Forgiveness: sweeter than revenge
April 28th, 2009 by Cliff Bostock in Food & Life, Restaurants
We dined at the new Spoon on Moreland Avenue in East Atlanta tonight — great, as always — and then headed across the parking lot to the highly addictive Morelli’s for ice cream and a life lesson.
Wayne ordered a crepe whose preparation created a bottleneck since only two employees were on duty. I enjoyed telling people who were drumming their fingers at the counter that Wayne was responsible for the holdup.
Eventually, one of the employees opened the pick-up window and slid an order toward a woman. “That’s not what I ordered, did I? I don’t think so,” the woman said, embarrassed. The employee apologized, asked for the order again, filled it and insisted that the woman’s companion take the incorrect order for no charge. They left smiling and literally promising to return many times.
Wayne’s endless crepe was finally delivered, but I still had not received my cone. The employee looked at me and said, “Did you want something?”
“Um, yeah. I ordered and paid you for a scoop of ginger-lavender in a waffle cone,” I said, feeling annoyed.
“Oh yeah! I knew that. Sorry, I forgot.” Ohhhh-kay.
She shut the window and, moments later, returned with my cone. “I’m sorry I messed up,” she said, “so I gave you two scoops.”
I felt happy-happy, joy-joy. Finally, a solution to all conflict. When you screw up and annoy people, just give them free ice cream.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:28 am
i think i’ve been served by this girl before… it was the only not-so-great experience i’ve had @ Morelli’s. to her credit, she never got shitty despite how blankface she was.
all-in-all, she’s doing a disservice to her company w/ these basic mistakes. in one 15 min-ish block, she cost her company almost $10: surely more than she makes in an hour. (no disrespect intended w/ that statement. i’m just making a guess on her hourly wage based on the fact that Morelli’s is a locally-owned small business and that the young woman is not in mgmt.) and if she throws freebies out that, well, freely, she probably costs them a lot more than that in an average shift. furthermore, i’m only taking into account lost profit; you could technically include a percent of both food and labor cost as a loss here, too.
bottom line: she shouldn’t have to give away ice cream. comps are not only bad for business, but they really don’t SOLVE the problem. most people go to an establishment perfectly willing to pay for the priveledge so long as the food/service is up to basic standards. there are some seriously obnoxious exceptions to this rule ~ everyone in the biz has seen customers who complain about any- and everything to get freebies ~ but for the most part, it’s true. as you said, the comp made you feel better, but you didn’t go to morelli’s for free ice cream… i’m sure you’d have been just as happy to have had competent service and just get what you paid for, right?
if i hadn’t had this problem before myself, and if this wasn’t a story about the very same service problem happening back-to-back, i wouldn’t be leaving this comment right now… the occaisional comp/freebie is a gift from the restaurant gods, but it’s no replacement for basic, knowledgeable service.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:56 am
wow, now if Popeye’s could only give you an extra piece of chicken.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am
In the first example of the order mistake, the wrong order would just have been thrown away, which would have been wasted food and extra costs to the establishment, so giving it away made no difference. In the second example, giving the free, extra scoop was acknowledging a mistake without drama and giving the customer a benefit for having to put up with the mistake. I see nothing wrong in either case, other than having an employee that might make too many mistakes.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Speakeasy, the Popeye’s on Clairmont once gave me a BOX of chicken when I had a 20 minute wait, completely unsolicited.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I haven’t been to Popeye’s in many months, Speakeasy, but it would take more than a chicken leg to erase annoyance there.
Kayce: I think the bottleneck created by Wayne’s crepe had a lot to do with this. While one employee made the crepe, the other took at least six orders in a row and then had to fill them. I’m not surprised at what happened. She never lost her composure and was really pleasant, even without the freebie.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:46 am
@AJT but my point was that that incorrect order should’ve never been filled therefore making it unnecessary to give away… i assume you’ll say that’s harsh, but think about it from an owner’s point-of-view; it may seem like “one scoop, no big deal”, but it is a big deal *IF* it happens a lot.
as cliff said in his response to me, it could’ve been a one-off that happened as a result of the crepe back-up, which is 100% understandable; however, if it is a common solution to unnecessary mistakes, these freebies are not a good thing. ultimately, future customers pay for comps w/ higher prices on the menu. that was the point i was attempting to make in my first comment, anyway… sorry if i wasn’t clear.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Morelli’s is great! I always order a single scoop, and receive a double. I’m trying to order a new flavor every time so I can try them all!
April 29th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Do you complain about something in order to receive the double, Maria?
April 29th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
dont be rude
April 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Rude? Sorry. Let me get you an extra scoop.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Totally agree with cliff on this one – i can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten bad service or a total screw-up only to be told ‘oh well’… Heck give me a free cookie or something, and I will forget. Give me attitude or ignore me, and I will never return.