What the heck is a fluid kitchen and who thought it would lead to a WOW! customer experience?
SOMETIMES A BUSINESS can try too hard to be cool.
Back when I was teaching and training customer service my core message was that it was all about the experience a customer, patient or client had when they were in your presence. Product is important but it’s everything wrapped around that product or service that brings people back and has them telling great stories about you.
That came to mind the other night when my son and daughter-in-law took me to dinner. We went to LaScala, a new and trendy place that opened on our main drag on the fountain park down the street from where I live.
The place is new and sparkling and in addition to an Italian menu has a large sushi bar, an interesting combination. I will jump ahead. The food was very good. No complaints.
But now let’s talk about the experience.
When the wait person came to take our drink orders she said “Just so you know, we are a fluid kitchen so orders come out when they are ready, not as a table.”
I did not know that and had to admit this was going to be a first-time experience, which takes me back to my opening line about trying too hard to be cool.
My son ordered a salad and a side of meatballs. They came out first. My daughter-in-law and I got pizzas. My pizza came probably 10 minutes after my son’s salad and meatballs, which he ordered as his meal, not an appetizer. After I got my pizza it was several minutes more before my DIL’s pie came. When it did, it was wrong. The wait person said it would be another 12 minutes for a new one. A manager came over and comped us the pie and my DIL picked off what she didn’t want and ate it.
OK. Two things here. The wrong pie was handled well. Kudos. Prompt action, an acceptable offer.
BUT, WHAT ABOUT this gap of 15 or more minutes between one person getting their meal and others getting theirs? Maybe I am just a throwback, an old guy who was taught it was rude to eat in front of others. If I wait, my meal gets cold. If I eat, I could be almost done before others get their food and then I watch them eat.
To me dining is communal. Everyone gets their food, we taste, compare notes and have a jolly good time. It seems to me a fluid kitchen destroys that communal experience.
So why do it? I go back to my youth and time as a short order cook. When an order came in I had to time it as a cook – starting what would take longest and working down to the shortest cook time so the order was hot and ready to go at the same time. With a fluid kitchen I guess caring about the customer comes in second and all about what’s good for the kitchen.
Will I go back to this place? Dunno. The service was OK but not a “WOW!” If I do go I think I’d have order not what I want but what could be brought out at the same time as what others ordered. What kind of experience is it that starts with “What can we order that will all come out at the same time?”
Not cool. Not at all. “Kitchen first” over “customer first” will never create a WOW! customer experience. At least it won’t for this old fart.
Rich Heiland is a retired journalist and semi-retired consultant, trainer and public speaker. During his journalism career he was a reporter, editor, publisher, college instructor, part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year honoree. He lives in West Chester, PA and can be reached at [email protected].