THE HICCUP - Staying an extra day in Vancouver I took my family to the posh Italian Kitchen restaurant for dinner - not a great night.

"A Hiccup," is what the CEO of the Italian Kitchen restaurant's parent company called our experience. I was outside of the resto already, but my sister stayed inside while her husband and I waited for the valet parked car. It had been an OK evening for the six of us who went for dinner at the famous (or so I'm told) Italian Kitchen restaurant on Alberni Street in Downtown Vancouver. The night before I had been at the Sanafir Restaurant (also part of the Glowbal group) for the Canada-e-Connect after - after party and it was a very good experience. Dennis Bak and his staff treated all of us very well and their drinks and tapas were fantastic. Talking to Dennis about where to take may family for dinner the next night we talked about the Italian Kitchen and he was very kind to make a reservation for me. And so I was excited to visit a new Italian restaurant (my favourite cuisine) with some of the people I love the most in the world. First part of the Hiccup: even though the upstairs was almost completely empty when we arrived promptly at 6PM, the staff gave us one of the worst tables, the one that's right by the upstairs bar - next to the cutlery drawer. Why do restaurateurs do this - is there a restaurant sitting 101 course they take that says - give the first guests the worst table on the floor). I realized this before we ordered so I asked for another table - this one a much better spot closer to the windows and away from the bar. And so, we began our evening talking, reminiscing, making fun, doing what Latin families do when they get together after months of not seeing each other. We ordered our food. I ordered a wonderful salad (baby spinach and greens), beef carpaccio and the Kobe meatballs and Asiago cheese spaghetti. My sister, and her two daughters had some salad and the three of them had Ravioli stuffed with crab (after one of my nieces who has ordered gnocci returned it because it did not feel fully cooked). My Mom (yes, the woman who gave me life) had a chicken dish that she quite liked (and thank God, because if she hadn't the Hiccup would have been much bigger - believe me). After the salads, the pastas arrived (after a very, very, looong time - and by this time the restaurant was full) - so I ask the waiter "what happened to the Carpaccio?" flurry of activity ensues, apologies fly - someone screwed up my Carpaccio order) - Oh well, on with the pastas. Not to make a very lon story longer, there were more apologies and the cliche "free dessert." Suffice it to say that I don't feel like ever eating there again. While I was waiting outside my sister met Emad Yacoub, the CEO of the Glowbal Group, who asked her how our stay was and so she (actually reluctantly because we had already talked to the guys upstairs) told him our story, which he called a Hiccup and promised to fix and do something about it Whatever it was I made the best of it because I try not to let anything to get in the way of having a good time with my family when we get together. And I decided to blog this experience because it may be of interest to services marketers in our industry (what the resto's CEO does not know yet, is that the three people who had the Ravioli were not feeling well last night - My sister and my two nieces had stomach aches and both my nieces threw up - last night. I thought my young niece (18) threw up because she over ate, but when the older niece also threw up later last night - I quickly realized that maybe it was the Ravioli.) Given that blogging and social media are the topics of the day - this is an example of how fast a customer experience can be online. What's important here is how the story will end. Before I blog the experience on my consumer blog I will wait for a few days to see how the CEO of the restaurant responds to, as he put it to my sister, "make this right." (and please do not offer free desserts - why is it that restaurateurs think that free desserts can make people happy?) Your response to a customer's bad experience is extremely important in the age of social media and fierce competition in your industry, especially restaurants and hotels.

Cheers,

Jaime