How A Restaurant Messed Up My Order and Won My Loyalty
A marketing lesson in turning an error into an opportunity
Hong Kong is a city that for its size probably has the highest density of Michelin Star restaurants. There are 70 in the latest Michelin guide of 2020. To stay competitive in such a dining Mecca, it’s not easy being a restaurant owner.
Every small street in most residential areas has a series of restaurants, each vying for the attention of the residents and the huge market for both dine-in and takeaway food. With the international population of Hong Kong, owing to its prized status as the financial center of Asia, the cuisines, the variety, the ambience, and most importantly the taste of the food, have to all be spot on to attract a critical mass of customers.
However, with such a wide range of restaurants to choose from, you could go out every weekend, and still not repeat a spot for a whole year or more. So, how then do you create repeat clientele?
The answer is in going the extra mile — to create a truly memorable customer experience.
This is exactly what Chris, the owner of the restaurant, Big Dill, did — twice! And it didn’t take some crazy cost on his part or some ridiculously out-of-the-world special experience, but just very fine attention to the smallest of details in ensuring his customer felt valued.
Act 1 — Turning A Mistake Into an Opportunity
This was about a few weeks ago when Hong Kong had gone back to stricter distancing rules, meaning that there was no dining out allowed post 6 pm. It was also Friday, and we didn’t want to eat the usual boring daily dinner menu of home-cooked food.
So we decided to look for some vegetarian options to order from, and bumped into Big Dill — a restaurant that calls itself “Hong Kong’s Best Plant-Based Food Joint” and the unique thing about them seemed that they weren’t using the Impossible or Beyond Meat products, but making something of their own.
Their menu was also quite exciting — with burgers, wraps, and delicious-sounding options. So my wife and I decided to order from them via Deliveroo and picked a type of burger they call “Side Chic” and a side order called the “Nug Life” — and waited for the order to arrive.
When the order did arrive, and I picked up the food packet from our doorstep, it seemed a bit light for 3 food items. And to my suspicion — it only had one burger and one side order so was missing one of the burgers. We reported this to Deliveroo, who offered to refund the missing part of the order.
My wife and I found the burger delicious and also loved the side order — it was all plant made stuff — completely vegan, not just vegetarian. While we were left wanting, having had to share a burger vs. having one for each of us, we just then received a WhatsApp from a “Chris” who happened to be the owner of Big Dill. He admitted to having missed one burger in the order and apologized. He also asked if we’d still like the burger, to which we admittedly said we were left a bit wanting and hungry.
So, Chris, in an act of professionalism and consumer delight, said that he would have the burger prepared, book an Uber and send it over to our place — and twenty minutes later we had a hot, freshly made burger at our doorstep.
While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, here’s why I was absolutely satisfied with the experience.
1. Owning Up vs. Playing the Blame Game
The first and most important thing Chris did right was that instead of “letting it go” he chose to contact me and offer a solution to an honest mistake.
He also, at no point, tried to blame the missed order on the delivery guy but owned up to having missed the order at their end — a fact he could have easily covered up for by putting all the blame on Deliveroo — because I couldn’t ever have verified.
2. Offering to Make Good on His Promise
He chose to not just make good on their order, but also bore the cost of an Uber which he personally booked, and had them deliver us the missing burger. It was just the simple act of honesty and sincerity of service that won both my wife and I over, in addition to the obviously delicious food that they have to offer.
Act 2 —Not Taking Customer Loyalty for Granted
My wife and I sort of got addicted to their burgers and would order them a couple of times over the next two weeks. This was until we decided on an impromptu trip to India, to meet family, and given the travel restrictions and quarantine we had to face on our return to Hong Kong, we decided to make it a long trip.
This meant we’d be gone a month and a half at a minimum, and so for our final dinner in Hong Kong for some time, we decided to order another round of our favorite burgers. But, it was a rainy day, and it turned out that both Deliveroo and Foodpanda weren’t taking orders from the restaurant showing “back soon” to which I wondered if the restaurant was closed, or if it was a weather issue.
I decided to take the plunge and WhatsApp Chris, digging up his number from our previous incident. And, to my surprise, he mentioned both his outlets were open for orders. So, I decided to order our favorite burgers and told him I’d pick the order up myself.
He relayed the order to his staff and messaged me when the food was ready, and I went over and picked it up. I saw an extra small box in the order and assumed it was some kind of additional dressing or something. But on my way back I got a message saying the following:
He had thrown in their signature doughnut or the “doughboy” for free keeping in mind that we were traveling the next morning.
This was yet another gesture, at his own cost, to a customer who was already loyal, but he ensured he didn’t take the loyalty for granted and piled on the goodwill!
With these two incidents, I had become a Big Dill fan for life — and decided to pay back by leaving them a glowing review on Google so that anyone who ever looked up the restaurant knew that they weren’t just in for the best burgers in Hong Kong but also the most friendly staff and owner.
Chris was not just a master at making plant-based deliciousness, but also ensuring his customers felt special and valued!