Simple Customer Service @ Mars Cafe

john t unger @ mars cafe
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

split plate
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

John T Unger (friend, blogger, uber-artist and global microbrand) was in the Bay Area this week, and we decided to head over to Mars for a bite and a beer. After shooting the breeze for a while, we both ordered the same thing (french dip, fries) from our outstanding server Kelly and went back to the conversation.

A few minutes later, Kelly returns to the table, two plates in hand, confident-yet-sheepish.

“Hi. I screwed up…I only put in one order. So what I did was I split it, and also put the second order in on a rush. It’ll be up in just a minute.”

Now, think about this. The two “default” things to do would have been to either:

• Hold the first order until the second was up, and pretend nothing went wrong.
  • Upside: Appearance to the customer that all is well in the world
  • Downside: One customer gets a great meal, the other one is cold

• Bring out one order
  • Upside: It gets the first meal to the table
  • Downside: The meal sits there and gets cold, since anyone in polite society would wait until his or her dining companion was also served

What happened here, however, was not either of those things. This was a case where the person who was serving the customer had the latitude to do something that is out of the ordinary in order to solve a problem. And did.

Well done! (And the food’s good, too.)