Problems at My Favorite Restaurant: The Cheesecake Factory

I am a huge Cheesecake Factory fan. I verge on being fanatical about my Cheesecake Factory. I call it my Cheesecake Factory because I am a shareholder. I've bought and sold Cheesecake Factory stock and made profits from it. I went so far as to have my investment group buy the stock. We loved the Cheesecake Factory so much that we had our investment club meetings held there. I preface the positive tone to say that I am concerned about changes the company made. Recently, I've notice a few problems that tarnish the company image.

They say that when a customer is upset, they tell 6 people. When a customer is happy they tell 2 or 3. I would agree with that. I learned that first hand with an irate customer of my own. This customer didn't come back to me to tell me that they were upset. The customer went out to tell others in an effort to be vicious. The lesson was learned none the less. I treat customers as I would like to be treated. I strive to treat customers better than they would expect. You can not please everyone all the time but with good customer service you can try.

I experienced problematic instances with Cheesecake Factory over a period of years. In recent months, I've seen more issues. All my recent negative times have happened at one particular cheesecake factory within the last 6 months. I still consider it a company wide problem because some changes are based upon the standard Cheesecake Factory menu. Here are the five things I noticed about my favorite restaurant that concerned me:

5) Cheesecake Factory Had No wait:

Now if you know anything about Cheesecake factory, you know that there is usually a wait. I've visited them on a Wednesday in the middle of a monsoon during the summer and there was a 1 hour wait. As a shareholder, I was pleased to see that. I went to the Cheesecake Factory recently and, we had literally no wait. For me, it took the ambiance away from what you do when you go there. I've since been back and had no wait 4 more times on different days.

4) Cheesecake Factory Had Menu Changes: