Guest Bogger #3 - Dave (MN) M.

I have received a request from frequent commentor and ex-CHECK employee Dave M. to be the the next Guest Blogger on What Jeff Thinks. It turns out that Dave M. had a rather poor experience at a Minneapolis restaurant, Rossi's, and would like to share the experience! This is a good example of telling 2 people about a good experience, 10 about a bad experience, and blogging about a "really bad" experience. Here is Dave M's "Less than CHECK-like experience:

Hello What Jeff Thinks readers. I am dave m, a sometimes commentator on this blog. I am the one from Eagan, not the other real dave m from some other parts unknown to me. I have asked Jeff for the opportunity to guest blog for you today as a service to any of you who might have disposable income and utilize it for dining. Below is a chain of three letters that I have exchanged with the Manager at Rossi’s Steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis. The letters do tell almost all of the story, but a little more background should be helpful to you.

First and foremost, we are not really all that rich, but we are also not cheap when we eat. My friends have cabins, boats, cool cars and go on expensive vacations. We use our disposable income on concert tickets and expensive meals. We love good wine with a good dinner and are willing to pay for it. Even more, we like it better when our employers are willing to pay for it instead.

Rossi’s may be one of the most expensive restaurants in town….see here. Yes, that Filet Mignon starts at $39. Note also that $72.50 steak as well, like $72 wouldn’t have been enough.

http://rossis2.users18.edigita.com/uploads/Menus/08-02-18Steakhouse.pdf

Rossi’s also has a happy hour menu in which actual items from that menu above are sold for 3/5/7, meaning three bucks, five bucks and seven bucks. Notice the difference. Now you have the background, here is what happened taken verbatim from my letter I wrote that night when I got home with that wine and that beer already in me, and another glass of wine in front of me.

How five words can cost you thousands of dollars.
I am writing this message to let you know about my experience at Rossi's tonight.
Today I went to your establishment for the third time ever, all in the past few months. The first time I went there as a guest of one of my vendors and had a very nice steak dinner. The second time was in your Blue Star room, during happy hour where I had a very economical meal before a show in downtown Minneapolis and was very impressed by the food, atmosphere and the prices. So impressed that I told my wife that this would be a great place to add to our list of restaurants given my experiences there.
This evening (Sunday, June 8) my wife and I got in the car with every intention of driving to Pazzaluna in St. Paul (from Eagan). On the way I said, "We should go to Rossi's. They have a great happy hour deal and I can't believe that they would be that busy on a Sunday." We changed course and headed to your restaurant. I honestly thought it might be nice to spend a little less for dinner on a Sunday.

We arrived to see the large bar was not open, but were seated in the Tavern. We received our menus and nobody made mention of the 3/5/7 menu that I thought you were offering. I figured that, even though there were signs on the table indicating it was on, that perhaps you had discontinued it, but didn't want to make a big deal out of it or sound cheap, so we had a great meal off of the regular menu. I need to let you know that I am happy to spend a good amount of money on a nice meal. We were not tremendously hungry tonight so we really didn't plan on 40 and 50 dollar steaks as an option.

After we were presented the bill, a group of people came in and we overheard the waitperson happily explaining the 3/5/7 menu to them when no person even bothered to bring up this option to us. I asked the person who appeared to be the main host why we were not told this was an option and she said "Why would I do that?" (those are the 5 words. I said something like, "So that your customers can make informed decisions". I explained that we were aware of it, but assumed things had changed and she offered an apology but made it plainly obvious that this was a financial decision that drove this as opposed to anything else. Basically what I heard was, "Why would I want you to know that you can spend less money here?"
For the record, we had 3 glasses of wine, one beer, a salad and two entrees (mussels and a pork chop). Given that we may have actually gotten one 3 dollar appetizer instead of the salad and perhaps two 7 dollar entrees, you probably milked me for maybe 18 dollars more than I would have spent at most. Who knows, maybe we might have bought dessert or had another drink. But at most we spent 18 dollars more.

Anyway, my wife is a bit miffed. You need to understand that she is a Sales Manager for a large local company and currently has three sales representatives that encompass downtown Minneapolis. All of their clients are local professionals and typical courtship with clients always includes spending large amounts of money at expensive restaurants for lunch and/or dinner. She has now made it her mission to not sign off on any expense reports that show Rossi's on the tab.

