SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

On Thursday, my boyfriend and I wanted to go to a Japanese grill but it was closed, so we decided to be adventurous and try a nearby sushi restaurant which we hadn’t been to before. Ichiban, meaning number one in Japanese, looked clean with a Zen-like atmosphere. I noticed it was empty and thought it was odd because it wasn’t near closing time. Little did we know, we would soon find out why. We were about to have a very unpleasant experience there.

Upon receiving my tuna steak order, I was immediately disgusted by the “fishy” taste and returned it after a single bite. I was then informed that Ichiban does not give refunds unless a patron has tried the meal before and liked it. When I informed the waitress that the tuna didn’t taste fresh and that it had a “fishy” flavor to it, she asked me if I knew what Tuna steak was.

Infuriated by the waitress’ behavior, I requested that I speak with the manager. He refused to remove the $14.00 off my bill because 1- no one has ever complained about the tuna steak before, 2-the tuna steak was fresh and he was prepared to show me the invoice proving it, 3-the restaurant’s refund policy prohibited him from doing so. Needless to say, I felt the need to explain to this restaurant manager the concept of Customer Service.

My marketing communications professor once told me that customer service is “capturing the moment of truth.” When an employee is faced with a disgruntled customer, they can capture that moment by turning the negative situation into a positive. The Ichiban manager could have personally apologized for the mistake and removed the amount from my balance to make up for my negative experience.

However, the resturant manager did not understand that the issue was not the $14. It was the principle. The server practically accused me of pulling a Jessica Simpson by questioning my knowledge of tuna, the manager was way too eager to argue, and both of them were out of line.

Their disrespectful attitude has caused me to boycott that restaurant, inform all my friends and colleagues about my experience, and blog about it. How many other former patrons did the very same thing? Every business manager should send their new hires to that restaurant just to learn what NOT to do when a customer is dissatisfied.

The next time the Ichiban manager looks at his restaurant and wonders why it is empty; he should think about every time he argued with a customer and didn’t follow the cardinal rule of Customer Service: Customer is Always Right. Apparently, this restaurant isn’t Ichiban when it comes to customer service.