As is often the case for many people who do a lot of public speaking for a cause such as quality assurance and regulatory affairs, I am the owner of many generous gift cards from the grateful recipients of my public presentations. Among them, were two for a well-known gourmet restaurant. Not one to waste such stipends, I invited a pal to join me for a high end lunch.
It is not that I really expected the experience to be worth the money the meal would otherwise have cost, but I do expect that it not be of lesser quality than the corner coffee shop or, at least, than a fast food drive through window. More specifically, I expect the people I am dealing with to be polite and honest.
The selection I coveted included a glopping side serving of mashed potatoes. Despite my robust figure, the thought of sucking down a half pound of mashed potatoes on the dining patio in 80+ degrees F weather did not sit well. What would have, was a garden salad… except I have a bit of a problem digesting certain common raw vegetables. Fruit goes down better. So… I asked if the gloppy side dish could be replaced with some seasonal fresh fruit. Mind you… this is not an uncommon request for Southern Californians and, in particular, I have met with great success in requesting this substitution at many other eateries, including all corner coffee shops. Despite this, the young waitress looked me straight in the eye and said: “Sorry, we don’t have fresh fruit.” I was aghast. I looked her straight back in the eye and said… “You’ve got to be kidding…. NO fresh fruit?!” “None.”, she declared, without a moment’s hesitation.
Imagine my irritation when the self same waitress appeared about 5 minutes later with a garnish of one huge plump ripe strawberry and one juicy slice of pineapple perched nicely on my peach smoothie. Before she zipped away…. I caused her to pause. I said: “Is this fruit safe to eat?” She gave me a puzzled look… to which I responded: “Well, you said you had no fresh fruit so, in that this is fruit, I am assuming it is not fresh…. “. She said… “Well, I meant that we do not serve fresh fruit as a side dish. THAT… is a garnish.” I said: “It looks a lot like fresh fruit to me. Why couldn’t you have thrown a few pieces on my plate? I don’t care whether you call it a side dish or a garnish.” With a piercing look of utter disdain, she spun around on her heels and left, tossing a phrase filled with finality: “Because we DON’T.” over her shoulder on the way out.
My lunch partner looked at me with mild disdain, as well. “A bit harsh, weren’t you?” Now my ire was UP. I had just been LIED to and unceremoniously DISSED by a person in the “hospitality” profession…. and I was the one at fault?! I was tempted to make the rest of her service to me as miserable an experience for both of us as possible, just out of principle…. but I decided to have mercy on my lunch partner… and (thus) on the misguided serving wench.
So…. what WAS the cost of that little fib? Well…. let me TELL you! Privately (or to anybody who emails me to ask), whenever the conversation turns to the service quality of restaurants, I WILL share the name of the restaurant chain that tolerates personnel who are dishonest and disrespectful to customers and, more specifically, who tolerated an employee who was dishonest and disrespectful to ME. I WILL go into details. I will state the specific location. I WILL NOT… patronize that establishment again, despite their arrogant claims of superiority.
Frankly, a so-called “high quality” restaurant that makes so little profit selling food that it has to sell advertising in it’s menu just to make up the difference probably isn’t long for this world, anyway. A few of the less tasteful advertisements in the menu had a negative impact on my appetite, anyway (pun intended). I wonder if the managers realize that the ads are at cross-purpose to selling food. Probably not. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn’t listen to their customers even if one tried to tell them.
Anyway, for those of you in the service and hospitality businesses, or even just serving customers from within another type of organization… if you don’t think honesty and respect for customers matters today…. it will… tomorrow. Think about this little story before you insincerely say: “Sorry, we don’t have fruit.” while looking at a truckload of it sitting just far enough behind the scenes to not be immediately apparent to the customer. Sure, it may not be on your menu… it may not be an authorized “option”…. you may not have been taught how to “deal with it”…. your decision makers may be too busy to offer guidance….. you might even have been given a procedure that clearly discourages the use of “fresh fruit” but…. if its there…. and you don’t at least acknowledge it when a customer asks about it… it could cost you and your company a lot more than a few moments of inconvenience or <gasp> the burden of having to figure out something new or different. Customers have a way of figuring things out. Especially when you slap them in the face with it.
