My husband treated me to dinner at Flemings Restaurant for my birthday. We don’t eat out at expensive restaurants very often but on special occasions we splurge, make a night of it and enjoy letting others wait on us. Our meal at Flemings was an experience with a lot of attention to detail. From the moment we walked in the door until we got in our car and left, we felt like we were special.
Because we eat a nice meal out a few times a year, we have been exposed to several nice restaurants. More times than not, it is a positive experience, the food is good, the atmosphere is nice, the servers are competent and professional but those are things that I’ve grown to expect at expensive restaurants.
I know expensive is relative and really depends on your dining out exposure. However, for us, an expensive restaurant is one that we expect to spend $100 plus for a meal. Now having said that, when we go out “nice” we splurge and get an appetizer, salad, full meal and dessert which is why we budget $100 plus for the occasion. We look at it like we are investing in a memory.
So if all nice restaurants meet our expectation, why would I take the time to write about our Flemings experience? The reason would be that the experience was so unusual that it really made an impression on me. Because of that I wanted to do two things, 1. Give others a heads up on a great place to go for that special occasion, and 2. Provide some good customer service tips for TTSB readers.
10 Things Flemings Did to Make our Experience Special
1. The hostess addressed us by name upon our arrival;
2. The waiter wished me a happy birthday when we were seated at our table;
3. The bus boy was pleasant, attentive but not obtrusive;
4. The restrooms were neat, clean and very inviting;
5. We were offered complimentary Champaign to celebrate the occasion;
6. The food was hot (not just warm) and came out the exact way we ordered it;
7. The waiter was helpful explaining the menu and had the presence of mind to know when to offer his assistance and when to let us enjoy our conversation.
8. The waiter checked on us the moment the food came out to be sure it was prepared to our satisfaction.
9. The restaurant manager was present and it was very evident that the ‘boss’ was around.
10. The waiter gave me a birthday card signed by the entire staff at our departure.
I don’t know anything about the management structure at Flemings, and I do know it is a chain restaurant, but someone, somewhere understands the value of performance management, customer service and successful small business management skills.
I’ve eaten at many nice restaurants, with my husband and on business trips, but Flemings is set apart in their food quality, pleasant atmosphere and customer service. We invested in a memory and this investment paid off. Thank you Flemings!
