The importance of the moment of truth

A typical Friday night begins with a family dinner in a friendly atmosphere. This time we decided to visit one of our favorite restaurants for a light Sushi dinner. As soon as we arrived we were amazed. Usually this place is packed on a Friday night. Today, more than half of the seats are empty. Therefore, entering and taking a seat on the conveyor belt is very easy. Before the waitress has a chance to approach us, we have already had a few plates with Sushi. We tell the waitress that other than a few drinks we don’t need to order from the menu.

She confirms: “So, do you take the buffet for two adults and one teenager?” “You call it a buffet? We just want you to count the number of dishes as usual.” “Sorry, we no longer offer this. We offer buffet instead. Prices are…”

A bit disappointed and caught up in the act, we decided to stay and surrender to the new scheme. And of course we eat more than anticipated since we paid for it anyway. While we eat and enjoy the Sushi we draw some conclusions: No wonder this place is half empty. People definitely don’t like the new scheme. Did you see that half the self-service screens are broken? So is the knowledge of the product on the part of the staff.

After finishing more food than we originally wanted, we asked the waitress for the bill. Another waitress approaches our table and begins to count the dishes. Now, we are very puzzled. “We thought you didn’t count dishes anymore? Your colleague told us that we have to have the buffet…?” During some back and forth we didn’t get any answer to our question about what is the pricing strategy of the restaurant. I give up and walk over to the cashier—still feeling cheated, hoping they’ll admit his big mishap and make it up to us with a discount or voucher or something—and apologize. Nothing. I paid the buffet price.

I’m sure they won’t see us in this place again.

Conclusion

A “Moment of Truth” is the moment when the company interacts with the buyer. Careful product development, successful marketing, and perfect product preparation can easily be wrecked by minor mishaps during the moment of truth. Unfortunately, in a restaurant you have a number of these moments, all of which are capable of shaping the impression of the experience dramatically. Often this experience is much more important than the price or even the food itself.

The later in the service delivery the Moment of Truth turns bad, the less time is left for a remedy. If the remedy is not applied on the spot, the opportunity may be gone forever, along with the customer.