Jackie Harder
It’s become a lunchtime ritual at this pricey establishment.
Patron: “I’ll have a cappuccino.”
Waiter: “Our cappuccino machine is broken.”
Patron, who’s heard this story for at least five years, adds a new twist to the dialog: “Oh. OK. I’ll just go to Restaurant X and get my coffee there.”
Waiter, getting defensive: “Those espresso machines cost a fortune.” Brief pause, then comes the kicker: “Besides, the staff doesn’t like making cappuccinos.”
Oh really. And here I thought it was all about the customer…not the staff.
What can you say? The inmates have taken over the asylum.
Maybe those machines are expensive. Maybe the drinks are a pain in the butt to make. Maybe it’s not the staff’s convenience that’s driving the decision, but something else entirely.
But if your patrons want espresso drinks – or anything else, for that matter – and you can justify the expense, should the staff’s attitude matter?
All company owners and managers want to treat their staffs well, hear their input. But running a business is not a hobby, nor is it a staff-driven popularity contest.
While this example is about restaurants, there are plenty of other businesses out there that fall into the same hole.
How about the doctor’s office? A woman with a risky pregnancy wanted to take her records to her new specialist, and the woman who answered the phone (clerk? nurse? cleaning lady?) got aggressive.
“What’s the matter?” she demanded. “Why are you going to another doctor? Isn’t Doctor Z good enough for you?”
Again – who’s running this joint? Sometimes you wonder if the boss is asleep at the switch.
I’ve heard enough similar stories about doctors’ offices that I’m convinced there is a special school where these front-line workers are taught how to be arrogant, offensive and unimaginably condescending.
Either that, or these dragons were born that way.
And it’s not just restaurants and doctors’ offices. They are legion.
Fortunately for local economies everywhere, many companies do have good customer service. Otherwise we’d all be doing business over the Internet.
Yes, you can get mad at a computer also, but you know most bumps along the way are due to operator error (that’s you).
But this screed is less about customer service and more about bosses who, for whatever reason, have lost touch with the front of the house.
The most charitable explanation: They’re not listening to what their employees are saying to their customers. They’re not working the floor themselves. They’re not talking to their customers to see how well the company is meeting their expectations.
The worst-case scenario: The bosses are jerks themselves and their employees are just passing that attitude on to an unsuspecting public. Or these bosses are simply tired of pushing that boulder up a hill and just give in and go along rather than fire everyone.
Of course, the public as a whole is pretty savvy and it won’t be long before the jerks lose their customers and the inmates lose their asylum.
- Jackie Harder
Who’s running your shop?
