I have seen some very poor examples of customer service recently. This shocks me because it is not exactly an easy market at the moment, so the apathetic and slacking approach of some businesses has come somewhat as a surprise.
A few days ago I met up with some friends for a meal at a restaurant called Medussa in Stevenage. There were about 12 of us, so a big table! Two extra seats were requested, which the restaurant manager got very humpy about, because he had a birthday party scheduled within the next hour and wasn't sure of space. I could have sympathised with this sentiment (despite my belief that it should in no way have been conveyed to us as the customers!) except that when I looked around the restaurant it was basically empty! When the party did arrive they had plenty of space yet our party had been scolded.
Our orders were rushed. So much so that when I asked for a little more time to look at the menu the waitress said that she would not be bringing my meal out at the same time as everyone elses' meal if I didn't hurry up my choice. What?! I was so angry at that remark that I chose to order nothing. This means the business lost out. Very clever.
The meals came out so quickly. So quickly that it just reinforced how quickly they wanted us to leave in order for the birthday party to have full reign of the restaurant. I'd like to mention here that we even booked the table in advance. Throughout the whole meal you could see the manager shouting at the waitresses and the waitresses fluttering around with grumpy faces. Lovely atmosphere, of course.
How was the food? It was not actually too bad except the consistency was extremely poor. Two of my friends ordered salmon and one came with lemon and one came without. More importantly, the meal was very expensive yet half the size of what you would expect for that price.
Two of my other friends ordered strawberry cheesecake, of which one was completely different to the other! One of them was covered in strawberries and twice as high as the other one, which had just one slice of strawberry on the side and a dribble of strawberry sauce covering the top of it. When such a dessert costs £4.95 you expect a little more. In fact, one of my friends complained about their cheesecake being half the size of the other, to which the manager replied: 'No, they are the same size.' Firstly, the customer is always right, so even if they were the wrong size he should have apologised and brought out some more strawberries or done something else more positive, rather than just denying it was the case and insulting the customer!
I asked for a straw for my coke (which was £2.50!). Remember at this point I had no meal because the waitress refused to wait a few extra minutes for my order. About ten minutes later I turned around to find a straw had been chucked in front of me. The lack of care was incredible.
To put the icing on the cake, our bill came with a 12.5% additional service charge attached to it. They probably do this because they realised that no one tends to tip them...I wonder why?! But 12.5%?! This was ridiculous. At most a service charge should be 10%, but at least a service charge should be noted on the menu so that customers are aware from the outset of how much their meal is going to cost them.
Needless to say we left as quickly as they wanted, but by our own choice. Needless to say none of us will ever be dining there again. This is probably why the restaurant was so empty in the first place. Then businesses like this wonder why they make a loss and have to force customers to pay 12.5% service charge for a service that was -in fact- poor and rude. I'd happily pay that kind of charge for a deserving quality of service.
The point of this blog is to demonstrate the importance of the customer. We are the blood of your business, the air that you breathe. Without us the business will die. In that sense we expect to be treated with the requisite respect that someone so powerful deserves.
