Olive Garden Case Study

Every customer has a value to an organization and every customer has a price to that organization. Customers are the lifeblood and source of revenue to a business (O’Rourke, p.275). Dr. Wallace’s family had a genuinely unpleasant experience in an Olive Garden restaurant with the customer service. On a Tuesday evening in Mishawaka, IN, Mr. Wallace, his two young daughters, and his disabled father arrived at the establishment at 8:15 p.m. for supper. The restaurant is usually open until 10 p.m. during the week and 11 p.m. on the weekend, so 8:15 p.m. was a fairly decent time to arrive at the restaurant for supper. No one greeted them at the door and after 10 minutes, they walked to the bar to attract the attention of the bartender to ask for a hostess to seat them. The hostess arrived and was clearly unpleasant and un- thoughtful as she tried to seat the family in an upper seating area. The family had a discussion with the hostess because the father is an amputee on crutches and cannot sit in an upper seating area, due to his disability. She then brought the family to another area, sat them with the lunch menus and no children’s menus. Plus, the table was dirty. A waiter walked by after another 10 to 12 minutes of waiting and asked if he could take their order, even though the table was not in his area. The family ordered their meals and a glass of wine. Twenty minutes later, the meals arrived, which wasn’t too bad in timing, but they came out cold. To me, this means they were prepared earlier but sat too long because a waiter/waitress forgot about them. The bar was out of wine but no alternative beverage was offered. Two additional requests had to be made for silverware and napkins. The manager was sought and Mr. Wallace was given a second serving of cannelloni but the rest of the family ate their cold meals. Their waiter must have gone home