Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

The conversation was as juicy as the food was delicious. The service was terrific too. Which is really the point of all this. Our server was pleasant, polite, and informative. She check up on us with a frequency that was attentive without being intrusive, gave us an update when there was a slight delay with our meal, and actually stuck around to hear the answer when she stopped by to see whether the food was to our satisfaction and if we needed anything else.

While this might seem like This Is How It Should Be (and I certainly agree with that), it was a New York City restaurant in the heart of midtown at lunchtime – so smiling service might not be on the menu.

When the check arrived it came with two comment cards, encouraging our feedback. The thing that bothered me about it, though, was that the only way to give your feedback was to give the card back to the server. Yes, I could walk up and hand it to the host; but perhaps I would like to have mailed it in? There was no address (or email address if I preferred to communicate that way). In fact, the name of the restaurant wasn’t even printed on the card (odd to me because the company that owns this restaurant owns several other different establishments).

The fact is, if I was to have given negative feedback (I didn’t, the food and service were terrific) and drop that card back in with the check, what’s to stop the server from tossing it in the trash? If this restaurant, or any other establishment, really wants feedback – good or bad – it should make it easy and comfortable to give it.

In this particular case, I think the comment card was really more of a way to get satisfied customers to opt in to the company’s email list than to actually solicit feedback, which is a whole other issue in itself…