\"How was everything tonight??\"
More a rant on a silly little thing that obviously is completely unimportant in the grand scheme of things but maybe others will want to share similar experiences or opinions.
GF and I have dinner tonight at an O'Charley's near the mall (not sure if this is national, it's pretty much like an Applebee's or TGIF's or something similarly lame).
Quick and easy to get a salad or chicken-fingers or something after she's out of work.
They have about 2 hostesses and 2 managers typically milling around and almost all of them greet you on your way in or out.
We've laughed before when a manger would come up to our table and ask how everything was and then 1 minute later our server would swing by and ask the same question. "Ummm, still fine just like we told the other guy!!" (no, we don't really say that to them of course).
This time on our way out we walked past one of the managers mid-way between the bar and the front-door and he asked us if we both enjoyed our meal.
2 seconds later we walk past one of the hostesses who asks the same question.
Then 1 second later a different hostess sees us and is holding the door for us and is more direct, "Was everything okay tonight? Did you enjoy your meal?" "Yup, everything was great. thanks."
Note, they didn't do this because they had reason to suspect we weren't satisfied customers or anything. They obviously get told at O'Charley's to bombard their customers with "How is everything?" questions.
Also obvious was that none had any idea that we had just been asked the same Q by someone a few steps in front of them. So for them it was completely natural and they were just doing what they were supposed to do.
GF and I had laughed at how ridiculous it was on previous occasions.
So tonight after getting the line of 3 straight employees in 10 seconds giving us the 'inquisition' on our way out the door we couldn't help but crack-up when we finally got through them all and got outside. It was just so ridiculous I can't help but laugh a little right now just thinking about it.
I'm not annoyed or bothered because I can be so easily amused by such things. But I can't help but wonder if this is really a good strategy for them.
Shouldn't they realize that some customers probably don't want to be pestered over and over again like that? It just seems so bizarrely weird a lot of the times that we go there but this one was definitely the weirdest.
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