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Your story highlights why customer service is not as easy as we think because of the requirement for sustained performance being quite high.

By your own admission, you went to this steak house for 10 years and had liked it so much you encouraged others. I'd imagine you would've visited multiple times per year? So, let's say 20~30 visits total? All that time you were happy and raved about it, but one bad visit and not only did it sour your opinion to the point you won't return, but you also mentioned that you will disparage them whenever you can. At around 30 visits, 97% of your experience there was positive to the point of rave reviews.

I'm not having a go at you, I'm just using your story to highlight the difficulty in customer service and how fickle we all are as customers (myself included). I suppose that really just speaks more to our recency bias as humans as well.

I see what you're saying and agree, but that didn't just sound bad, that sounded awful. The basics of customer service were not met.

I wouldn't call that fickle as it went further than just a bad visit.

Losing 30 minutes, eating in a noisy environment, and not being able to control how the restaurant manages a schedule the GP doesn't have insight into is awful?

Getting pissed off over an experience like that is probably an appropriate response. Or bringing the 10 year history of being a loyal client to the management's attention. But going to war against them for a once in 10 years event sounds like first world entitlement.

The overall point about the lengths needed to maintain an experience that keeps customers happy is real, though. You don't make money by trying to profit on every transaction or treating entitled people like you know they're acting like an ass.

Getting pissed off over an experience like that is probably an appropriate response. Or bringing the 10 year history of being a loyal client to the management's attention. But going to war against them for a once in 10 years event sounds like first world entitlement.

In general I'd be inclined to agree, but two things come to mind. One: if I had a reservation I'd expect it's for a table not a seat at the bar. Two: being deliberately singled out versus being an accident. If the staff had been more obvious (e.g. tables are for whites only), would you suggest giving them another chance?

DOSA in SF (the one on Fillmore) deserves an honorable mention for not honoring reservations. We showed up early with a reservation and they continued to seat people before us, after like half an hour we all left because we were going to a show. I talked to the manager who claimed we arrived late, etc., etc. I wasn't a regular customer, I didn't make a scene, but you can bet your ass I'll badmouth DOSA every chance I get. If you're not going to honor reservations, why take them?

You don't make money by trying to profit on every transaction or treating entitled people like you know they're acting like an ass.

And what makes someone entitled? Wanting a table to go with the reservation? Or looking different than the typical customers?

People's reactions to how they are treated is emotional.

The guy apparently received appalling service and was humiliated in front of his girlfriend on Valentine's day by a restaurant he trusted and was attached to.

This was personal betrayal.

This is why cause people to react so strongly. We don't see this as a simple business transaction, this is personal and emotional.

Yes you can see that reaction and even description after some time passes is purely emotional. Nothing logical can pierce that. It doesn't matter that he gives his friends bad recommendation, as long as the restaurant which betrayed him is punished by lost customers. That's outsider's perspective, I can bet for him he feels this perfectly fine and good behavior and maybe even doing a service to his friends.

The reality is, if 97% was a great experience and 3% awful, its still a great place when averaged. I for example would gladly try out such a place if it would be described objectively, without some stupid emotions overshadowing every single fact.

Some would call the reaction appropriate, some overblown. Not judging, haven't been treated like that. But generally emotions are bad long-term advisor, unless decision also passes some basic logic check (which usually they don't).

A Spock-like character always shows up in HN threads like these to claim perfect rationality, cite some figures, etc. You know what? People are emotional creatures. and sometimes, yes, a humiliating and excessive failure on the part of a restaurant is enough to warrant a strong and permanent reaction. This is a restaurant, after all. In the end, who gives a shit? You’re going there to have a good time. If you don’t have a good time, it’s perfectly valid to not go back.

We need to listen to our emotions more, not less in some circumstances. I don’t mean to make a scene, but to take it as a sign that we shouldn’t eat at that restaurant, take that job, date that person, patronize that airline, etc.

In general this sounds reasonable. But another perspective has to do with binary reasoning. Are you trustworthy? IMHO its a yes/no answer. Are you dependable? Again yes/no. If you are "mostly honest or dependable", do I count on you 70% or 90% of the time? IMHO the restaurant dropped the ball on customer service. I would have taken that personally as well. Suppose it were a customer meeting instead. You've arranged it all, refreshments, talk some business, eat and talk more, relax and enjoy your new customer/client/partner relationship. Oops... they want to put you at the bar?

Do you enjoy russian roulette? It has a lot of great experiences with the occasional awful experience.

Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/325/

It doesn't really matter if his reaction was justified or not, that's how people act. And it highlights why customer service is so important: because sometimes it really does just take one slip up to lose a loyal customer and to turn a promoter into a detractor.

It makes no difference if it's rational or not if it's reality because if you're an expensive steak house, you have first world customers so their first world problems are your problems.

It's more that from how he described it they didn't apologise or treat him well as well.

Do the exact same thing they did except simply present it better and apologise and now you're likely not going to piss off a loyal customer.

Right, it sounds like Thriptic blew up the problem and he had to make a scene to be heard. It's now pride that prevents him from going back even though he would lose his favorite dinner spot.

In his defense, if a customer is paying and not asking for out of the ordinary, it's really bad business to not at least acknowledge the customer when they are generous enough to complain.

One expects flawless experience every time, not 97% of the time. A steak house is not that critical, but would you fly if the success rate of an airliner is 97%? Would you go to a steak house where you get a food poisoning every 3% of the time? Where do you draw the line?

Waiting in the line for 30 minutes can't be compared to dying, that's nonsense and I'm sure you realize that.

