Angelina’s is a very nice restaurant in Playa Flamingo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.  I have always enjoyed the food and have always received good service.

Unfortunately, it seems that the management of the restaurant is in need of a lesson in building good customer relations.

I want to preface this by saying that I was not present when this happened, but it was relayed to me by a highly reliable source, and I believe it to be true.

This incident occurred on Monday, September 28.  For those of you who are not familiar with this part of Costa Rica, September and October are very slow months for tourism. Especially this year, considering the current state of the world’s economy, there are virtually no tourists here.  Many businesses, including restaurants, have gone out of business . . . and many others simply have simply closed their doors until November 1.

Restaurants that remain open during this slow season must rely on “locals” for business.  Indeed, many have special promotions, discounts, etc. for locals during this time.  It is definitely not a time to “piss off” the local people.

Now that you have that background, here is the story, as I heard it:

There is a group of about a dozen or more “local” women . . . and by “local”, I mean people from the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, and Costa Rica who live here full time.  They are either permanent residents, “permanent tourists”, their children go to school here . . .  or whatever.  These women are not of “insignificant means” financially, nor are they without considerable influence in the community.

The women live mostly in Conchal, Flamingo and Potrero . . . and they like to get together on a regular basis for a “ladies night out”.  Considering where these women live, Flamingo is a good compromise location for them to get together.  They have “happy hour” wherein they consume several cocktails each, and then they order dinner and chat and gossip over a bottle of wine or two.

With drinks, dinner, wine, tips, etc., I would think that these dozen or more women could easily drop $500 to $600 or more in an evening at a restaurant like Angelina’s.

. . . and these women of whom I speak thought that they had found their regular “ladies night” destination – Angelina’s.  The food was reportedly good, the ambiance seemed nice, and the location was convenient for everyone.  (I don’t believe this was their first visit to Angelina’s . . . but, read on, I’m told it will be their last).

This group of ladies met this past Monday at Angelina’s at about 5:00 p.m. for happy hour.  Angelina’s has a “two for one” happy hour from 5:00 until 7:00.

The restaurant was, at this time, absolutely devoid of any other customers.  The ladies consumed several cocktails at the bar and then, sometime after 6:00, were seated at a long table and given menus so that they could order their meals.  They specifically told the waitress to come to the table and let them know when it was “last call” for happy hour, so that they could order one last round at the “two for one” price.  (I should reiterate that none of these women are hurting for cash – they were all about to order from a menu where the entrés average about $20 each.  However, they’re women – they like a “deal” – whether it’s “two for one” cocktails, or a sale at Neiman Marcus).

Well, you probably guessed it.  The waitress forgot to warn them about “last call” and one of the women looked at her watch and saw that it was 7:15 – “happy hour” had expired 15 minutes earlier. Oh no!

“No problem“, said one of the women, and promptly called a waiter to the table.  It was explained to the waiter that the group would like to order one more round of happy hour drinks and that their waitress was to have let them know when it was time to place their last happy hour order.

The waiter said that there was nothing he could do – he was just a waiter – his hands were tied.

The women said, “Go get Joe“.  Joe is the “owner”/manager/chef at Angelina’s.  He is, apparently, the person “in charge“.

Joe

Joe came to the table and the women, in a jovial fashion, explained the situation and asked that Joe remedy that situation by allowing the group to have one more round at “happy hour” prices.

(I should mention that, apparently, one other small group of diners had arrived at the restaurant . . . otherwise, the group of local women had been the only customers in the restaurant and, aside from the other small group mentioned above, it is doubtful that Angelina’s enjoyed any additional customers that evening.  Did I mention that it is a particularly slow season, even as slow seasons go?)

The women all expected Joe to exclaim, “Hey, no problem! Another happy hour round for the table!”  (You know the old “The customer’s always right” and “keep the customers happy” sort of thing).

Instead, remarkably, Joe said something to the effect of, “Are you kidding me!  No way!  Happy hour is from 5:00 until 7:00 and that’s it!  No exceptions!  Do you really expect me to buy you all a drink!?!”  Apparently, Joe was somewhat rude and a “debate” took place between Joe and the women, one or two of whom were lawyers and had no problem “debating” with him.

