True Blue

So, what constitutes a ‘good’ customer service, really?

In the context of a restaurant, that would be:

• good food – tastes just right on your tastebuds
• nice ambiance – comfortable and clean with pleasant décor,  with nice music playing in the background
• pleasant and helpful staff – friendly and welcoming, always there ready to assist when you need them without standing over your shoulder, knowledgable about the products, can answer your questions and even more, can give you recommendations
• good price – this what determines whether or not a product or a service is of a good value

When you live in a town where every corner is packed with eating places; big or small, to suit a wide range of budget, to suit different tastes …. But yet it is always a ‘hit-and-miss’ experience when it comes to finding a good place to eat ie. a restaurant that constitutes all of the above elements.

So when my husband and I went to Blue Elephant for the first time a week ago, we were pleasantly surprised.

A good feeling already started right at the time we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly hostess. We were then attended by a friendly and attentive waiter. He attended to our table and was able to answer our questions about the food. There was a time when he could not answer our question about the wine special, but he politely said he was going to find out for us (and that’s ok… it’s ok not to have all the answers as long as there is an effort to find out rather than making up answers). We were impressed up to this point, but waited to see if the food tastes as good as the service.

When the food arrived, we thought “this is it”….

We’ve been disappointed many times in places where we felt the food was overpriced; the price does not reflect the quality of the food we get. So when we were done tasting all the food we ordered, we were impressed yet again. It was one of the best Thai food we’ve ever had in this town, and we’ve been to pretty much all the Thai restaurants there are in Jakarta.

As we were commenting how good this place is, we were greeted personally by the lovely GM, Lebad Nourry, whom just recently relocated to Jakarta and took the position. Obviously, he’s done a tremendous job with getting the restaurant up to such excellent standard.

We were enjoying our time at the Blue Elephant so much and it’s a feeling we haven’t had for a very long time.

And when the bill came…we were yet again delighted. The price is not as dear as one would expect in a rather fancy restaurant such as this one. Even better, the price came with excellent quality of food and outstanding service.

When a restaurant composes all the elements listed above, plus you leave the place thinking “wow, that was worth it and I’ll be coming back” with a satisfied smile on your face, the customer service is not just ‘good’ but it is ‘outstanding’. And being one restaurant in an overcrowded market, this certainly makes them stand out and wins over the competition.

(this is not a paid promotion, all the views here are solely based on the writer’s personal experience)