Restaurants do lots of things to be "edgy." They try gimmicks to differentiate themselves from the competition. An Italian place has its servers write their names in crayon, upside-down and backward, sothe table can read it. Another joint's employees hurl rolls at each other from across the room. And the Smokey Bones chain apparently leaves hand-written "jokes" on the table.
Today was our first visit. We went to the store near Easton. Seemed like an okay place at first. They sat us relatively quickly. But when we got to the table, we found The Note. No, it wasn't directed at us. It was waiting for whomever the next patrons might happen to be.
That didn't make it any less offensive.
"Do vampires get AIDS?" it said in big, hand-written, yellow letters.
"Well, that's just ignorant," I said. It's inappropriate on at least a dozen levels. There is no reason for that to be on a restaurant table. It speaks volumes about the education and sensitivity training that still need to be done.
I was ready to walk out immediately. Dan was calm and cool... unphased... willing to give them the benefit of the doubt... until the server arrived.
The guy showed up at the table all smiles. Dan handed him the note and said, "The bus boy must have forgotten to remove this." "Oh no," the server said. "That's supposed to be there." Benefit of the doubt relinquished, Dan --who is not usually one to cause a scene-- instantly rose from the booth and declared, "That's just ignorant. We're outta here." The kid was stunned.
As we headed for the door, we asked for a manager. The server handed him the message before sending him over to us. He told us "the kids bring in lists of these jokes that they print from the Internet." He says he usually pre-approves what actually goes to the tables... but this one got through... and he agreed it was inappropriate. He didn't make any effort to try to win back the two customers he had just lost. The discussion was brief... and, it seemed, fell on uncaring, unsympathetic ears.
We will not go back. And we shall not speak kindly of the establishment.
Whoever thought it was funny needs a serious lesson in customer relations. There's a fine line between "edgy" (as the manager called it), and downright offensive.
Posts
1 comment:
Wow "no effort was made to keep you" It is obvious this 'manager' doesn't know thing one about customer service nor customer retention. He must have never heard Rule Number one: The Customer is always right! nor Rule number one part b: The customer is always right even if they are wrong. I have many years in customer service and 12 of them in management. One thing I was taught early in that job was if one person doesn't like the service they tell ten people and those ten tell ten more. Then soon you will be out of business because that multiplied amount doesn't like your service, even if they never set foot in your door.
Post a Comment