Dear Byron Hamburgers … Our RAW Customer Service!?

Byron BurgerOn 18 May, my dear old friend Sara treated me to a day out which included … a London Open-Top Bus Tour and a visit to a Byron Hamburger restaurant in Central London, which left a bad taste in our mouths afterwards.

I would have written this blog earlier, but have been engaged in other pressing matters. However, I remember the Sunday at Byron pretty well. It was a scorching day and a great one Sara and I had enjoyed, up until this point.

We’ve been friends for twenty years, so make sure our time together is one that nurtures our friendship.

Anyway, after a tired and extremely hot day we entered the said Byron restaurant and waited some time to be seated. This is despite several staff members looking directly at us, even having eye-contact.

It was then that Sara being the strong Scouse woman she is, decided to sit us at a table herself – which in hindsight was funny, but the start of our dismal customer service.

Equally, when we arrived at Byron it wasn’t even busy – so this couldn’t have been an excuse, and there was many members of staff on duty.

I remember writing on one of Byron’s in-house ‘customer comment’ cards that “first impressions” are everything, but didn’t hand it in at the end as the impressions got worse – which, led to this blog.

After finally being served, Sara and I began to tuck into our food.

As we did, the manager and a couple of employees gathered to the side of us near the till. It was then that they started to be unflattering towards another employee, we were unsure was on or off duty.

This went on throughout us eating.

At one point, I had to stop Sara from saying something to them as she was clearly ready to.

We tried to enjoy our food as best we could, but it honestly was an unpleasant experience at Byron.

Sara at ByronWe digested our burgers somewhat uncomfortably, paid up and left. It was me who said to Sara to not create a scene at the restaurant to do with the lack of customer service, as I would highlight it in my writing via my blog.

Companies are not soft and now know the power of social media, my experience at Pret of late being a clear example. Byron could learn a lot from this and Pret. I thought, Sara and I debating a bad experience with a restaurant manager who probably didn’t care anyway was pointless compared to raising it on my blog with an audience of 82,000.

I tweeted @byronhamburgers a week or so after our experience and to be fair to them, they did respond with the following … “ Sorry to hear that Max, which restaurant were you in? Would you mind emailing us with some details? byron@byronhamburgers.com”.

So, here it is.

Moaning for moaning sake is pointless, that’s why I’m always mindful when I challenge bad customer service and the likes as you have to know which battles to fight (as such). With Byron on this occasion, they failed Sara and I.

To finish, I had visited Byron in North London a few times before and the service was good. So maybe, we were at the wrong restaurant at the wrong time.

That said, on this occasion Sara’s burger may have been medium rare but the service was raw 😮

Take care, Max.