Costa Vida: How to lose a customer quick!
Monday, November 6th, 2006I love Mexican food. It’s cheap, fast, relatively healthy, and it tastes amazing. I love the salads offered by places like Cafe Rio, Bajio, and Durango’s Grill. I recently moved in to an apartment near Costa Vida in Provo. One of my friends had told me that Costa Vida is similar to Cafe Rio. I was excited to have it so close to home.
I walked with some friends over to the restaurant. Other than sharing a building with a bowling alley, it seemed like a really nice place (well kept and nicely decorated). I ordered a mango chicken salad. I watched in approval as the man behind the counter hurriedly built my salad until he passed by the tomatoes without putting any on my salad. I quickly stopped him, “Can I have some tomatoes please?”
He responded, “Sure, but they cost an extra 95 cents.”
“Why?” I inquired.
“The mango chicken salad,” he explained, “doesn’t come with tomatoes. They are an extra.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. All the fast-food places put tomatoes on their 4 dollar salads and I was buying a 7 dollar salad that didn’t come with tomatoes! I replied in disgust, “Fine, but load them on heavy.”
“I can’t,” he replied. “It’s 95 cents for every scoop.” The scoop wasn’t much larger than a soup spoon!
I was ready to turn and walk out of the restaurant, but my friends had already ordered and I didn’t want to make a scene. “Forget it,” I said. “I guess I’ll have it without tomatoes.”
As I ate my tomatoless salad, I looked around the restaurant. I noticed all the thought, time, and money that had been invested into making me–the customer–have a wonderful experience. Everything from the lighting, the decorations, and the big-screen TV were there to make my experience positive; but the only thing that mattered was that I didn’t get what I wanted because of someone’s stupid tomato policy.
I recently read How to Become a Marketing Superstar by Jeff Fox. It’s a quick enjoyable read for anyone involved in marketing. I don’t remember his exact way of putting it, but he teaches of the damage done by stupid policies. It will be extremely important for us at FamilyLearn Inc. to only have one policy: create a wonderful experience for our customers.
Note: I just looked up Costa Vida’s website so I could link to it and send this blog post to them as feedback. They post a picture of the mango chicken salad, and I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like it has tomatoes on it!