and for sending the letter. I began to realize as my business declined something needed to be done. I took the course and applied the recommendations. Afterward my business because to steadily increase and I found joy in making my customers happy. I just wanted to find out who sent that letter and to thank them for getting me on the right track, so “Thank You”!

An incident this past week is another example of a total failure in public relations by a restaurant hostess. We picked up a friend in Phoenix at the Sky Harbor airport and went to Cheddar’s in Chandler, Arizona to eat about 3 P.M. in the afternoon. The parking lot at Cheddar’s did not have many cars in it. Also when we entered the restaurant there were not very many customers seated. The hostess said you have to get on the waiting list. My wife ask how long is the wait, she said five or ten minutes. There were two other couples seated on the two benches by the door also waiting. After twenty minutes I stepped forward and asked the hostess, “What is going on?” We have waited twenty minutes you said there was a five or ten minute wait. I asked when will we be seated. She responded, “I don’t know we are waiting for servers”. My wife came forward and said, “Let’s go somewhere else if that is the case, take our names off of the list.” I told the hostess and one of the managers that was visiting with her, we have always had good experiences with Cheddar’s for several years, and this was not one of them.” The waitress smiled and said , “Do come back!” I responded that is not likely this is rediculous.

I wrote a letter to the Cheddar’s manager recounting the experience. I told him we had a wonderful meal at the Cheesecake Factory, thanks to his poorly trained hostess. I ask why we could not have been seated and served drinks while you were waiting for more wait staff? I finished with maybe you should close down if you are not able to get enough help. I did not get a response. I am now writing to the main office for Cheddar’s and see if I get a response.

These are just two small incidences that show people need to respond to bad customer service to get businesses back on track. Good luck with your experience.
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