New Year's Eve, Gerald and I decided we would keep it simple - visit friends in the afternoon, spend the evening at home with good food, and call family at midnight. We had recently visited a lovely sushi restaurant in our neighbourhood that offered free delivery. I called the afternoon of the 31st, just to confirm they were still delivering that night, which they were. Perfect! It's a new place without a website, so we decided we would drop by the restaurant on the way home from visiting our friends to pick up a takeout menu.
Around 5:30pm, excited by the prospect of California rolls and spicy tuna, we dropped by the restaurant. Parking was terrible, so I stayed in the car while Gerald ran in to get the menu, only to reappear seconds later, empty-handed.
"They don't have takeout menus," he said.
"What do you mean? They ran out?" I questioned.
"No, they actually don't have them."
"Well, how do they expect us to order food from home for delivery?"
"The waitress told me to look at the menu, memorize it, then go home and tell you what they have."
Seriously????
They offer delivery, but you actually have to visit the restaurant to look at a menu?
So here we were, New Year's Eve, with no plan for food.
On the way home, Gerald spotted another sushi restaurant on a side street. We pulled in, and Gerald went in to ask if they did delivery. They didn't, but they did takeout and had tables available, so we decided to eat there.
Long story short, we will never go to the first restaurant again. Not only were they unable to fulfill the delivery service they advertised, but the second restaurant had better food, better parking, comparable prices, and lovely takeout menus! And even though they don't deliver, the rest of the services were so much better that we would gladly drive a few minutes to pick up our order.
Lesson: Don't advertise a service until you are ready to fulfill that service for your customers! Not only will you disappoint your customers, but you may lose them to a competitor!
Isn't it always nice to start off the year a little bit smarter?
Happy New Year, everyone!
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