If you ever read our comments, you probably noticed that Bonnie, a representative from Ivar’s Salmon House, found my “food is good” blog entry and my not-so-rave review of her restaurant, and offered to send us a full refund for our meal AND gift certificates for the same amount so that we could give them another chance.  I was obviously a little skeptical at first, since this sounded too good to be true, but I emailed her back and voila, we received the refund and the gift cards on Monday, 10/13/08.

We haven’t had a chance to try out the restaurant again yet, but I feel like i MUST comment on what a stellar example of customer service this is.  First, I think that this is an absolute genius move for any small to medium sized business- in the long run, this isn’t a big expense for Ivar’s, but it has made a world of difference in the way that I view the company and how I will think about their restaurants in the future.  This makes me feel like the company really cares about its customers and its brand, which is important to me.  I also think it’s a great example of a business that takes advantage of easily accessible web technology, like something as simple as Google Alerts, to go the extra mile to keep their brand recognition on non-traditional media sources, like this silly little blog about my unimportant life.  As a result, I will go back and try their food.  And when I’m craving a big Diet Coke straight from the fountain, I’ll make it a point to go to a Kidd Valley location (a local fast food chain that is owned by the same company that owns Ivar’s) instead of McDonalds or 7-11, because I know that I’m supporting a company that actually gives a damn.

I’ll post when we have the chance to use our gift certificates.  This whole experience has kind of intrigued me about customer service and the internet and blogs in general- has anybody else ever had an experience like this?