Customer Service Best Practice: Case Study: The Macaroni Grill

While recently dining at "Macaroni Grill" one of my favorite chain restaurants for not only great food, but a fun atmosphere and attentive staff, I found one more reason to give this restaurant top marks in Customer Service. 

"Eye Glasses" carefully lined up on the front counter, to facilitate menu reading of anyone over the age of 30.   A small courtesy so we don't have to go digging for our spectacles.  I realized how this small touch made a difference,  when I later  arrived at my hotel room that night  and received a map of buildings and room numbers.  Trust me, the type was so small,  only Superman with his X Ray vision could have seen it.  The result was irritation that I could not find my room and having to return to the front desk for help.  I advised the manager that while I usually charge for the advice, this one was on the house to help future guests.  Simply increase the font side!  Nothing worse than a woman traveling alone, struggling to find her room in the dark.  Oh yes, the signs for room numbers on the buildings was equally small.   Think small courtesies, Not Small Print.

Customer Service is designed to make things easier for us!  In fact a key component of improving customer service is the ability to look for pain and solve that pain.  One customer pain in every industry is "Wait Time" Take the Pain out of Wait Time! Macaroni Grill know this.  When they put you on a telephone hold for example, they teach you Italian.  They also bring the best homemade bread with olive oil to your table, so the wait time is actually a decadent indulgence.  Look at every place a customer waits and find ways to entertain them and take the pain out of wait time.  Bring out samples, provide Internet access for checking e.mail.  I have one client in which customers are now begging to be put back on telephone hold.  They simply added a jeopardy game and customers are saying "wait, put me back on hold.  I know the answer".

Provide a fun and entertaining environment and hire people with personality!  The servers at Macaroni Grill are amazing because the management follows a best practice of "hiring for attitude and training for skill".  Yes, the waiters at MG will sing Happy Birthday in Opera and they have great social skills!  It's evident as they  put a big bottle of wine on your table and with their crayons, artfully sign their name on your table,  explaining the customer  honor system for marking how many glasses you drink.     Unless you are running a mortuary, improve your customer service by creating an environment that is "alive" and well, frankly "fun".  Ask yourself, how do I feel when I walk in here? Am I in a better mood as I leave than when I arrived?   

Congrats Macaroni Grill for your continuing "Wow" Customer Service.