Motivation Mojo > Wine on the House

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Many times topnotch customer service is often thought of by today’s busy managers and harried owners as a nice benefit they offer their customers “whenever possible.” And this halfhearted philosophy always trickles down to those in the trenches, often leaving the customer with something quite the opposite of “service.”

That’s why, in the service industry, the onus is on the owner and top-level managers to set the gold standard of customer service for all others to follow. It’s really not that difficult once it becomes a good habit, but sometimes breakdowns occur and reparations need to be made. Often one simple act will save the day, and I experienced this recently at one of my favorite restaurants.

My wife Diane and I had arrived at Sullivan’s steakhouse in King of Prussia, PA, a little earlier than our 6:30 reservation. Although I’m fanatically prompt, I knew our dinner guest was even more so. We were meeting my good friend, Steve Stefano, who as Senior Vice-President of GlaxoSmithKline had hired me in the past to motivate his enthusiastic sales troops, and had recently scheduled me for a repeat performance in the near future. With his visit to Philadelphia, we decided that choice steaks and red wine would stimulate our creative juices in preparation for my next performance.

Following a front door greeting with warm smiles from the adorable hostesses, we were immediately escorted to our table. To my surprise there was a bottle of ’99 Mondavi Reserve cabernet poured into a beautiful decanter with three wine glasses resting on the table. I smiled at Steve and motioned with my hand as if to ask, Did you call ahead with a wine order? He instinctively shook his head no. I then thought we may have been seated at the wrong table.

Within a minute, one of Sullivan’s service-oriented managers, Rich Furino, appeared with a warm welcome. I hadn’t been in the restaurant for several months and didn’t realize that Rich had in the meantime been transferred to a Sullivan’s in Austin, Texas, as temporary general manager. He immediately explained that the bottle of wine was on him as an apology for a snafu that occurred five months earlier. I had no idea what he was talking about since I never had a bad meal or negative experience at the restaurant.

But Diane smiled, realizing what it was all about.

For my 50th birthday dinner, Diane had performed her expert rendition of a Sullivan’s feast for the family. But she wanted to surprise me with the real thing when it came to Sullivan’s homemade cheese cake—with the graham cracker crust—for the dessert course. So she ordered a humongous one from the restaurant. But since Sullivan’s doesn’t normally do take-out, the odd request turned out to be unusually expensive—which my wife acknowledged in light of Rich’s apology. She had paid the full amount at the time of purchase, even though she wondered silently why it was so expensive. Now it all made sense.

Rich revealed that he had intended to comp the cheese cake as a birthday gift, but instead, the restaurant mistakenly charged Diane. But they did not simply charge her for the cost of a full cheese cake—which is reasonable—but rather they rung up the dessert-menu price of eight individual slices of cheese cake. Rich had discovered the mistake shortly thereafter, but the refund slipped his mind when Sullivan’s soon shipped him onto a jet bound for Austin for the temporary stint.

Meanwhile, five months had passed and tonight was the first occasion that Rich and I were at the restaurant at the same time. Remembering what could have easily been forgotten, he felt happily obliged to check-off his mental to-do list an overdue apology. His gracious gesture and the humorous story left a pleasant taste in our collective mouths. -- PC