Yes I would go to steakhouse which has 97% chance of being awesome, with 3% chance of waiting in the line 30+ minutes, even on valentine. But that's me (and my wife)

It also speaks to the need to know your customer. The restaurant should have had discreet cameras with facial recognition software to alert management immediately that a high value customer was walking in the door, and to make sure he got treated right.

I hope this is sarcasm

Isn’t it more fun to wonder?

On HN there’s always brilliant commentary and there’s always posters defending the undefendable. I’ll be wondering forever.

This certainly isn't unique to HN.

My favorite forum is Slashdot so I get that.

Not really. Surveillance capitalism is pretty-much always ugly and awful. What surprises me is that the restaurant didn't have a loyalty scheme, or a front-of-house incentivised to recognise repeat customers. These systems are cheaper, more flexible, have fewer gross externalities than facial recognition and inherently promote human interaction.

If you have a system to recognise repeat customers, what difference does it make whether that system is implemented in silicon or carbon?

Harder to spin up 1000 duplicate instances of the front-of-house staff or sell the capability to identify customers out-of-house as well.

1. That would upset many customers if they found out. 2. It's redundant because he had a reservation.

As bizarre as your suggestion is, what makes you so sure Thriptic is "high-value"? A guy this volatile and so easy to annoy probably found reasons in the past to justify (in his own mind) 10% tips or lower. Perhaps the cameras (or just a wise restaurant manager) knew Thriptic was in fact a cheapskate that they had little interest in serving.

I feel bad for your friends. They come to you often for good steakhouse recommendations and instead of pointing them to the restaurant with the best food and great service except on Valentine's Day, you send them down the block to the mediocre place in an effort to pay this place back. One of your friends might catch on and stop asking for recommendations, or worse, start giving you bad ones as well.

As for your second example, I don't find this to be good customer service. You paid for an upgrade and didn't get it. It's not just about the incremental upgrade. You could have booked elsewhere and the upgrade was part of that decision. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole sometimes. They could have done better than a refund on the delta and some booze.

The second example is the bare minimum I’d expect. A full refund perhaps.

> For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service.

I'm not doubting that this is nice, but in a lot of businesses this could be all or most of their margin. You can be nice all day long but at the end of the day there has to be something left to run the business. There are plenty of ways to exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

Whilst checking into Hotel Sir Albert in Amsterdam we mentioned it was the fourth time we'd stayed there. When we returned to the room later in the day there was a charming card featuring a hand drawn Kiwi and a note, something like "Welcome home Mr and Mrs Forster". My wife has kept that card, even though she hates being called Mrs Forster (that's not her name). Total cost, maybe $0.5. Customer loyalty delta, very positive.

> this could be all or most of their margin.

For that particular stay, yes. But it increases the likelihood that the customer will come back and, perhaps more importantly, tell everyone they know about how awesome the place is. It's hard to see how this wouldn't work out to a net positive in the longer run.

Depend show much utility you offer and how much money your clientele have. For some businesses, the customer doesn’t value anything other than the price.

I somehow doubt this is the case. When a business is described as low-margin, it’s on a per-sale basis; they make $.02 on every bolt sold kind of thing. If its a functioning business, then they still make reasonable total profit due to volume of sale.

So yes, if this were an additional $20 per sale it might deeply cut into their margins if they aren’t a luxury product.

However, I struggle to imagine that every, or most, or even many, of a hotels sales are anniversaries, or similar kinds of events, that would deserve such additional servicing.

If the total profit is $200k, a single $20 (or relatively few) instance is nothing, regardless of high or low margins.

Specially servicing these rare, one-off events, is exactly how you exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

Generally I'd expect these kind of expenses to be tracked under Marketing, which often has a lot of leeway.

Exactly. Word of mouth marketing is authentic, advertisments are impersonal and deceptive.

Consider going back now that you have given them that scathing Yelp review. That way you'll be able to have better steaks and feel vindicated. Heck, dump on them on Google too, and write to the local newspaper just before V day (old people read those letters!). If you have any impact it will at least be to have fewer competitors for a table. Heck, pay money to have them given bad reviews, it's really cheap.

Yes I'm being tongue in cheek here, but try not to cut off your nose to spite your face.

V day and M day are the absolute worst times to go out for dinner, anywhere half decent is full and the kitchen is super stressed so they have reduced menus that are easier to cook (not possible with steak...). If you must go, you have to speak to the manager beforehand, tell them how important this is, remind them you come often, get a specific table, etc.

> V day and M day are the absolute worst times to go out for dinner, anywhere half decent is full and the kitchen is super stressed so they have reduced menus that are easier to cook (not possible with steak...).

Why is that, exactly? A whole bunch of tables with two people at them sounds like it should be a bit easier than a normal busy day. And you know far in advance that you need to be well-staffed. Are valentines couples very demanding? Are there other troubles?

> and now shit talk them at every opportunity

Credibility tends to take a hit when you do that. People interpret it not as the restaurant necessarily being bad as much as you having a bone to pick.

I bet he tells them what happened

I think all of the above should be the expected experiences, including expecting poor customer service and shopping at stores on Black Friday and subpar dining on Valentines. Businesses are human and every business has their most stressful periods, knowing that can help you time your interactions (especially when you need perfection or complicated requirements).

Did the steak house change management?

If you were with me for the good times, then ditched me at the first problem and shit talked me and turned other people against me, then described yourself as “a loyal friend”, I think I’d raise an eyebrow.

If you were with me for the good times, then ditched me at the first problem and shit talked me and turned other people against me, then described yourself as “a loyal friend”, I think I’d raise an eyebrow.

Intent matters. Let's say your partner is trying to toss a coke bottle into the garbage bin. Let's say your partner misses and bonks you on the nose with the bottle instead. Do you leave? What if your partner, instead, had been trying to throw the bottle at you in anger?