Now, onto the meat and potatoes of this post...
As you are aware of from my previous blog post, I mentioned my unfortunate circumstance I had at the Chili's restaurant on Monday, December 12th 2011 (posting was on Dec. 15th). If you didn't read the previous post, read it now then scroll back up here. I'll wait.....
Back? Good! Let's get started!
I have posted the previous blog update onto my Twitter account so @Chili's themselves can review it and maybe, just maybe, make an unfortunate wrong into a right.
Barely a day letter, I got this surprising direct message on my Twitter account:
I was pretty impressed they got back to me in such a timely manner! I sent them a response back...
About five days later, I got an email response: (Black boxes to hide last names and such for obvious reasons. I am very serious when it comes to the protection of others privacy.)
I sent this response back:
So, as you can see in the above email response, I gave my reasoning as to why I just had to do what I had to do.
After I sent that message, I assumed they were going to send me a gift card or something similar just to compensate for the "Triple Dipper" (TD) appetizer I did not feel obligated to pay for as I mentioned in the previous blog post. The TD was $10.59 so I figured I'd get a gift card for $10 which was fine with me. Boy, was I wrong!
Ten days later, I received this letter in the mail:
In the folded letter were these:
Not only did I get the $10 I believe they were obliged to send to make right what was wrong but, as you can see from above, I got TWO certificates, totaling $20, which covers close to 100% of the bill that night!
Even though we can't travel back in time to make wrongs into rights (or can we? Maybe there are time travelers around us but "they" are not revealing the truth to it yet.), I like to go out of my way to fix any wrongs I did with someone, professionally in my computer business and, especially, personally in my life. Unfortunately there are companies and people out there who could give a damn which doesn't make this world a pretty place to live in as we all know. There are also people out there who become belligerent and lash out because a mistake was made by a company or person they had no control over at the time. I'm glad Chili's went out of their way and went beyond what they needed to to satisfy their customer (myself).
Because of Chili's quick response to a dissatisfied customer's blog post, timely email responses, and MORE THAN a reimbursement for a meal the customer didn't feel obligated to pay for, I'd like to say their customer service is top notch in my book and will recommend this restaurant to anyone because if something does go mistakenly wrong (even though it was a douchebag customer behind me who acted like a fool!), Chili's will do more than they can to make you satisfied and keep you coming back for more excellent food and service. Unless the customer is a belligerent douchebag, don't expect anything good in return because your crappy personality towards life deserves nothing but crappy service! Unfortunately, though, being in retail for over eight years, I still had to give superb service to super crappy customers and most companies such as Chili's are obligated to do the same and I feel their pain which is I why I am my own companies boss and I don't have to be obligated to feel that pain as much anymore. ;-)
I'd like to thank the people behind @Chilli's on twitter. I highly recommend you follow them if you have an account. I'd also like to thank Amanda from Guest Relations and last but not least, Julee, the Guest Relations Manager for their sensational response in the matter of which preceded this blog post!! I'll be heading back again soon for a great dining experience!! I'm sure, after reading this, others will do the same if they haven't done so already!
To the others reading this out there, make it your New Years resolution to speak your mind when you feel something went wrong. If you don't feel comfortable at the time to speak your mind (I'm that way myself, although, depending if the situation isn't that bad, I resort to some goofy sarcasm as shown in the previous blog post.), resort to a blog or, if you want to go old school, write a letter about your experience and send it through email, snail mail it (it's not going away anytime soon no matter what is being said.), or, just drop the letter back to the location and tell an employee to hand it to the manager/owner of the establishment. If you don't speak your mind about these unfortunate circumstances we all face in life, how do you expect them to be prevented in the future? If it was too horrible of a circumstance for you to not want to go back at all, AT LEAST still let them know what went on so the same thing doesn't happen to others so you're not a selfish and inconsiderate bastard.
On that note, thanks to all of you who came across and read my blog and I hope this post taught you a valuable lesson today. After all, that's the purpose of my blog; to give people some ammunition they need to get through the bullshit in life we all face once in a while. Your mileage may vary with my advice on here but where else can you go to find out how to get through interesting conundrums such as mine? ;-)
Until next time,
Justin Rocque
