Experience 3 by Kevin: Super-late night celebration at Sonnet! (June 24, 2009)
Background
Mr. Anshuman Ghosh was a happy man! The last 2 hours had given the MAXI Chief, 6 efficient, hard-working and passionate marketers-in-the-making to lead – the MAXI Team 2009–10 had just been elected! Little did he know that his happiness would be short-lived as his wallet would soon become a lot lighter! Indeed, a treat was on the cards – I was one of the lucky recipients – and everyone knew who our generous sponsor was! J
Prior Expectations
The 6 newly elected MAXI members, their Chief and a few well-wishers like me got into a few autos at 2 am in the early morning of June 24, 2009, around 30 minutes after the end of the election. Our destination was the Cinnamon Coffee Restaurant at the Sonnet Hotel, Jamshedpur – the only 24-hour genuine coffee shop in Jamshedpur. Of course, we were planning to have more than just a cup of coffee – what with a generous sponsor in tow! And of course, we had to toast to the success of our fellow batch-mates, now beginning a new innings as a part of the Marketing Association at XLRI …
Actual Experience
The waiter took our individual orders around 2:30 am and assured us of ‘prompt’ service. I had ordered a ‘chicken nugget burger’. Burgers, fries and pasta seemed to be the cuisine of choice. There was a long delay after our order, made bearable only because of the amiable company and general sense of camaraderie there was. At long last, around 3:20 am, the waiter reappeared with a smile. With a flourish akin to David Copperfield making the Taj Mahal re-appear, he produced a bowl of fries. Positively starved by now, most of us dashed to have a share of those few fries. Annoyed at the now agonizing delay, the unlucky ones – those too far away to reach the fries – fired the waiter and asked him to get the rest of the order. Finally around 3:45 am, the waiter brought the burgers and only around 4:15 am did he get the pasta. We also made the stupid mistake of ordering soft drinks at 4:20 am – indeed, his return with them only at 5 am, prompted speculation on whether Sonnet actually had a bottling plant to make the same on demand.
Analysis
I will admit I have focused mainly on the timing of the service – ignoring the other aspects. On reflection, I found that most of the other service parameters were good. Certainly the quality of the food was great and the ambience was nice too – after all, a coffee shop is just the place you want to be for a raucous conversation with friends. Yet, something was missing … and it was not just the fact that we were the only customers in Cinnamon at the time …
SERVICE TRINITY MODEL
SERVQUAL ratings
| Dimension | Rating (out of 5) | Remarks |
| Tangibles | 5 | The ambience, as stated, was perfect for our context |
| Reliability | 5 | The quality of food is beyond dispute |
| Responsiveness | 2 | Certainly the responsiveness of the restaurant as a whole can be questioned – if not that of the waiters and chefs alone |
| Assurance | 3 | The waiter failed to reassure us – “coming in 10 minutes” will only work for a while … |
| Empathy | 4 | However, the restaurant staff were quite empathetic – assuring us that they were trying their hardest to speed up |
N.B.: (1 = very poor, 5 = very good)
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