CUSTOMER CONFRONTATION

by Hank Trisler

Nick's on Main is a terrific little restaurant in Los Gatos, about 7 miles from me. I love the place and am especially fond of his meatloaf, which is without equal. Nick is a friendly and attentive owner and a master chef. I see him two or three times a week at my tennis club and always look forward to dining with him. That's why I was so surprised at recent events.

Barbara and I went to Nick's last week, anticipating our usual extremely gratifying experience.We were somewhat less than enthused. The Kobe Burger was well-done, rather than Medium-rare. It was still good, but not what we had expected. My Pulled Pork Sandwich was tasty, but oozed oil like an old Chevrolet.

Nick came out of the kitchen to see how we were enjoying out lunch, as is his custom. We told him it was just fine.

Damn. Why did we lie to him? We had just been bitching to each other and Nick comes out and we tell him everything is alright. We've asked ourselves that several times in the past few days and some answers have surfaced.

1. We didn't want to hurt his feelings. Chefs are notoriously touchy about their offerings and we didn't want to cause a scene.
    
2. We felt there was nothing to be gained. In the worst case he'd tell us to go to hell and find someplace else to eat. We knew better than that about Nick. In the best case, he'd offer to take back the food or credit us for the check. We didn't want either of those, as we'd already eaten most of the food and don't want a credit on the bill for food we had eaten. There was really nothing at that point that Nick could do. 

So we took the coward's way out and smiled and left and then I wrote a less-than-favorable review in Yelp. Oh, it wasn't a bomb, I gave him three out of five stars, but it was not what he was accustomed to and it pissed him off.

This morning, in the locker room, he asked me why I had written a poor review when I had told him all was well. I felt like the time my father had caught me stealing nickels out of the Coke machine. I twisted my toe in the carpet and made a bunch of lame excuses and eventually simply apologized. He said he didn't want an apology, but that's all I could do.

We parted with neither of us feeling really good about the relationship.

It set me to wondering how many of my past customers felt less than pleased with my efforts on their behalf and yet said nothing because they were being polite and protecting my feelings? How can I improve if I don't get that feedback? What if I ask and they just lie to me, like I lied to Nick?

What about a third party, like Yelp, to provide feedback? That hadn't worked real well, either. Nick got the feedback and it pissed him off. I'll not be doing that soon again.

Could that be one of the lessons to be learned? That there is no such thing as bad feedback, no matter from whence it comes? That even if my feelings are hurt, I have to smile and thank the customer for an opportunity to improve my product/service?

What other lessons can you take away from this experience? 

Here's one. Go to Los Gatos and Nick's on Main. Order Nani's meatloaf. You'll never have flipped a lip over anything better.