Reservation Confirmation

I saw a Facebook post from a friend the other day that really struck a cord.  He was complaining about having to call a restaurant back to confirm your reservation.

I have to agree, that it's the most annoying part of the process.  I get why some restaurants ask patrons to confirm, dropped reservations and "no-shows" are costly to the operations.  But there's something oddly irritating about having to make that second call.  It just doesn't feel right as part of the overall experience.  And when you add a snippy host to the equation, then the experience is off to a bad start.

I do get it though ... restaurants have to do something to cut down on the "no-shows."

There's a restaurant in LA that has taken it a step further, and they're getting called out on it in the process.

Red Medicine in LA has started tweeting the names of people who bail out on their reservations.  Now in a town like LA where hot ressies are not easy to come by, this could be quite the threat and incentive.  They are actually naming names with a bit of a snark ... nothing like public humiliation to motivate the right behavior.

I do get it though ... but this seems to take it a bit too far, don't you think ... unless this is the experience that they are trying to create?

The customer should be the boss and the entire focus should be on the customers' positive experience.  Sure, if you have people who continually drop off, then address it with them.  Isn't there another way around it?

What do you think?  What's your experience?  Jim.

Jim Joseph
- President, Cohn & Wolfe NA
- Author, The Experience Effect series
- Professor, NYU
- Contributor, Entrepreneur