On the House

I went to "lovely" Arlington, Texas for work. This is one of my least favorite trade shows because of the rather lame locale...the Arlington Convention Center...right next to Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor & the stadium where the Texas Rangers play. This time however I had a lovely turn of events that left me with a soft spot for a few key places within the city.

First, on Saturday morning, my coworker and I are driving through Starbucks for a caffeine kick. We place our order and drive up to the window. My coworker gets her Cafe Mocha & I get my banana nut loaf...but my Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte is no where in sight. After a few moments the cashier realizes that the order taker never actually marked a cup for me...so no one knew to make me a drink. She was real sweet & in no time she got someone to make up my Vanilla Latte. When she handed me the drink she also gave me a coupon for a free drink! I wasn't even upset...but she said she felt bad for making me wait. SWEET!

Second, on Sunday afternoon, we stop by Whole Foods to find some food to eat for lunch before the trade show started. My coworker and I both chose to get a little 8 inch pizza made fresh in a brick oven. The guy at the pizza oven said it would be about 12 min. We wonder around the wine section sampling cheeses on display. I head to the coffee bar & grab my stand by...a vanilla latte. I drink my latte. It seems like a lot of time has gone by. We head to the pizza oven...I see that there are no pizzas in the oven & I see two little 8 inch pizza crusts, topping-less, sitting on the counter. Hmmm...guess the pizza isn't ready. After browsing around for 15 more minutes the pizzas are finally ready. The pizza guy was so nice. He apologized and said things got busy after we placed our order. Since it took way longer than it was supposed to, he said our pizzas were on the house. SCORE!

Finally, on Sunday evening, after the trade show we stop by Chili's to grab a quick bite before driving back to Austin. We place our order. After hanging out with each other all weekend, my coworker and I have run out of interesting conversation topics. So, I grab the drink & dessert menu & start browsing. There are a few appetizers included on the menu & I comment how I totally dig Chili's chips & salsa. My coworker does too...so we get our waiters attention & ask if we can add that to our order. In no time he brought over our chips & salsa... it was deeeelicious. After eating our entree's the waiter was kind enough to split the check. I looked at my check...no chips & salsa. My coworker looked at her check...no chips & salsa. He gave us the chips & salsa for free! AWESOME!

Yeah, I know chips & salsa are like $2.50 at Chili's & the pizza's were only about $5 each. So, it's not like I got a free wardrobe or anything, but it still make me so happy each time. For Whole Foods & Starbucks, I think it is a great testament to their excellent customer service. I didn't even complain... they did their best to apologize for an instance of less than stellar service before I even had a chance to mention it. Had they not done this...I may have written a very different post...one that mentioned what terrible service I had all weekend.

So, kudos to the Arlington Starbucks & Whole Foods! Thanks for making my trip better :)