Rachel and her husband had an underwhelming first anniversary dinner at the Longhorn steak house. The next day, she wrote to the corporate office to express her disappointment. The local restaurant’s manager quickly called to offer what Rachel thought was a complimentary apology dinner, but ended up being a whole lot more.
Rachel writes:
My husband and I really enjoy Longhorn Steakhouse, and we have a really good location near us. We don’t have a lot of money, so we don’t go very often. However, over the weekend we decided to go there to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. To make a long story short, the dinner was pretty bad, but not earth-shatteringly terrible.I was pretty disappointed with them, so the next day I e-mailed corporate to let them know about the experience. My letter was short and to the point; I identified myself as someone who has been a repeat customer many times in the past; and I did my best to describe everything factually. I did mention that we were celebrating our anniversary. I wasn’t expecting much; from my experience, most chain restaurants don’t really give a crap whether your experience was good, bad, or indifferent.
Two days after sending the e-mail, I received a call from the manager of my location. He apologized profusely for what had happened, and asked if my husband and I would come back in for a free dinner, to make up for the crappy one. I accepted and thanked him; we agreed on a time that would be good for us to come in. I thought it was awesome that the manager was taking our complaint seriously and really trying to make up for it, even though in my mind an entire dinner free was not necessary.
When we arrived at the restaurant, they had a special table prepared for us with confetti and candles. I was surprised and thought that was really sweet of them. If it had stopped there, I would still have been 110% pleased with the way they handled things. But while we were eating, the manager came to check on how our food was (it was absolutely excellent, by the way). While he was there, he gave us a Hallmark anniversary card and a gift card to the local movie theater. We were blown away that the restaurant was going so far to make us happy.
After we finished our dinner, the waiter appeared at our table with an anniversary cake from a professional bakery. This was an actual 8-inch cake, decorated like an honest-to-goodness wedding cake, with a fondant ribbon across the top that read “Happy Anniversary [Name] & [Name]“. My husband and I were in shock. We kept repeating, “This just doesn’t happen.” What restaurant, especially a chain restaurant that already as a well-established customer base, cares enough about its customers to go out and buy someone an anniversary cake?
My husband and I still can’t quite believe that the restaurant would go so far to retain us as customers. A mere apology would have been nice; a gift card would have been more than enough to make up for a crappy dinner. But to go so completely above and beyond has me as their loyal customer for life–and singing their praises to everyone who will listen to me.
Sorry to have been long-winded in this, but I really wanted to share such a positive story with everyone.
Anniversary card? Movie tickets? Professional cake? Just goes to show, even the chains can apologize with class once in a while.
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Longhorn has some serious class. The food can be hit or miss just like anywhere else. I like to do the random acts of kindess (pay it forward) thing a lot and was at a Lonestar a while back. There were a couple of local Sheriff Deputies sitting having lunch. I called the waiter over and told them that I would be picking up their check and that I would like it to be anonymous. Everything seemed to be going fine I enjoyed my lunch which was pretty tasty if I remember. However when the waiter brought me the checks it appeared I had the wrong check for the officers as there was a stiff drink included on the tab. I called the manager over explained what I was trying to do but then decided what the hell I would buy whoever’s lunch this was and be done with it. I saw a young lady having dinner with her elderly father, stand up, look around looking for someone she may have known who bought her lunch. She had that I cant believe someone is doing this look on her face which is what I love to see. Anyway long story short. The manager came over a little bit later and let me know that he really respected what I was trying to do and the way I went about it that he decided to pick up the check for the officers and rather then just simply putting it on the house he made it clear to them that it was another patron who had wanted to buy their lunch. He did it anonymously as well!!.
It works folks, random acts of kindness do propagate themselves. Try it sometime it really makes you feel good.
I’ve only tried out the anonymous random acts of kindness thing a couple of times… I appreciate your reminding me because on those occassions, I have been amost giddy afterwards (I don’t think anyone I know would even think to use that term to describe me, but that’s how I was).
One time in particular, I laughed to myself all the way.
Seriously, thanks for the reminder. I think I’ll pick up someone else’s tab this weekend.
There is a Longhorn probably a half mile from my house. It is always busy, even at unusual times. I have never eaten there, despite living practically on top of it for 10 years. I might have to give it a try now. Not that I really eat steak, but if they can make a mean burger, I am cool.
Quite impressive! *thumbs up*
Though it seems above and beyond, maybe it wasn’t the chain per se. The free meal, probably. The rest, card, tickets and cake, maybe it was the manager who thought to do that on his own. Everyone knows that people will talk more about a bad experience than a good one. By going over the top, he’s hoping to make up for all the negative press they had already received.
Well congrats on your 1st year together. As for Long Horn it was really cool of them to do this. The LongHorn that I go to is very good and their ribeye is about as good as a steak can be. I am always pleased with their dinners and staff. FYI: This restaurant is located on M-59 in Shelby Township, MI.
