Restaurant Rampage

When you're hungry you want to eat. If you're tired and hungry you want the food made for you. So most people grace their presence at a restaurant so they can fulfill their hunger while feeding their laziness. When you enter a restaurant you are considered to be a guest. However, sometimes people are the guests from hell!
I have worked at restaurants and I have a friend who has also had a wealth of restaurant experience. Being a server is not an easy job. Sure, the concept is easy. But carrying out the concept is not so easy.
Maybe you can handle the stress of making sure multiple tables are happy with their service and that their drinks are always full. Maybe you can handle it when the kitchen is being slow and one of your tables has been waiting for their food for more than eight minutes. Maybe you can handle when you drop a tray full of drinks right in front of your first table of the day. But dealing with human interaction when chaos is going on can be the worst!
For example, I have heard many stories of a customer receiving the wrong food. This is probably the most common complaint I have heard at every place I've worked at. There are times where craziness is happening and the wrong meal was given to the guest.
How about this: the server takes the right plate of food and the guest says that this is not what they ordered. So where did things go wrong? Let's see! Let's say the guest orders chicken alfredo penne. The server writes down the order and sends the order to the kitchen. The kitchen then prepares the food for the server to bring to the guest at their table.
And there before the guest is a ravishing plate of chicken alfredo penne. Is it penne? Yes. Is it with alfredo sauce? Yes. Is it with chicken? Yes. So why does the guest say the food is wrong? Perhaps when they ordered it they envisioned something completely different. Perhaps they have a "usual" they order and for once they order something different but out came the usual order (old habits die hard?). Perhaps when they pointed at the picture of food they thought the little red diced food was tomatoes and not red bell pepper. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it is getting harder to believe that certain things people do are actually mistakes.
There are people out there who do this. It happens more often than you think. If you work at a restaurant you know that too many mistakes can get you canned. Now knowing this, don't you think your server wants to get your order right the first time?
Although the restaurant wants to make sure that you have a once-in-a-lifetime experience, they want to do it without being robbed blind! Food costs add up quickly when half the guests are rejecting the food brought to them. Keep that up you won't have a place to eat!
There are times where you should tell your server if something is wrong with your food, but if you changed your mind don't accuse the server of getting the order wrong!
Next time you're at a restaurant, remember that the people working there are trying to make a living. And don't be stupid and "forget" to tip! 

New Year, But still so much stupid!

We're waiting near a corner of two one-way streets. What happened before our eyes? A car turned the wrong way on the one way street! Both lanes had cars approaching this stray car and all I heard next was a horn honking. The stray car pulled over to the side and ducked into a parking lot to turn around.

I don't know about you, but where I live we have a way to tell people that it's a one way road. It's a sign. All people need to do is take half a second out of their life to glance at the intersection to see any important information they might need to know... like "don't go there!!!"
It may be a new year but the stupid is still going strong.

I think the moral of the story is that stupid never rests! First day of the new year and THAT'S what people are doing!

I think for some people this would be a wonderful new year's resolution: open your eyes and pay attention! It could save a life... maybe two!

Happy New Year's!

New Years Nonsense

It is nearing the end of one year and beginning a new one. Many people decide to make resolutions.

The problem many people encounter with resolutions is the overwhelming change of lifestyle goals. They're trying to change too much too fast. Sure it would be great if you lost 60 pounds while you learn Polish, become more confident and quit smoking. Oh, and don't forget to send out good karma while you learn to keep a budget. That is the accomplishments for January.

New Year's resolutions are a good thing when used properly. It will give you motivation to better yourself and to carry out your goals. The key is to be realistic. If you want to lose weight your goal should be to lose 10 lbs by the end of January.

Don't expect to change who you are and become something totally different. It's good to better yourself but whether or not you accomplish your goal, you're still going to be you.
If you want to exercise, try riding a bike to work. You might like it.

Have a happy new year and don't be stupid!

Christmas Crazy!

When Thanksgiving ends and the Christmas season begins many people go on a spending spree. Not out of fun, but out of a perceived expectation.

Consumers raid the malls looking for a gift for everyone they know. Their family, their friends, their co-workers, their co-worker's dog... you get the picture. One thing these people have in common, they're likely spending money on a gift that doesn't necessarily equal the appreciation the person receiving it should have.

