It takes guts, chutzpah and grit to open a small business; and especially a restaurant, when there is competition on every corner and several in between. There are so many factors that go into creating a positive, appealing and exceptional customer experience that as a business owner, when you hear your business has fallen short, it’s devastating and painful.
Opening and operating a successful business anywhere is not for the faint of heart. Especially not in a small tight-knit community like Coronado, where one post about your business on a local Facebook group elicits over a hundred comments. Recently in the Coronado Happenings group, that’s exactly what happened. A dissatisfied customer took to social media to share her disappointment. The comments on that post were two-sided, some in support of the business and others in support of the complaint. Fortunately one of the readers contacted the owners, Kim Locker and her brother Chad, to alert them that someone was not happy. Neither Kim nor Chad are on Happenings so they had not seen the post and ensuing discussion. When it was brought to their attention, Kim responded in the best way possible. She owned it. Her response, in part:
“I recently read comments from a May 1st post about Lobster West, and please know these comments were hard to read, but appreciated. Our family owns Lobster West, and we put so much heart and soul into this business. It is not easy to run a small business! I do apologize for any poor service that anyone received, there is never any excuse for that. We train our staff to be warm and welcoming, because customer satisfaction is important to us. We will be sure to address this ASAP. We overnight lobster from Maine and use fresh bread and produce, and promise to never skimp on quality.
Our food costs are high. We don’t cut corners. We do try to keep our prices as low as possible for our customers. Our prices are similar and sometimes even lower than lobster rolls on the east coast-and we have to ship Maine lobster across the country. We opened our second location in Coronado after finding much success in Encinitas because we love this community. It took us years to choose our second location and we chose Coronado because we love it here. We offer Military discounts every Monday to honor our servicemen. We participate in the Locals program and give 10% off to all who have the card. We donate to the Coronado Schools, Coronado Historical Association, and several local charities… We truly care about your feedback and want to be a welcomed restaurant in this community.”
One thing is certain, Kim addressed it head-on. She assured me that they train their employees to make their customers feel like family and friends. They want people to enjoy the nostalgic feel of an east coast crab shack and leave happy. I took a look at the facebook posts, both the original blast and all the comments leading up to Kim’s response; I also looked to see if there were other posts about Lobster West on the Coronado Happenings page and there were. Collectively there were well over 500 positive comments about the business and a fraction of negative ones. In business, it has been said that one bad experience will be shared at least ten times while a good experience may never be shared. As a community, we can support business owners by taking unsatisfactory experiences directly to them before putting out the word, “I will NEVER go to (fill in the blank) again;” giving the business the chance to improve before a customer attempts to shut it down. Sometimes the owner is unaware, and negative press over one, or even a couple of, unfortunate interactions without an opportunity to remedy has the potential to ruin lives. There are consequences to actions and it’s doubtful there are any businesses on Coronado striving to fall short and disappoint.
I headed to Lobster West this past week to see for myself. My experience for lunch was outstanding. I thank the staff and ownership for turning a negative into a positive and for being willing to own up to a negative review. I promise that if I experience service that is less than positive at any business on the island, or for that matter, anywhere, I will share it with the management or owners, and hope they take action like Kim and Chad did. Let’s support local business and their efforts at getting it right.
