Posts Tagged ‘cheesecake factory’
Cheesecake Factory at the Austin Arboretum – the Alex and Amy show!
It seems I have quite a few restaurant postings here. No, we don’t eat out that often, but service interactions are at the forefront of most restaurant interactions, so they strike me often as topics.
Last night was “Date Night.” A couple days ago, the family had a discussion about “comfort food.” My bride brought up the Cheesecake Factory “Chicken and Biscuits” entree… mmmmm… that one is a Date Night favorite for us. The portions are huge, so we usually split one and then get a dessert. The service in our local Cheesecake Factory is most often cordial and effective, but rarely outstanding. That changed last night.
When we were seated, our server Alex came and gave us the standard scripted spiel. He had another server with him, and we asked if it was a training day. It was, and Amy was his trainee. it was her first night on the floor after a week of classroom training. As one who has had a career in Learning & Development, I was impressed to learn that Cheesecake Factory had a week of classroom training, and a 300 question knowledge assessment… but some things, I’ve learned, are not trainable, they just “are.”
Amy served us for the most part, with Alex hanging out observing. She did a great job. My water glass was never empty, which for me is a measure of server attentiveness. At one point we were joking with the two of them, and said that “Alex and Amy” sounded like stage names, or a TV show… My wife jokingly asked when they were going to break in to song, and we bantered through the meal about when the show would begin. Our “sharing plates” were delivered in advance and not in hindsight (which is unusual for us) and every interaction with either or both of them was pleasant. The service was impeccable. Much better than our last date night the week prior at Chez Zee in Austin that had mediocre service at best (which, by the way, was par for that whole meal.)
The food was great, as usual and as expected. The service is what really set this meal apart.
Near the end of the meal, my wife asked about “the song” and Alex told her – “we don’t have a song, but we DID write you a poem!” He then proceeded to read a nifty little poem about teaching Amy, having fun and serving us. It totally capped the meal and service experience, and it did SO many other things. I wish I could get it and post it here. Alex, if you ever read this and still have it…
Alex showed Amy that having fun with customers is ok, even acceptable. I’ve trained trainers for years and would hire him to train in one of my own organizations. He led by example, and also gently allowed Amy to do her job, albeit still only her first day in the “real” world. Amy shined as well, being very honest and personable, chatting with us about whatever we asked openly and candidly. They got the order right, gave us suggestions, and didn’t make any strange judgments about us sharing – not always the case, by the way. Of course, I have no idea how a single human could eat that much food… but that is another posting.
The lesson here? Personality. Friendliness. Open honesty. We knew there was training going on, but the personalities and genuine caring shown us as the customers could have made up for a thousand errors (of which there were none.) You can’t train people how to be friendly or nice. You can hire to it or performance manage it when it slides, but if you start with an Amy being trained by an Alex, we all win.
Thanks Alex and Amy. You made our evening with your service.
Tags: cheesecake factory, Service Experiences, table service, training