Denny’s Restaurant, Cocoa Beach, FL

Lessons to make customers return

When writing about a new restaurant or hotel or bar or attraction I’ve recently visited, I can always find something positive to say about a place or the people or the food.  After all, in most cases the places we choose to stay, dine or drink are staffed by people just like us, and we are certainly not perfect.

We also must temper our expectations to match our wallets.  The standards we expect from a hotel charging $500 a night are vastly different from the amenities anticipated at a hotel charging $60 a night.  Similarly, we expect a different level of service, presentation and taste from a dinner costing $200 a person than we are going to get from a fast casual restaurant charging $10 a meal.

Even so, there are some minimum standards to be followed for all places frequented by the public, whatever their charge per person. 

So, rather than criticize the food, service and cleanliness of the Denny’s restaurant in Cocoa Beach, FL let me offer some suggestions for improvement at this restaurant.

1         .   If you don’t have enough servers to handle the number of patrons entering the restaurant, tell us that there will be a wait time when we enter.  Don’t take us to a table and leave us twiddling out thumbs for 15 or 20 minutes.

2         .   If you don’t have enough cooks to handle the seated customers, tell us there will be a wait time after when we are ordering our breakfast.  Don’t take our order then leave us wondering what is happening for another 15 or 20 minutes.

3         .   Please serve all the people at the table at the same time.  The server should not need to be reminded when one of the seated guests has not received a meal.

4         .   Please ensure the toilets are clean and usable.  It is not acceptable to expect patrons to use bathrooms with dirty sinks and with paper towels and toilet paper littering the floors.  My mother, along with countless other mothers always said that “cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

5         .   Please ensure someone on the staff knows how to use the cash register.  We were snapped at and made to feel really stupid for requesting they split the bill into two. This is the one and only time in a restaurant when my friend and I were unable to pay 50% of the bill each using two credit cards.

We will never return to this Denny’s and it will be a long time before we frequent any Denny’s restaurant.  This experience left us with a bad taste in our mouth.  We don’t expect to have a great meal when we go to Denny’s, but we do expect a pleasant experience with a nice meal of food similar to what we can prepare at home.  This experience wasn’t pleasant on any level.