We've all experienced this: you get a present from your good friend who thinks they know you better than they do and it's a music CD of some band you've never heard of. You politely accept the CD and you never end up listening to it.

Instead of wasting your time on buying things that end up being unappreciated, give them something from the heart. If you aren't the creative type, making a gift may be out of the question. What you can do is tell someone how much they mean to you. It doesn't have to be creative, it just has to be honest. It won't cost a thing and the person receiving the message will appreciate it a lot.

If you must buy someone something likely you're going to the mall to buy it. When you go to a mall, beware! Entering a retail environment can be stressful and overwhelming. This is especially true during the holiday season. Many people spend all day shopping to spend what money they don't have. This makes people irritable and not "in the holiday spirit". This creates many less than ideal situations amongst the shoppers. People need to remember that everyone is there for the same purpose. Keeping this in mind helps put things into perspective.

However, if people focused on the true meaning of Christmas, then when you get just a card from someone you will appreciate it rather than wonder where the rest of it is. Then the need for a mega shopping trip won't be necessary.

Merry Christmas!

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Shout Out!

I want to shout out to all of you who read my blog! Thank you!

Shout out to Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Canada and the USA!

New blog post coming soon! One more before Christmas!

New Logo!

Here is a picture of the new official logo. It was time to have something original.

Customer Service Silliness

The customer is always right--false! If that were true you could be caught red-handed stealing an item in a store and as long as you say you already paid for it you will be let go without any penalty. You may even get a small gift on the way out for your trouble.

That line that customers use to manipulate is seen as a trump card in their eyes. The problem is, when ever I've seen a customer play that card it's always rejected. Why? The only people stupid enough to use that line are the people who know they're trying to work the system. Just when they think they can't win, they think they found a way to back the business they're up against into a corner. However the business has every right to tell them no!

It's more of a sign of weakness on the customer's part. They're basically saying, this is the last chance I'm giving you. They say it like they have some sort of pull when in fact the employee dealing with them would love for the customer to leave.

I worked for a fast food company a while back. During orientation they tell you there are two rules to customer service: First, the customer is always right. Second, if the customer is wrong, see the first rule. This is all fine and dandy in the training room where the trainers have their own world where everything is perfect and clear-cut. But outside of these doors lies the real world where most of the time situations fall into a grey area.

For example, I was working the drive-thru and this big order was on the screen. We had an automated drink dispenser that took care of the sodas for you. You just put a lid on the drink and hand it to the customer. There were about five drinks for this order. When the car arrived at my window I handed this lady the drinks and left to get the food. It wasn't ready yet so I got the drinks for the next order. The lady handed me a drink and insisted she didn't order it. I told her all the drinks she ordered and she still insisted she had an extra drink. Because "the customer is always right", I took the drink from her and I left to get her food. I came back with the food and she told me that in fact the drink she would not accept is actually something she is finally willing to admit that she did order. Because "the customer is always right" I was able to get her the drink.

If this philosophy is correct, was she right the first time, the second time or was she right at all? There are major flaws in what I see in this magical phrase. First, in my experience the customer is hardly right.

And getting back to the training, I don't believe anyone followed that rule. Well, maybe they did if someone wealthy was complaining, or if they were a mystery shopper.

Working in banking offers plenty of interesting situations. I haven't heard that "trump-card" phrase there... ever. That doesn't mean the customer isn't thinking in that frame of mind. If something doesn't go their way they say something like, "well, can't you...". Usually that phrase ends with something that would break the rules set up by corporate, or even the government. Sometimes I would love to tell a customer, if you want that to happen you can write a letter to the leader of our country and when he says it's okay, I would be more than happy to help you with that.

The other phrase you hear in banking from the customer is, "...or I'm taking my money from your bank." Usually when I hear that it is something we can't help them with. Either our hands are tied by rules or regulations or what they're demanding is just not possible.

I have more banking stories to tell in the future! There's some good ones!

There are customers who are never satisfied. Even if we did follow that first rule in customer service, it wouldn't be good enough. I've seen situations where the business bent over backwards to help the customer and the customer says that the business is being greedy or mean. Those are the customers you are glad to see leave!

I choose not to follow the rule, but that doesn't mean I don't give the customer the benefit of the doubt. I just choose to follow the rules and regulations of the company rather than follow a rule that could get me in trouble, or worse, the company in trouble! Besides, losing your job over a philosophy is lame!