Valentine’s Day. My Honey and Me. Oh boy …
Every restaurant owner fears the big day failure. I know, I work with restaurant owners. Sometimes the coupon response is just bigger than expected. Sometimes patrons hang longer than expected. It happens.
The real test is – how does management handle a failure. Not so well on February 14, 2012 at The Tavern. A couple of ideas:
1. If reservations are 1 1/2 hours behind, call your customers and let them know. Manage expectations.
2. If seated guests are waiting 2 hours for their food, offer something as a gesture (comp a glass of wine, an appetizer, etc). Nothing happened at the Tavern this night.
3. For crying out loud, if customers are lined up at the hostess stand with complaints, make sure the manager is addressing problems, not clearing and wiping tables.
My Honey deserves better on Valentine’s Day. We never did get food.
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