I wish I was kidding. You had a huge chance tonight to earn an important believer, but your decision to treat us poorly may have cost you considerable future business.
I realize that times are tough right now, but I also know that the survivors are going to be the ones who treat their customers with the respect that they deserve. I hope that my message to you here at least gives you one perspective.

Keep in mind, we had a very nice time tonight and had perfect service from our waiter, that is not an issue. It is too bad that this message will be the only time my wife or I bring that up to anyone we talk to. Unfortunately, they are going to hear about the comments that were made to us. I sincerely hope that you will take into account my perception about this evening and maybe you will treat another customer better in the future as a result of this message.

Respectfully,
Dave Matschina

Now I know what you are thinking, does this guy really have that much time on his hands? Unfortunately the answer is yes. I should have mentioned that I used to own 3 restaurants, so I have a bit of a stronger opinion of these types of things. With that said, I rarely complain, but that comment was so biting and rude, I had to get it off of my chest. Two weeks later, I get this response:

Mr. M, I want to apologize for the delay in getting back to you - I was out of town last week and I wanted to investigate before giving a response. First, I would like to say that I am sorry you were disappointed with your evening at Rossi's on Sunday, June 8th. I was quite taken aback when I read how the host had answered you. I couldn't imagine which host would respond in this way and I was even more surprised when I found out that it was Melissa.Upon confirmation that she recalled the interaction, I told Melissa that I had received a letter from you, but I did not reveal the letter's contents. I asked her why she responded to your question with "why would I do that?" She told me that she posed the question "why would I do that" with the intent to make a joke, as she frequently banters with guests. She wasn't sure how to respond when you didn't pick up on her intended humor and she became a bit flustered by your serious demeanor.

It was at that point that she continued her explanation with what she thought would make sense based off of your previous dialogue. Customer service can be tricky when dealing with so many different personalities. One must be able to read people and it often relies heavily on improvisation. It unfortunately appears that, in this instance, Melissa did not succeed in relating to a guest or in properly conveying Rossi's principles. She did end our conversation by saying "When you write back to them please make sure that your letter is very nice. I really feel badly at how upset they looked, hey, I would be too if I just spent money unnecessarily."

So after reading that last sentence, I guess I thought that the manager was going to send me a very nice message…

You did not receive a happy hour menu when you were seated on Sunday night and there was not a financial motivate behind this. Happy hour menus are distributed Monday through Friday because the majority of guests at Rossi's between 4pm - 7pm are there for happy hour. This is not the case on Saturday and Sunday evening. You state in your letter that you were aware of Rossi's happy hour and this is why you chose to dine at Rossi's. You were seated at your table and you saw advertisements promoting happy hour at your table. Instead of asking your server about it, you assumed that happy hour had been discontinued. I fail to see how you could arrive at this assumption. I fail to see why you wouldn't just ask your server if happy hour was applicable. Consider the following scenario based on this logic:

Notice the italics on the word “assumed”. I think she just called me an ass.

A server approaches a gentleman at a table to take his beverage order. The gentleman sees the keg taps at the bar, but does not see any beer listed on his menu. Instead of asking his server for a beer list, the gentleman assumes that the bar no longer serves beer.

In other words, not only am going to give you a bull doody analogy, I am going to make you look stupid.

Rossi's has a steakhouse menu, blue star menu, wine list, happy hour menu, dessert menu, martini/specialty drink list, beer list, cognac list, and even a tobacco menu. It would be ridiculous to supply every guest with every menu we offer. I am sorry to reiterate this point, but I can't imagine why you didn't just ask your server, "Hey, do you have a happy hour menu?"

But you gave me the steakhouse menu, the wine menu the martini list and the beer list, but didn’t bother to let me know you have a hamburger available for 3 dollars? (for real, notice the $12.95 charge for the EXACT SAME hamburger on the regular menu that you did give me).