In fact, the ladies did not want Joe to “buy them a drink”.  They just wanted him to extend the “happy hour” pricing for one measly round.  Indeed, assuming there were a dozen women, Joe would have in effect sold another 12 cocktails, albeit at half of the steep prices charged for the drinks the ladies were consuming.  He still would have made money . . . he wouldn’t be “giving” anything away!  (A cocktail that Angelina’s charges $6, $7, or more for, probably costs the restaurant less than 50 cents.  For the sake of argument, let’s say my numbers are close to accurate – I don’t know if they are or not – but if 12 women each ordered a $6.00 drink, but only paid $3.00 for it, the restaurant still made about $30 on the transaction.  Even if my numbers are inaccurate, I can assure you that Joe would not have lost money on the deal! More importantly, he would have kept these women happy!)

At this point, the situation was certainly not about the money for the women . . . most, if not all, of them could afford to buy the whole damn restaurant and send Joe packing . . . some could just write a check for the place.  It was now a question of principle, customer relations . . . and a guy named Joe being rude to a group of wealthy, intelligent, influential and, yes, somewhat “tipsy” and feisty women.

The women told Joe, “You know, we live here . . . we’re not just some tourists that you may never see again.  Plus we have many, many friends who live here, as well as friends and family who come to Costa Rica to visit.  We likely would have made this our regular (weekly) ladies night spot . . . and we would have  come here to dine with our families and our visiting friends.  Plus, Joe, look around . . . this place isn’t exactly packed with customers, is it?  From now on, this group will meet at Marie’s, Mar y Sol, or somewhere else where they know how to treat customers”.

If it were my restaurant, at this point, I would have apologized profusely and given each of them a drink on the house.

Apparently, however,  this is how Joe’s “Customer Relations Meter” read:

Poor Angelina’s . . . What would it have taken to make these ladies happy?  A couple of bucks worth of cheap booze? Some friendly words, rather than rudeness?

Let’s say that the group of ladies were 12 in number and let’s assume they got together for “ladies night out” once per week.  If they spend $500 or $600 each time, I’d estimate that Joe just flushed about $25,000 to $30,000 in annual revenue down the toilet, from that alone.  Now, if you consider (1) the business that Angelina’s will lose when these women tell their vast network of friends about the way they were treated, (2) the times that these women (and their network of other local friends) would have otherwise visited Angelina’s with their families on occasions other than “ladies night”, (3) the times that the women (and their network of other local friends) would have brought vacationing friends and family to dine at the restaurant, and (4) the times that Angelina’s will not get mentioned when someone asks these women (and/or their network of friends) for a restaurant recommendation –  (I have tourists and newcomers ask me all the time to recommend a good restaurant . . . I’m sure these women do, as well) – we could well be talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost annual revenue . . . all because of a lack of understanding of simple customer relations and economics.

Joe may be a good chef . . . but apparently his “people skills” may be lacking.  Here is a review from TripAdvisor.com:

“Rude Management – High Prices”

If you have too much money in your pocket go to Angelina’s. The prices are almost double other restaurants in the area. ($20-$28 per plate).  They treated our group poorly.

After we dined I showed my traveler’s check to the waiter and signed it. He called over the owner who had been drinking at the bar all night who didn’t want to cash the check because the change was more than the bill. I explained I had already made out the check.

He proceeded to try to start a physical fight by throwing the worst insults he could think of. It is clear that money, not tourism or good will that drives this restaurant.

My advice? Go into Brasalito and eat at the Camaron Dorado. They make you feel like royalty and don’t charge big unless you buy the scampi.

(To be fair, there are several good reviews of Angelina’s at TripAdvisor.com . . . however, none of the people who wrote the glowing reviews mention meeting Joe . . . hmmm.)

Joe, you seem like a nice enough fellow.  Take some friendly advice and make this your policy:

. . . or maybe you just don’t care . . . maybe you get paid a fixed salary by your financial backer(s) and you could give a toss what the customers think, be they tourists or locals . . . If that’s the case, I would suggest a Rule No. 4: “Stay in the kitchen and delegate the task of customer relations to someone else who understands the value of keeping customers happy and satisfied”.

I can’t see into the future . . . but I don’t think this is going to be a big year for tourism here.  Oh, sure, there will be tourists, but not like prior years.  When November gets here, I hope there are hundreds of people lined up, waiting to get a table at Angelina’s . . . but I doubt it.

Every September/October, the “local” people are pretty much the only people who frequent those restaurants that remain open.  This year, even during “high season”, restaurants may have to rely on the local people to keep them afloat and be “the hand that feeds them”.  If I owned a restaurant, the last thing I’d do is bite that hand!