My complaint:
Today, April 4th (Easter Sunday) walked into your store location at about 3pm. Upon entering with my family (party of 4), the Hostess greeted us in an unfriendly manner as if she did not want to be working. After taking my name, she told us the wait would be about 15-20 minutes. As we were waiting on the bench 5 feet away from the Hostess stand, we noticed the section behind us closed and then noticed a second section closed as well. No problem with us waiting at all but then noticed a young couple walk into the restaurtant, point to a table and sit down right away. It caught my attention but I remained quiet thinking maybe they called ahead. After another 10 minutes noticed a family come into restaurant and were told about a 20 minute wait. After a few moments, the man in the family whispered something into the Hostess ears and he walked to sit down at a table. I mentioned to the Hostess how can 2 parties come into Chilis and sit down before us. She mentioned the bar section was sit at your own discretion. Hearng this I was taken back. Why did she not mention it to us or offer us this option? She did not apologize and responded in a cold way to my question. I requested a manager to share our experience. After a few minutes the Hostess comes out to offer us a table which I found very interesting since she was in the back of the store and no customers had walked out at that moment to have a table available. The manager Ivan came out to inquire what happened. We shared our experience and he defended his Hostess. As we shared our experience with Ivan, the Hostess behind our backs was making gestures. Is this how Chilis treats its customers? The company spends millions of dollars promoting the restaurant for a hostess with a bad attitude to ruin your company image. When I mentioned to her that I would post a negative customer service experience to Chilis HQ, she replied, have fun doing so. So you also know, there was a family of 7 or 8 that arrived before us that was also complaining and very upset. When they complained to the hostess and to Ivan, the hostess snapped at them in her rude manner. After being treated so rudely, we deciced to go across the street to Outback. The other family also decided to leave to go elsewhere to dine. I spent $100 at your competitiors business but more costly is the image of how Chilis treats their customers . Do we return again to a Chilis, not sure. I am sure the other family is feeling the same as we do. By the way, the Hostess never smiled as any customers walked into the store, was on her personal cell phone at times and overall very rude. Is this the Chilis way of the first person that greets customer has this type of behavior?
BTW, I very, very rarely ever complain about service but being treated so rudely and unfair I thought it was my duty to share our experience especially since I have been in the customer service business as a Director for over 30 years. This is what hurts businesses in a competitive world. I truly hope Chilis cares about its customers by taking action to cure situation like this. Please remember that a happy customer mentions their positive experience to maybe 3-5 people but an unhappy customers mentions their negative experience to 12-15 people.
Suggested solution:
This is a decion for your company to make if Customer's satisfaction is important to you.