HOORAY for LongHorn. Have two couples to treat so will go LongHorn instead of Outback.
This is a great story!
The last time we were at LongHorn, our soups took so long to come out that our entrees came out right after the soup-
we were a little annoyed, but the runner didnt just plop our entrees down and disappear– he took them back to the kitchen to keep warm.
The waiter bent over backwards to make sure my husband knew that if his rare steak was too done to be sure to send it back!
Even the manager came by and gave us his card and was adamant to ensure that my husband’s meat was not overdone.
We didnt need any compensation for it, (hubbys steak was phenomenal and did not need to be sent back)
but their customer service oriented attitude was very refreshing and commendable.
Great story
Longhorn has always been good to me. However,with chains you are in the casino of management. Good management or bad management that is the question.
Well played Rachel. You hear so many stories of disappointment with chain restaurants that it’s easy to think they’re all bad.
Okay. Now I have to go to Longhorn…
Good on them.
And I thought Macaroni Grill was impressive for sending me $20 in gift certificates after complaining about a meal.
wow… I have always liked Longhorn Steakhouse, this makes them look like the guys on the superpages commercials with the capes. way to go.
WOW. I’m amazed. There needs to be a new word for how Longhorn treated that couple – customer service doesn’t seem adequate. What a sweet story!
Happy anniversary!
I like reading stories of companies going above and beyond for their customers; it adds some levity to the dismal news I read all day. Can we have some kind of contest so we can vote for the best company in America?
I am not surprised. I too frequent Longhorns and am always very satisfied with their food. I did use another Longhorn’s other than the local one I usually go to, and had an unfortunate dining experience. I called the restaurant to speak with their manager to relate a series of mishaps and to let him know why I would not be coming back to this particular site, only to have him literally beg me to please come back in for a free dinner for two (anything we wanted) so that he could show me how they “normally” operate and that my less than stellar original dinner, would be just a mere memory. He was correct. I had a wonderful dinner and dining experience. They truly do aim to please, should something go wrong. I give them great kuds for that, especially in this day and age.
Wow this is AWESOME. It’s so good to hear stories on the brightside like this. Way to go, Rachel and Happy Anniversary!!
I have to admit I thought this was gonna take a turn for the worse…
Me too. I thought it was going to turn out horribly.
Consumerist articles rarely end this well.
Its kind of easy to turn up the service for customers when you know they are coming.
Thats why food critics are usually anonymous, and try not to get their photos taken.
As a restaurant owner, you can tell the staff, try your best with every customer, but you can’t please everyone on food.
But you can do your best on service with every customer.
Yay! For once in ages there is good news. I’ve eaten at a Longhorn before and they had good food there (yes, pricey, but still good nonetheless). I sympathize for the issues you DID have, but I think with that they went above and beyond!
This is an awesome story! Companies screw up but the real test of customer service is what they do to correct the problem. Long Horn could have easily just given them a free meal or a gift card and moved on…. However you can see that they really put some thought and effort into this and that’s the real difference here! Good to hear customer service is alive still.
Somehow I feel the urge to blame the OP for something…
What a great story!!
Maybe they’re improving customer service overall. We eat there whenever my in-laws are in town. Last week my husband and father-in-law both ordered steaks, both overcooked. They not only replaced the steaks, but comped them also, and a manager visited the table twice to check on us after that. We’ve never had a bad experience there, but we’ve sent steaks back before and never had them replaced and comped.
That is very rare for a chain restaurant.
There is an Indian restaurant around here, the owner is like my second grandpa, he pretty much adopted us all. He hugs everyone when they come in. On my birthday he had a birthday cake for me and a bottle of wine.
booyah! this is how it’s done!
as someone that is going to hit 5 years this year, this is a good one for longhorn!
Wow. I think they just retained and gained a lot more than just the OP’s business.
The longhorns around us are usually not that bad.If they are I haven’t really noticed, and the wife hasn’t complained. Now smokey bones… that’s a different story.
Food is generally good there, haven’t had any problems… glad to hear they “took it seriously”… the good PR doesn’t hurt either
Okay, that’s awesome. WTG for stepping up for the customer!!!
HOLY Sh*T. I am shocked. So, did you take the manager home that night? Seriously, after someone does all that, I feel indebted…
Based on this sweet story I’m going to try and find a Longhorn Steakhouse near me and if there isn’t I’ll make a point of looking for one in my travels.
That’s awesome. For a chain steakhouse, Longhorn is hard to beat. They’ve got a strawberry pecan salad for summer that is really quite nice.
Wow. Talk about above and beyond.
How do we really know this played out for real? This could easily be a planted story by someone in Longhorn corporate. It’s a little too far fetched for me to buy.
I hate the cynic in me. Has anyone verified this story? And even if true, what a great yet cheap viral marketing campaign. I’m a product of the world I live in. I yearn for the days when I could take things at face value.
Nothing to do with the chain, everything to do with a manager who truly understands customer service. Alright, a little to do with a chain that gives him that kind of leeway.