Regular readers know that I don’t normally resort to ranting about personal experiences. In fact I can only remember doing it once before, about a banking experience a few months ago. The same disclaimers apply more or less: the events I am about to describe did occur; my reporting of said events may be colored by my outrage; management is welcome — encouraged, in fact — to reply. When I have verified the origin of such a reply and the authority of the sender to make it, I will post it in an update to this post.
Saturday evening (June 16, 2007), I settled into a chair on the patio of one of what had been one of my favorite restaurants, Kona Grill. This little chain has about 15 locations in 10 states, and is traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker KONA. We liked this place so much, we have probably eaten there 3 times in the last 4 weeks. I have never had a bad meal there. I was looking forward to enjoying a glass of wine and some of their fabulous appetizers such as avocado egg rolls and tuna wasabi. Hey, it’s fusion cuisine, don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it!
We enjoyed some drinks. We had some appetizers. We had some very nice sushi. It was a lovely evening, sitting in 99 degree weather with the misters going.
After we ordered dessert (ok it was another appetizer) is when things got strange. Between songs on their stereo, the volume went up. It wasn’t just tweeked a little; it got quite a lot louder. This is something that has happened before, and in the past a nice word to one of the staff members was all it took to bring things back to a reasonable level. The volume control is right by the bar, so the bartender is the person in control of it. The bartender happened to open a window less than 10 feet away from us, so we took this as an opportunity to catch his eye.
Imagine our surprise to instead receive an obscene gesture.
I could hardly believe what I had just seen. However, before I could say anything my husband exclaimed that he had seen the same thing I had seen. Now I was mad. And I probably overreacted, shouting something to the effect of “Turn down that stereo and don’t you dare shoot us the bird!” I think our waitress must have been just coming out the door at the moment; my husband told her to get a manager right now. He showed up within 60 seconds, and that was the last thing the manager did right.
We explained what had happened to the young man in the light blue shirt and pink tie that claimed to be the manager (alas, no name tag, no corporate logo, and no name offered). There are many things he could have said at that moment. Things like “let me find out what happened and I’ll be right back,” or “I agree that’s totally unacceptable, sir,” or “I understand why you are unhappy sir,” not even “I’m terribly sorry, how can I make this up to you, sir?” Instead he explained that it’s policy to keep the music on the patio loud, and as for the bartender he said — and I quote — “What do you want me to do?”
My thoughts: be a manager; it’s your job. The manager gets to decide what to do, but he has to do something. Instead, all signs were that he was going to do nothing.
My husband said “What I want you to do is fire him, but I know that’s not going to happen. He’s going to deny he did it, and you need him pouring drinks on a Saturday.” The manager admitted that was so (causing me to wonder what a bind they would have been in if the bartender had called in sick). We don’t want money off our bill (it wasn’t offered); we don’t want empty apologies (not that any were forthcoming); we want this to never happen again. We are grown-ups and know that everybody gets mad at people sometimes. This bartender’s urge to insult could have been handled in his apron, under the bar, or several other places where customers did not have to see it, and we said so.
The manager continued to condescend to us as our dessert arrived, but by then neither of us particularly had an appetite. He left, and I don’t honestly remember whether the volume of the music ever went down or not. Shortly after, my husband saw a not-obscene but clearly hostile gesture towards him personally, an effort to goad us. Just the kind of guy a lady wants mixing her drinks.
Not long after, our waitress came by with the check, sat down with us at our table, and personally apologized for what had happened. She mentioned that she had talked to the bartender, who claimed the initial gesture had not been at us — as if that somehow made it acceptable. Ok, so he admits he made an obscene gesture where customers (and their children) could see it. Nice. And he gets to keep his job, in a town where guys are pushing one another under the bus to work a busy bar on a Saturday night.
For the record, we paid our bill in full, with a generous tip. Our receipt has a hand written note from our waitress, Tiffanie, reading “I’m very sorry! Thank you!” At least one person understands customer service. What a shame it isn’t the management.
*** Important Update June 18, 2007 *** Within 12 hours of posting this item, I received a comment from a man who identifies himself as the bartender. Please check it out for yourself. As much as I appreciate hearing from him, it is clear that the incident in question has filtered through management, inasmuch as it is highly unlikely that he was an established reader horrified to find himself my topic.
*** Update Two June 19, 2007 *** This morning I received a personal email from the District Manager. It appears to have been sent shortly after I went to bed last night; we all know that restaurateurs often work brutal hours. He expressed his regrets both at the events that occurred and management reaction to them. Furthermore, he expressed his intent to share this incident with the management team in an effort to improve customer experiences. On site management is still silent; corporate policy may be that once Head Office gets involved, they are to let it be handled from above. This is understandable, and almost certainly how I would want things done if I managed a multi-location business.
*** Update Three, later June 19, 2007 *** I have now also received an email of apology from the General Manager of the local Kona Grill (who outranks the fellow in the blue shirt from Saturday). He assures me that he has spoken both to the manager on duty about his action/inaction, and the bartender about his actions. Further more he tells me “appropriate corrective measures” are being taken, and my account of the incident is being shared with the entire staff “as a serious reminder that we cannot afford to fall short of expectations.” I must absolutely commend pretty much everybody except the shift manager Saturday for responding to customer complaints. According to the timestamp on this email, it was sent less than 24 hours after this post.