I must also say that I was taken aback by your unmannerly letter. If you had submitted the same letter without the spiteful retribution then perhaps the outcome could have been different. Perhaps the miscommunication between you and the host could have been laughed off. I would have sent you a gift certificate to apologize for this miscommunication and unnecessary animosity would cease to exist. Best Regards, (The Manager)

Unmannerly? Unmannerly? Are you also my Mom now? Unnecessary animosity? I think it is perfectly necessary. When did I ask for a gift card? I am supposed to laugh off the part where I just got the “opportunity” to pay 16 bucks for a pork chop that would have cost me 7 dollars if I would have asked for the menu? Shouldn’t have you just charged me 7 dollars for it anyway?

For the two or three of you that have actually gotten this far in the post, here is my response. I know that it looks like I am spending way too much time on this. That is because I have. Please know that I am doing this for your benefit. Do not tolerate service like this, What Jeff Thinks readers. You will be better for it.

Dear (Manager), Thank you for the response. I can accept that your host was attempting humor and we both missed the intent. Perhaps it is her that should be upset to have been put into that situation. One key element to quality customer service is the ability to anticipate customer issues before they occur and put in place resolution before the issue occurs. By making the business decision to omit that particular menu upon greeting your customers, you certainly create the possibility that someone such as myself might gain the perception I brought up in my original message to you. I do not accept your analogy regarding the beer menu. Let me give you a better picture.

We arrived at your place coming home from a graduation party. We were dressed in shorts, sandals and casual shirts. I expected to enter a bar atmosphere and were promptly seated to a white linen table and met your expertly dressed waiter. Frankly speaking, I was a bit embarassed at my personal dress from the start, and didn't want to sound even cheaper by asking for the cheap menu. You may choose to infer from my comments that I generally am a bargain hunter. I am not. I could have asked for the menu, I chose not to. You seem to make fun of the fact that I made an assumption. A 3" by 3" table piece with a tiny 3/5/7 message could most certainly be overlooked, and consider the possibility that I may have figured it only available in the music bar, not the fancy one. I also struggle with your comment that it is not a financial motivation to withhold that particular menu from your customers. Of course you would not deliver a dessert menu at the beginning of the meal. I would however expect to either see all of my menu options or at least be asked if I would like to see any of the additional menus.

More so, I would certainly expect to be informed that you have a happy hour menu with some great specials. I can only ask you how you would feel if you had no knowledge of that menu, ordered a $16.50 pork chop only to find out that there was a $7.00 option that nobody told you about. This is in fact what I ordered, and another tenant of quality service might have been for the waiter to mention that when I ordered my item. I didn't actually see the menu, so I do not know if it was on there on that evening, but I do know it was there the one time I had been to your place during happy hour. I feel it unfortunate that you seem to take my comments in the latter half of my message to you as spiteful. I was merely letting you know how your staff made us feel based on a specific interaction and our perception of your business practices.

Your letter seems like I hurt your feelings. That was not my intent. My intent was to let you know that that maybe an underdressed couple that spent 70 dollars at your very nice restaurant on a Sunday night at 5:00 just might be as important as the guy trying to close a deal with his customer by utilizing his corporate Amex card. That is exactly who we could have been to you. In fact, if you would have ended your message to me after the first paragraph, perhaps we could actually still have been. Any "unnecessary animosity" has surely been created by you.

I can assure you that my message was to express my dissatisfaction and nothing more. 90% of your guests who do not have a good experience just don't come back. Feedback is something you should embrace, not something you should debate. I was sure not looking for a gift card. Read my message again. I was very complimentary about the service and the experience (though I do think that my spicy pork chop for seven bucks a few weeks ago might have been better prepared than the one I had that night). Your message back to me only seems to affirm my opinion of how you treat people. I realize that you will probably be just fine as a business without ever seeing me, my wife and all of the other people I am going to forward this message to (that is me being spiteful) ever enter your establishment. I think we will probably just have to choose to disagree with one another regarding my experience. Make sure to give me a wave when I am across the street at Manny's in a few months. Dave

For those of you not from around here, Manny’s is THE finest steakhouse in town, and they just announced that they are moving locations to right across the street from this clip joint. I am happy to buy a 55 dollar steak from them.

Thanks to Jeff for allowing my rant to grace his blog. Happy eating everyone, just don’t go to Rossi’s, tell your friends.