Restaurant Review: P.F. Chang, or the Case of the Disappearing Booth
Pop quiz: What's more important, a paying customer or a seating policy? If you're P.F. Chang's China Bistro at White Flint Mall in Rockville, Maryland, the answer just might be the latter.
Last night I went to P.F. Chang's with a friend. It was very busy (around 6:30 p.m. after work). To make a long story short, we prefer sitting in a booth so we made multiple requests for the empty booths but were told we could not have any of them for a variety of reasons. When we were finally shown to a table instead after a 25-minute wait, it was not our preference so we asked if we could have an empty booth nearby. Told it had been reserved, we pointed out several other empty booths but were told they were only for larger parties. Miffed by all the refusals, we considered leaving but finally decided to sit at the less desirable table, only to notice that a couple was now seated at the booth we had requested but were told had been reserved. I asked the couple directly if they had made a reservation and they told us they hadn't. I also asked the hostess who had refused to seat us there what time the reservation was for, and she said she didn't know. If she knew the table was reserved, why didn't she know what time the purported reservation was for? And how is it that the people who supposedly made the reservation told me they did no such thing?
I angrily told one of the hostesses that I had found out that the booth they claimed had been reserved actually wasn't. Ordinarily, I don't like squabbling over such a petty thing, but by this point it wasn't about the booth anymore: I'm not stupid and I hate dishonest or inconsiderate treatment when I'm trying to spend my money in an establishment. I can't know with certainty people's level of honesty or motivations. We were well-dressed, and we were polite until our multiple requests for any of the empty booths were refused to the point of nonsense, so I doubt any discrimination was involved. I suspect the misinformation had something to do with saving face when our requests were refused and we resisted instead of accepting the marching orders about where we were to sit.
My friend confronted one of the hostesses who had refused to seat us at a booth and pointed out all the inconvenient facts while nearby customers listened. She claimed it was an accidental mistake and soon a booth magically materialized. The food was delicious and the server was excellent, and we tried to make the best of it, but by that point we had already spent the better part of an hour either waiting or arguing. My mood and appetite were largely spoiled by the unprofessional, ham-handed treatment and I ended up taking most of my dinner home in a box. If there's one thing that disappoints me about a business, it's when I stop wanting to buy or use their core product for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the product. How sad to take a customer who has arrived at your door in a pleasant mood and is ready, willing, and able to spend money in your restaurant, and turn that person into someone who just wants to leave and never come back.
Treating customers like their business is valued is more important than the Company Seating Policy or the ego of a hostess whose first seating choice was not the customer's preference. Restaurants should train hostesses and floor managers not to give customers a hard time about being seated at the table of their choice. Seating charts and policies ordinarily make sense -- of course management wants resources to be used as efficiently as possible -- but when a customer expresses a clear preference, the restaurant should try to accommodate the customer's wishes somehow if at all possible. If the customer's wishes cannot be accommodated, then an apologetic and honest explanation should be given. If a table is empty and there is no server assigned to it, and a customer wants to sit there, the manager should assign another server to that table.
It's not rocket science. In fact, it should be a small issue, and it was unnecessary that this situation got blown ridiculously out of proportion. What a sorry waste of everyone's time and energy. There are real problems in the world and this kind of escalating battle over nothing of importance shouldn't even happen. A reasonable, relatively minor customer request should be handled with an attitude of prompt accommodation, not with a blank stare and a string of refusals. I'm sure many servers would have jumped at the chance to collect a tip from an additional table, and the restaurant would have gained a loyal customer instead of someone who stays away because they don't want to have to fight to sit at an empty table. And who is annoyed enough to blog about it afterwards.
If you take your customers too much for granted, they might stop coming back. They might tell their friends about their bad experience. And these days, they might also post their experience to a blog for other potential customers to see. If we all stop tolerating shoddy treatment of all kinds, and publicize it, maybe we can help to reduce it. That's the power of speaking our minds.
In that spirit, I e-mailed the details of this experience to P.F. Chang's headquarters and suggested that they train their people to handle customers in a more appropriate manner in the future. If I get a response, I'll post an update.
