Last weekend Jayne and I visited Canberra where Jayne presented another of her very popular Masterclasses.
On one evening, we dined at a restaurant that had a very peculiar protocol for diners.
The restaurant’s menu consisted of a long list of small plates ideal for sharing.
When we were asked for our order, we were told by our server that at this restaurant, they bring all the dishes at once, so we would be best not to place the order in its entirety but rather, to place the order in smaller sections, and then add additional plates later on.
How peculiar.
Surely a restaurant should have the ability to time the delivery of its product so that the diners do not experience a log jam?
Especially, if the restaurant is presenting itself as one of THE “in places” to dine in the city.
This restaurant was trendy enough….high ceilings and a bar lined with bottles and bottles of a wide variety of whiskies and gins and tequilas.
And plenty of staff as well.
Anyway, we succumbed to the server’s demands and ordered our first three raw dishes.
And guess what, they arrived all at the same time.
Which was kind of stupid.
Because we would have preferred to enjoy the dishes one at a time…
After completing those dishes, we then ordered three small warmer dishes, which as you would expect, were delivered pretty well on top of each other.
Once those were completed, we requested a menu AGAIN and then waited for an eon while waitstaff at the bar seemed to do everything around us except to ask us if we would like to order more food.
I’m not sure why this “policy” was being used by this restaurant.
Any good restaurant should be easily able to pace the service of its food….after all its not rocket science, and there are plenty of other restaurants out there that can perform this task with ease.
But to declare with such arrogance that “this is how we do it here” and then NOT back that decision up with exemplary service, well that’s criminal.
My rule too is that if the first half of the dining experience is flawed then the reward to the restaurant of dessert, coffee and a tip is withdrawn.
They need to earn this reward.
And on this occasion, this restaurant did not.
To ice the cake, at 10:00pm, unbeknown to us, this restaurant becomes a bar and so for the completion of our meal we were joined at the seat beside us by a belligerent guest who just wanted to join our conversations and comment derogatorily about us…. while he was drinking Pepsi cola only.
Will we be going back to this restaurant and be recommending it to others?
I don’t think so….
Their systems were flawed.
And their systems were self-imposed…..
This certainly was not an Ultimate Dining Experience….
How are things in your dental practice?
Are there systems or protocols in your practice that operate illogically?
Are your protocols acting as a deterrent for the best type of patients that you want to attract and keep?
*****
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Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
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Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.
You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order
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The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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