We all know the holidays can be overwhelming to us in our personal and business life however sometimes this is the best time to shine. Sometimes these last months of the year can be our most important and most profitable ones.

My family and I recently visited Shane’s Rib Shack restaurant in Glendale. I had been there previously for lunch and really enjoyed it. I was excited to take my family there so they could experience the great food and service that I found on my first visit.

It was a busy Friday night at this location, we stood in line briefly, but ordered our 4 dinners at the counter fairly quickly, then proceeded to be seated and wait for delivery of our order. The cashier told us in advance that the hamburger we ordered would take about 15 minutes longer, which we agreed to. The other orders were for rib combos and a salad. We waited for approximately 30 minutes (far longer than the expected 15 minutes that was indicated) while other tables around us that came after us, received their food. We went to the counter to let them know it had been 30 minutes since we ordered and determine an ETA on our food, we were told our order was next in line. More and more tables continued to receive their orders. I then asked another member of the staff, who appeared to be a manager, on the floor to provide a status, she stated the food was on it’s way… I replied “We heard that 10 minutes ago.” At this point we are very hungry and getting more frustrated. When the food finally arrived it was brought out separately with the salad arriving 5 minutes later than everything else. Hard to understand how the salad was the LAST thing to arrive since it required the least amount of preparation? And to top it off, it didn’t even have all of the proper ingredients listed on the menu!

The food was sub par on this visit, especially after waiting 40 minutes to eat. No one apologized to us or did anything to make us want to return another time.

I saw a certificate framed on the wall that said Best Customer Experience Award for 2015. Obviously this wasn’t the experience we got that night…and it’s now 2017!

Will we go back? Probably not… too many other great BBQ restaurants in town that offer better service. I had contacted the Owner after my first visit to offer my expertise to help them get a fresh perspective on their customer experience. The Owner indicated they had a friend helping them with their customer experience program. It seems they could use a professional with over 20 years of hospitality customer service knowledge to help improve their customer experience and retention!

If you aren’t involved in a customer experience program this should be your #1 priority for 2017. If you don’t make your customers your #1 priority, your competitors will make them their priority…

Let us help you keep your customers coming back…

Contact Debbie Hart at The Hart Experience at Debbie@thehartexperience.com or 602.717.3271 for your FREE initial consultation.

www.thehartexperience.com