Why can’t people understand this? Part 1

It’s really not something that’s difficult.  In fact I’d say it’s fairly basic, something most people I think take for granted a little too much.  Let me see if I can lay this out to you in something a little more informative and engaging then me being blunt. To start with imagine that you’re in a restaurant having walked in on a hot summer day…


Now your there the place is having a light day, only one or two other customers, the staff are spending most of their time cleaning, or doing other routine jobs.  You walk in and order the fried chicken and a drink.  The waitress brings you the wrong drink… diet instead of regular.  That’s alright every now and then we all mishear someone, or do something without properly looking, i.e. mistakes happen.  She quickly gets you another drink.

You finish your first glass since you were thirsty and look around, hoping for a refill.  Your waitress instead of seeing your glass is empty is in the back chatting and gossiping with another waitress.  You wait, and wait, and finally 15 minutes later *DING* she goes over and grabs your plate of chicken.  She brings it over and seeing that your class is empty, she asks if you’d like another.
Of course you say yes, and you start to nibble the chicken.  Eating it your careful … something seems slightly off but you can’t put your finger on it.  She brings you the now refilled glass when you look down and see… yep bright pink… your chicken is raw, and checking it COLD on the inside.  You look at your waitress choking back the urge to be sick (after all who wants raw chicken with a side of salmonella?) and ask for something else.

Here’s where our scenario takes two wildly different possibilities and one similar to another but that goes above and beyond.

1. The waitress looks at you and says there isn’t anything wrong.  You insist, and grudgingly she takes the chicken back muttering about “picky customers”.  She comes back a minute or two later with the same chicken, only it’s been thrown in a microwave for 4 or 5 minutes so technically it’s hot, and no longer raw… or at least less raw. You eat everything but the chicken to try to keep it down, go to pay and she takes your money, no discount, then comes out to flip you the bird when you give her no tip.
2. The waitress apologizes and takes the chicken back immediately.  You see her talk to the chef letting him know there is a problem, and either brings you back new chicken or something else (of your choice) entirely.  Again she apologizes and is much more attentive when you  leave she apologizes again, and says she hopes to see you soon.  No discount, but at least she was friendly.
3. The waitress is aghast, she apologizes profusely (but not so much as to be annoying) and takes the food back SHOWING the chef, and letting him know there is a problem.  She then comes back with a menu and asks you if there’s anything else she can get you, you politely decline but she again offers, even offering you a slice of pie on the house.  You accept, and when you go to pay for the bill she shakes her head, and tells you since you had the bad chicken, it’s all on the house… no charge.

These three scenarios take us down 3 different paths, ones most of us have to one extent or another been on at some point in our past.  The first one is perhaps the clearest and most obvious, but for the sake of clarity lets break this down a little more.

To start with the waitress has gotten off on a sour note.  She should be circulating, attentive to her customers, getting refills and such even while doing other tasks.  Her failure in this respect (since they weren’t busy) is already bad customer service… worse gossip and chatter shouldn’t be on the floor for customers to see.  Minimally it happens with coworkers but 15 minutes of it means the owner (at least in Oregon) has just paid you 2.20 (rounding up) to NOT DO YOUR JOB.

That’s the base, now in #1 the waitress has forgotten the first rule of thumb for good customer service: “The customer is always right, even when they are wrong.”  This doesn’t mean that you let the customer walk all over you and get away with unreasonable demands unlike how so many people take it.  No instead this means that if the customer is making a reasonable request that is within your ability to grant, you do so.  A great example is pasta.

Some people like their pasta very al dente while others prefer it much more done.  Both are right, and let’s face it, pasta is pretty cheap.  It’s much better customer service to replace a bowl of pasta for a customer, than it is to replace a customer.  In short, she should have replaced the chicken, and let the cook know about the problem immediately by not doing this she’s actually putting the health of you and other customers at risk.

Next some sort of compensation should have occurred… even it was only an apology. Most people know mistakes happen and will know that a restaurant doesn’t want to lose its license to operate; a small gratuity would help mend fences. Instead she charges you fully and gets mad when you don’t leave her a good tip.

This leads to the final point for this scenario. The impression she leaves though her attitude, and response to your response to her, is going to leave a bad taste in … well anyone’s mouth. It’s likely you are going to have second thoughts about eating there again regardless of past experiences. In other words she completely failed at providing any level of customer service.
(See Part 2 for the remainder of this extended post)