Mrs. Magnus,
Hello, my name is Matthew Winn and I am the bartender at Kona Grill that offended you and your husband. I would appreciate the opportunity to explain my actions to you, and hope you will give me the benefit of reading what I have to say and not dismissing me outright.
First of all I’d like to apologize for the gesture you witnessed. I would like to tell you most importantly that the gesture was not directed to you, your husband, or anyone in your party.
Before I attempt any more explanation I want you to know that this e-mail comes directly from me, I was not requested nor required to do this by Kona Grill management.
Now I’d like to try to give you an explanation for what you saw last Saturday. I have worked at Kona Grill Las Vegas for almost four years now, I was a member of the original opening staff. During this time I’ve come to know a large number of our clientele including many “regulars†that I see multiple times a week, and sometimes every day. What you witnessed was an exchange between one of these regulars and myself. During the course of several months this young lady and I have developed a joking rapport. She thinks it is hilariously funny when she greets me to “flip me the bird,†and we both laugh when I respond in kind. Immature, yes I agree, but part of my job is the development of relationships with regulars and this lady in particular seems to feel more comfortable when we can joke around in this manner.
I would like to reiterate that although it may have seemed that the obscene gesture was directed toward you; I cannot stress enough that it had absolutely nothing to do with you or anyone in your party.
I also would like you to know that I would have liked to apologize to you and your party immediately, and explain the situation, but since you were clearly upset the managers felt it was best I not make the attempt.
Unfortunately the entire event was not handled in a way that was satisfactory to you, and for that I also apologize.
I understand you may not believe me nor wish to forgive me. However I felt it important to make the attempt at explanation and apology, and I thank you for hearing out my perspective on the event. Please feel free to contact me if you feel I have been inadequate in my attempts.
Thank you again,
Matthew Winn
See, as the husband in this story, I was shocked at the bird appearing the in window seemingly directed at me. Most of all, though, I was stunned by the reaction of management. I don’t necessarily think firing is the proper response but leaving it up to the customer decide isn’t the right answer. What management did with all of this remains an open question and this is ultimately the failure here.
The indiscretion of the bartender is forgivable, and frankly, I’m still surprised that there wasn’t a total denial in an attempt to make the party on the patio look like a bunch of cranks. Admitting to the gesture was a much bigger step than I had expected. That counts for something.
The manager never returned to our table to explain or apologize. As of this moment, and ultimately I’m shocked but in a good way, the bartender himself has appeared in this forum to apologize. To me that local manager is much more the problem than anything else in this whole story. Asking, “What would you like me to do?” and then disappearing was just the wrong response.
Firstly, kudos to the bartender, if sincere, for apologizing to you for the “misunderstanding.” The lesson here: Even when going lengths to establish “rapport” with clientelle, clearly there are still parameters for public behavior which were overstepped.
As for the “What do you want me to do?” This is a fundamental management strategy. It slows the tirade of the irate “guest,” aloows them to put the incident in perspective, gives the manager time to think, and establishes a base line for negotiating a remedy.
Often times the customer will offer a solution that is satisfactory without costing the franchise any money. Venting and feeling “heard” is remedy enough in most cases. If the customer’s request is overboard, then management can offer the reasons why they can’t perform such and such (like fire a guy on a Saturday night over a possible miscommunication) and negotiate a less harsh or less profit losing solution; a ‘comp-ed’ tasty tuna wasabe or a ‘comp-ed’ meal.
Unfortunately, Mr. Blue shirt only took the first part of that class. Still, it seems as though many of the folks there went out of their way to get you back (into their store, not retaliate.) I only wonder if the veracity of their response owes to the weight of your readership?… ah I am just jaded..
Jukkou:
I think what you are getting at is that there is a huge difference between “I’m sorry sir, what can I do to make this up to you” and “Well, what do you want me to do”.
In any event, the email I received from the GM of that location tends to indicate that Mr. Blue Shirt has gotten the “part two” refresher he desperately needs.
The bar is a completetly different scene than a dining area. For someone to throw the bird, or say a vulgar word is not uncommon. Especially at Kona Grill. I, too frequent this popular hangout and am not surprised to see this behavior in the bar and on the patio area. I understand being upset if you thought it was toward you, but to call for a manager and make a scene about it is rediculous. Why not question the bartender himself and give him a chance to explain. If he had the balls to flip you off being only 10 feet from you, I’m sure he is the kind of person that will not hesitate telling you the truth. You sound like a drama queen that had nothing better to write about. If you don’t appreciate that kind of rapport, find yourself another place to party. Kona Grill is a fun, carefree, lax place that, frankly, could do without people like you. Let it go and find a hobbie aside from ripping on others just to have something to say!
If management agreed with you — that the patio is part of the bar — then there would be signs advising customers that younger than 21 are not welcome in the patio. You did notice my post was called “an evening on the patio” and not “a night at the bar”, right? As it is, the patio is part of the restaurant and not part of the bar. There were children at multiple tables around me, and no sign saying it is a bar.
Instead, both the General Manager *and* the District Manager agreed with me that Kona Grill is not the kind of place where it is acceptable for employees to make rude gestures where patrons can see.