Our family went out to dinner the other night to celebrate our son Ian’s 16^th birthday.  He had chosen the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs.  (Compare this to the choices his siblings made this past year, California Pizza Kitchen and Johnny Carino’s) We showed up a bit early for our reservation but they got us right in and seated. We had informed them that it was Ian’s birthday and they had offered, for a mere ten dollars, to take a picture and give it to us in a commemorative frame, we said, “sure, why not.”

Our waiter was a decent enough fellow just finishing his premed degree, who welcomed Ian by name, wished him a happy 16^th birthday, gave him a birthday card signed by the staff, and deftly explained the menu options. After all three of the kids choked back whispered shock at the prices we settled in to the routine of a meal out which, at the Melting Pot, consists of four courses: cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and chocolate fondue.

The first bump in the road came when our waiter, who shall remain nameless, only brought four instead of five plates with the cheese course. He apologetically ran off to get another plate. After he got the table sorted he asked if we thought we might need more of any of the dipping items: bread, veggies, fruit etc. and we told him we’d definitely need more bread. This turned out to be bump two since his, “Bread, gotcha.” turned out to mean, “I’m not bringing any more of anything.”

Bump three hit when we had to sit through the entire course panting into empty glasses awaiting refills. When the very pleasant bus person came to help clear the first course she also welcomed Ian by name and wished him a happy sixteenth birthday.

Bump four came with the wrong number of plates again on the third course. (We must have confused him when only four of us had salads on the second course.) Bump five was another parched twenty minutes between refills, during which time the manager came by, wished Ian a happy 16^th birthday, by name, and said he’d be back to take our picture when they brought out the chocolate course, apologizing for our empty glasses as he dashed off. He must have said something because another server came by to refill our glasses and guess what. She wished Ian a happy 16th birthday! By name!

Bump six, we took our own picture so the candle wouldn’t melt ALL the way down AFTER it had caught the stem of the maraschino cherry on fire, bump seven, they finally got around to taking their picture when we were clearing the plates…but the person who came to take the picture DID wish Ian a happy 16^th birthday, by name!  And bump eight, the final jolt, came when they forgot to bring back the printed version of the picture they’d taken. We had to ask for it on the way out. The person who tracked it down smiled as she put it in the frame and wished Ian a happy 16^th birthday, by name.

At the end of the experience, which my son Nathan pointed out lasted three hours, we felt like we had had some really good food, and some of the worst service we’d had in a long time.

Moral of the story:

You can add all the little niceties you want but if you don’t cover the basics the niceties just seem cheesy. Pun intended. If you want satisfied customers, who can later become Disciples, you MUST cover the basics.

When you serve your customers are you putting more effort into the “nice to have’s” or are you making certain that you provide solid service on the “must have’s”?