Before anything else I want to greet all of you a Prosperous New Year! May this year bring a lot of BCH in our wallet and a COVID free world. Happy 2021!
My first article for this year is a continuation of my experiences in Working in the food industry. This is my 26th article since I joined almost a month ago and I thank you all for taking time to read my articles.
As of typing this, I don't know what reactions or comments I would receive in my previous article but if I may have offended some of you, I sincerely apologize as I am only expressing my thoughts. I also would like to apologize in advance if this article will offend any of you. I am sorry.
So for the third part of my article I am going to talk about bad service. Having bad service often leads to customer complaints. Have you encountered a terrible service in a restaurant? Can you share us your experience and what did you do and how did the management respond to your complaint?
As a guest, I have also experienced a bad service and the only thing that I can remember so far was when we ate in a newly opened restaurant. It is understandable since they are only in their soft opening. Service was slow and the bill took us about more than an hour waiting. It was because they had misplaced our order slip. So we enumerated what we ordered. But when we saw the bill, they forgot to include some of the dishes that we mentioned so we just wrote it down so that there wouldn't be any problem. As a complimentary, they gave us a dessert that was already in a take out container. It wasn't really necessary but we appreciated the gesture. We didn't lose our cool and waited patiently for our bill. Although my mom was already bored since we have been sitting there for so long. But my brother and I were always reminding her that we shouldn't get mad to the restaurant staffs because we also don't want that to happen to me. My brother is also generous in giving tips especially if we were well taken cared of.
As a restaurant supervisor, the one terrible service complaint that I have encountered was during a peak day. I forgot the occasion but I know there was an event. As expected during peak hours, there are a lot of guest, unbussed tables and staffs going back and forth. Just when the peak started to slow down, a family entered our restaurant without noticing our note which says, "Please wait to be seated" that was posted at our entrance door. Our receptionist and most of the opening shifts had already taken their break. So we only had a few staffs to to handle the after peak guests. There were still a lot of unbussed tables but there were also tables that were clean and has already a set up and this family of 4 just happened to pick the one that was still dirty and untidy. Seriously? I mean he (the father) already saw that we are all busy accommodating to other guest, bussing the other tables and a cashier that was on the cash register. Where was I? I was also busy attending to other guests.
The husband and his wife were standing beside the table while their children were already seated down. They kept on calling our attention to clean the tables so when one of the staffs had finished with the other guest, the staff cleaned the table and handed the menu. The father complained that the table was still wet. Of course what does he expect? We just wiped their table and all of our dry towels were already wet. Like I have said that peak hours have just slowed down. We had no choice but to use the table napkins.
Speaking of table napkins, I hope that we should be cautious in using table napkins as if the whole box is yours. I have seen a lot of guests who uses it with wiping the tables, chairs, utensils and even when they spilled something. Probably you might say, "Why do you care?". I care because it is included with the costs of the company. Yes, it is part of a business that they would incur some losses. Not only do I think about the company's expenses but I am also looking out for our environment. How many trees had to be cut down just to make a tissue and some people would just use it 1 sheet for every action. I hope that theough this article, you would be mindful of how you use the table napkins in food establishments.
My mom likes to ask for a lot of table napkins as if she can use them all. Sometimes she gets pissed when the staff would just give her one or two table napkins. Even if I explained to her that maybe the company is trying to cut their expenses by giving out few pieces of table napkins, we ended up arguing with each other. LOL. I even told her that maybe the company is also trying to save the environment. I have observed my mom and usually she just uses about 2 pieces of tissue. But my mom keeps the extra table napkins that she got in her bag and uses it when going to the washroom.
Going back to the family who went to the store. One bad service leads to another and another. The next complaint that he had was that he had to ask for condiments because the one on the table were already empty. And then another complaint. He still paid for their bill but he was really rude. He even threatened me that I should take care of myself. That time I wasn't in my right mind but after an hour I have realized that it was grave threat already. I should have gotten his details or call the attention of the mall guards to have him arrested. It is already a threat right? His tone really felt like he would do something to me. Honestly I was actually afraid to go home that night.
I know that bad service may have been prevented if only we had enough manpower and if I being the supervisor has managed the entire shift smoothly. It wouldn't have been escalated to a lot more complaints from him if I had just focused more to him when he started with his first complaint. What would be your thoughts with this scenario?