Last night I went to P.F. Chang's with a friend. It was very busy (around 6:30 p.m. after work). To make a long story short, we prefer sitting in a booth so we made multiple requests for the empty booths but were told we could not have any of them for a variety of reasons. When we were finally shown to a table instead after a 25-minute wait, it was not our preference so we asked if we could have an empty booth nearby. Told it had been reserved, we pointed out several other empty booths but were told they were only for larger parties. Miffed by all the refusals, we considered leaving but finally decided to sit at the less desirable table, only to notice that a couple was now seated at the booth we had requested but were told had been reserved. I asked the couple directly if they had made a reservation and they told us they hadn't. I also asked the hostess who had refused to seat us there what time the reservation was for, and she said she didn't know. If she knew the table was reserved, why didn't she know what time the purported reservation was for? And how is it that the people who supposedly made the reservation told me they did no such thing?
I angrily told one of the hostesses that I had found out that the booth they claimed had been reserved actually wasn't. Ordinarily, I don't like squabbling over such a petty thing, but by this point it wasn't about the booth anymore: I'm not stupid and I hate dishonest or inconsiderate treatment when I'm trying to spend my money in an establishment. I can't know with certainty people's level of honesty or motivations. We were well-dressed, and we were polite until our multiple requests for any of the empty booths were refused to the point of nonsense, so I doubt any discrimination was involved. I suspect the misinformation had something to do with saving face when our requests were refused and we resisted instead of accepting the marching orders about where we were to sit.
My friend confronted one of the hostesses who had refused to seat us at a booth and pointed out all the inconvenient facts while nearby customers listened. She claimed it was an accidental mistake and soon a booth magically materialized. The food was delicious and the server was excellent, and we tried to make the best of it, but by that point we had already spent the better part of an hour either waiting or arguing. My mood and appetite were largely spoiled by the unprofessional, ham-handed treatment and I ended up taking most of my dinner home in a box. If there's one thing that disappoints me about a business, it's when I stop wanting to buy or use their core product for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the product. How sad to take a customer who has arrived at your door in a pleasant mood and is ready, willing, and able to spend money in your restaurant, and turn that person into someone who just wants to leave and never come back.
Treating customers like their business is valued is more important than the Company Seating Policy or the ego of a hostess whose first seating choice was not the customer's preference. Restaurants should train hostesses and floor managers not to give customers a hard time about being seated at the table of their choice. Seating charts and policies ordinarily make sense -- of course management wants resources to be used as efficiently as possible -- but when a customer expresses a clear preference, the restaurant should try to accommodate the customer's wishes somehow if at all possible. If the customer's wishes cannot be accommodated, then an apologetic and honest explanation should be given. If a table is empty and there is no server assigned to it, and a customer wants to sit there, the manager should assign another server to that table.
It's not rocket science. In fact, it should be a small issue, and it was unnecessary that this situation got blown ridiculously out of proportion. What a sorry waste of everyone's time and energy. There are real problems in the world and this kind of escalating battle over nothing of importance shouldn't even happen. A reasonable, relatively minor customer request should be handled with an attitude of prompt accommodation, not with a blank stare and a string of refusals. I'm sure many servers would have jumped at the chance to collect a tip from an additional table, and the restaurant would have gained a loyal customer instead of someone who stays away because they don't want to have to fight to sit at an empty table. And who is annoyed enough to blog about it afterwards.
If you take your customers too much for granted, they might stop coming back. They might tell their friends about their bad experience. And these days, they might also post their experience to a blog for other potential customers to see. If we all stop tolerating shoddy treatment of all kinds, and publicize it, maybe we can help to reduce it. That's the power of speaking our minds.
In that spirit, I e-mailed the details of this experience to P.F. Chang's headquarters and suggested that they train their people to handle customers in a more appropriate manner in the future. If I get a response, I'll post an update.
posted by Christine M. Hanson | 8:22 PM
1 Comments:
You mention you asked for the booth 'multiple times' before you were even seated? Perhaps they were just irritated with you at that point? I'm not saying they were right in what they did, but it could be the reason.
When people ask for a booth, most people in the restaurant business assume they're going to be annoying. When they reiterate their point several times, you can't help but peg them as insufferable. Not seating you in the booth may very well have been simply revenge.
Again, not saying it's right...But the food tastes the same in a chair. You'd understand much better if you'd ever been a host in a restaurant. Booths are the bane of a hosts existence.
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