Customer Service Chronicle

Customer Service Review: Houlihans

One of our favorite weekend treats is to stop at Houlihans for lunch on our way to the mall.  Dan and I have been conducting this ritual for many years.  I love their flatbread pizzas and they make the best Baybreeze on the east coast and Dan usually craves for thier chicken fingers with their special dipping sauce. 

This time, we were greeted in the same casual but friendly way and then escorted to our tables.  Our hostess confessed that she was also the one who will be waiting on us and came back shortly to take our orders.

They were offering a few specials and Dan being a tuna lover, ordered a salad with ahi tuna.  Before he did, he stressed to the waitress that he wanted to make sure that it was fresh - meaning purchased that same day because if it wasn't, he didn't want to risk it.  She checked with the kitchen and came back to the table with a "YES"

Sure enough,his meal comes and he takes one bite and spits the tuna back into his napkin.  Something he never does.  Knowing how I am, he immediately glanced at me and said "Don't say anything".

How about you... what would you do?  Why do we always "not say anything".  Is it that we have been raised to be polite and not eating a prepared meal would be considered rude?  or perhaps it is just easier to not eat and pay for it rather than deal with the process of issuing a complaint?

I don't think it is fair for a consumer to have to pay for something that they specifically requested and the restaurant made the mistake, they lied.  Having my own retail location serving the public, I am almost confident that there was no manager on staff during out lunch and the kitchen took the easy way out.

Although Dan couldn't say anything, when the waitress came back to the table and noticed that his dish wasn't touched and we were sharing my plate so he could have something to eat, she should have cared enough to ask the question "was something wrong". 

When she didn't, I couldn't help myself and handed her the dish and told her that her fish is bad and she should let the kitchen know.  She said "Sorry" and handed us our full check.

They charged us for the two meals and didn't offer us anything more than a "sorry".

Unfortunately it wasn't enough.

Review: Mortons Steakhouse, King of Prussia, PA

It was an important day.  We were meeting a friend of ours who happens to be a priest for dinner.  He wanted us to meet with a couple who are starting their own catholic school and are looking to build their network.   We agreed to meet at the Cheesecake Factory at 7:00 pm but on our way to dinner got that normal Saturday night call, there is a 2 hour wait…..

 

The Background

Being a VIP member of Mortons, we quickly got on the batphone and placed our VIP call.  “Yes, of course we can take you right away” .  We were immediately excited.  Our friend doesn’t get to eat out at places like Mortons often and was already expressing how uncomfortable he is in a place like this.  On a Priest’s income, we were more than happy to pick up the tab and were happy to share this experience.  It became even more exciting when the couple whom we were meeting mentioned that they have never been to Mortons and were inquiring what it is like compared to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  This was my opportunity to promote my expertise as I shared my experiences that Mortons customer service was second to none. “ They just have this way of making you feel like royalty”, I believe my exact words were.  I shared with them how they took our coats to hang them up and continued to check up on us as we waited in the bar.  The expectations were set and the entire group was excited.

 

As we were walked us to our table, I noticed out guest had their coats and requested to the gentlemen that he should take them.  Even though he clearly heard me, he proceeded with his task of showing us to our tables.  Our guest hung their coats on their chairs behind them. (Customer Service Issue # 1)  We were seated at 7:00 pm and ordered our drinks.

 

Our waitress stopped by, introduced herself quickly and asked if we have all been here before.  When the response was no, she proceeded to get the “cart” for the presentation and expressed that she would be doing the “condensed version”. (Customer Service Issue # 2)

 

During her presentation, she held up beautiful cuts of meats and explained the process and preceded to hand out menus.  She left us for awhile and when she came back, she took our dinner order.  We each ordered from the menu and our family style side dishes.  Our friend ordered the Prime Rib, only to be told that “we are out of Prime Rib, if you want that, you need to come early, we sell out of that in under an hour” (Customer Service Issue # 3).  My friend didn’t know how to respond, I am sure he was thinking, this is Mortons Steakhouse and they don’t have enough Prime Rib ever and they know about it?

 

Our evening went on and it was 8:15 when our waitress finally came back to ask if we needed other drinks… 1 ½ later??? (Customer Service Issue #4).  Luckily, our guest were water drinkers.

 

Our food came out starting with the appetizers, we ordered 3 orders of wrapped scallops for the table and an individual order of Crab cocktail for one of our guest.  We were surprised when 3 orders of shrimp were delivered instead and were so hungry, we just accepted them and didn’t mention it. (Customer Service Issue # 5)

 

Our main orders came to the table, cooked wonderfully with the two versions of mash potatoes, asparagus and mushrooms.  We were missing the creamed spinach and it took about 5 minutes into the meal before someone remembered (Customer Service Issue # 6)   We brought it to the waitresses attention who ran back to the kitchen to quickly gather up some creamed spinach.

 

As you can see, there were a number of issues with how we were treated  and how our expectations were not met.  We have been to Mortons a number of times and traditionally rave about their service, but this is the second occasion in a short period of time, that we have experienced not bad service, but not great service.  For $ 700, I would expect an exceptional experience.

 

Now readers, the best part of the story is about to come….. when the staff was clearing the table, one of the staff picked up a large steak knife and held it in his hand on the handle with the blade sticking out.  With that same hand (Yes the knife is in it and the blade is pointing out), proceeded to reach for the table to pick something else up off the table missing my guests head by a fraction of a second (Major issue #7).  If she would have moved slightly she would have been sliced…..

 

So on this visit, Mortons did give us something to remember, unfortunately it was inconsistent service,  a steakhouse that knows it doesn’t have enough meat and blade wheeling staff…….    The food was great, but the experience was less than desirable.