Some eggs are gold

“Do you serve any eggs?” my buddy asked

Were they even serving food I wondered at this stage? It was 3:30 in the afternoon but he was starving and needed something before he hopped in the car to drive to Dublin.

I had recommended the place so I hoped he would be looked after.

The waitress in the bar/restaurant assured us that the kitchen was still open and handed us the menu.

“We can’t do eggs, you can only order from the menu” she explained.

Oh no I thought – here was a golden opportunity for the outlet to shine, go on grab it.

My buddy glanced through the menu and I reckon for dietary reasons he didn’t want to order anything that was on offer.

I suggested that he ordered a steak sandwich – he didn’t want the fries that came with it so he asked could he get the steak sandwich with an egg?

“No sorry, you can only order what’s on the menu” she emphasised again.

Hmmm, the place was really quiet. There was a chef on duty – how difficult could it be to put on an egg to go with the steak?

It was clear that there was no flexibility so the steak sandwich was ordered. It duly arrived with the chips that he didn’t want, which he pushed towards me to eat – they were really tasty and he scoffed down his steak sambo.

What was so difficult about doing an egg?

– were there no eggs in the kitchen?

– is the chef only able to make what’s on the menu?

– is there no button on the till to handle a deviation from the menu?

– was any deviation just too much for the staff to handle?

– could the team that were working that day just not care

– was there a fear that if you actually gave the customer what they wanted, they could be asking for anything next??!!

Whatever the motivation for the lack of flexibility the result was really poor for the outlet.

My buddy won’t be back there and while I like the place I won’t be back there in a hurry either as my recommendation left me a little red faced.

A simple egg and the outlet would have had two happy customers.

That was a very costly egg…

Are you rigid with your product and service offering to the extent that it is costing you customers?

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full-service agency that offers Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

Tags: Cork, Dublin, Fuzion Communications, Graphic Design, Greg Canty, Marketing, PR

This entry was posted on July 11, 2017 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Customer Care, Hospitality, Marketing, Positivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Some eggs are gold”

Aidan Kelly Says:
July 11, 2017 at 1:43 pm | Reply
I can guarantee if that business was run and operated by the owner, he would have got the eggs, sunny side up!! Maybe he should come to Tralee, we can recommend a few places, just saying!!
- Greg Canty Says:
  July 11, 2017 at 1:53 pm | Reply
  It was embarrassing I’ll be honest – my buddy is so good he still left a tip!! Greg

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