Whilst in Broome I picked up a completely unexpected voicemail from George Calombaris.
I wrote a mixed review on his newest restaurant Mama Baba recently and he called to respond to that! Sadly mobile phone reception in Broome meant I missed his call. But I was touched by the fact that he wanted to respond to my review! A small part of me feared the worst and that he wanted to berate me but I kept telling myself that there's freedom of speech.
Now George never left a number (not an unexpected move) and said he'd try again and I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get to speak to him as I was certain that he being a busy man and all, would move onto the next thing on his big to do list.
So upon arrival back home last night, I decided to tweet him just to let him know I'd picked up his voicemail and was game enough to defend my account of my experience if he had time to try me again. And today he called me back. That ten minute phone call, combined with his gracious manner and a little bit of banter has made such a difference.
The remarkable thing is the way his people must have found my review and flagged it to him and what went on from there. He'd obviously done his research before calling me by reading a bit of my blog as he talked about my other reviews, obtained my number via his reservations system and acknowledged that I had previously visited restaurants of his and had a future booking. I admire the way he faced my comments head on.
My review wasn't scathing; there were positives and negatives and I loved the way that he chose to respond to it embracing the positive and accepting the negative requesting the opportunity to improve my experience next time round. He wasn't overly deferential and didn't promise me all the riches in Heaven or freebies (but I don't think he had to as my experience wasn't that bad that he had to grovel) and even made the odd cheeky comment in line with the personality I see on TV. At the same time he was gracious enough to respect my account, make an apology and request that I continue to visit his restaurants so that I can have more positive experiences.
Seriously, text book customer service stuff but oh it makes a difference and so impressive. Well done GC for being such a professional and going out of the ordinary and embracing your customer. Respect to you GC.
I wrote a mixed review on his newest restaurant Mama Baba recently and he called to respond to that! Sadly mobile phone reception in Broome meant I missed his call. But I was touched by the fact that he wanted to respond to my review! A small part of me feared the worst and that he wanted to berate me but I kept telling myself that there's freedom of speech.
Now George never left a number (not an unexpected move) and said he'd try again and I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get to speak to him as I was certain that he being a busy man and all, would move onto the next thing on his big to do list.
So upon arrival back home last night, I decided to tweet him just to let him know I'd picked up his voicemail and was game enough to defend my account of my experience if he had time to try me again. And today he called me back. That ten minute phone call, combined with his gracious manner and a little bit of banter has made such a difference.
The remarkable thing is the way his people must have found my review and flagged it to him and what went on from there. He'd obviously done his research before calling me by reading a bit of my blog as he talked about my other reviews, obtained my number via his reservations system and acknowledged that I had previously visited restaurants of his and had a future booking. I admire the way he faced my comments head on.
My review wasn't scathing; there were positives and negatives and I loved the way that he chose to respond to it embracing the positive and accepting the negative requesting the opportunity to improve my experience next time round. He wasn't overly deferential and didn't promise me all the riches in Heaven or freebies (but I don't think he had to as my experience wasn't that bad that he had to grovel) and even made the odd cheeky comment in line with the personality I see on TV. At the same time he was gracious enough to respect my account, make an apology and request that I continue to visit his restaurants so that I can have more positive experiences.
Seriously, text book customer service stuff but oh it makes a difference and so impressive. Well done GC for being such a professional and going out of the ordinary and embracing your customer. Respect to you GC.
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