My waitress probably didn’t think it mattered that she boldly declared there was no fresh fruit five minutes before she served me fresh fruit in a “slightly different context”. It did. It always does. Learn from her mistake… and that of the company that employs her. There is ALWAYS a high cost for lying to a customer. They’ll pay theirs. In fact, they’ve already started to pay, haven’t they? Send me an email for the name of this famous restaurant chain and the location of the restaurant where this happened. I can be reached through the CAPAtrak “contact us” page. Just be sure to put: “Tell me the name of the restaurant” in the subject line.
The HIGH Cost of Lying to Customers – Are You Paying It?
Posted by Diane Kulisek on June 19, 2007
It is not that I really expected the experience to be worth the money the meal would otherwise have cost, but I do expect that it not be of lesser quality than the corner coffee shop or, at least, than a fast food drive through window. More specifically, I expect the people I am dealing with to be polite and honest.
The selection I coveted included a glopping side serving of mashed potatoes. Despite my robust figure, the thought of sucking down a half pound of mashed potatoes on the dining patio in 80+ degrees F weather did not sit well. What would have, was a garden salad… except I have a bit of a problem digesting certain common raw vegetables. Fruit goes down better. So… I asked if the gloppy side dish could be replaced with some seasonal fresh fruit. Mind you… this is not an uncommon request for Southern Californians and, in particular, I have met with great success in requesting this substitution at many other eateries, including all corner coffee shops. Despite this, the young waitress looked me straight in the eye and said: “Sorry, we don’t have fresh fruit.” I was aghast. I looked her straight back in the eye and said… “You’ve got to be kidding…. NO fresh fruit?!” “None.”, she declared, without a moment’s hesitation.
Imagine my irritation when the self same waitress appeared about 5 minutes later with a garnish of one huge plump ripe strawberry and one juicy slice of pineapple perched nicely on my peach smoothie. Before she zipped away…. I caused her to pause. I said: “Is this fruit safe to eat?” She gave me a puzzled look… to which I responded: “Well, you said you had no fresh fruit so, in that this is fruit, I am assuming it is not fresh…. “. She said… “Well, I meant that we do not serve fresh fruit as a side dish. THAT… is a garnish.” I said: “It looks a lot like fresh fruit to me. Why couldn’t you have thrown a few pieces on my plate? I don’t care whether you call it a side dish or a garnish.” With a piercing look of utter disdain, she spun around on her heels and left, tossing a phrase filled with finality: “Because we DON’T.” over her shoulder on the way out.
My lunch partner looked at me with mild disdain, as well. “A bit harsh, weren’t you?” Now my ire was UP. I had just been LIED to and unceremoniously DISSED by a person in the “hospitality” profession…. and I was the one at fault?! I was tempted to make the rest of her service to me as miserable an experience for both of us as possible, just out of principle…. but I decided to have mercy on my lunch partner… and (thus) on the misguided serving wench.
So…. what WAS the cost of that little fib? Well…. let me TELL you! Privately (or to anybody who emails me to ask), whenever the conversation turns to the service quality of restaurants, I WILL share the name of the restaurant chain that tolerates personnel who are dishonest and disrespectful to customers and, more specifically, who tolerated an employee who was dishonest and disrespectful to ME. I WILL go into details. I will state the specific location. I WILL NOT… patronize that establishment again, despite their arrogant claims of superiority.
Frankly, a so-called “high quality” restaurant that makes so little profit selling food that it has to sell advertising in it’s menu just to make up the difference probably isn’t long for this world, anyway. A few of the less tasteful advertisements in the menu had a negative impact on my appetite, anyway (pun intended). I wonder if the managers realize that the ads are at cross-purpose to selling food. Probably not. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn’t listen to their customers even if one tried to tell them.
Anyway, for those of you in the service and hospitality businesses, or even just serving customers from within another type of organization… if you don’t think honesty and respect for customers matters today…. it will… tomorrow. Think about this little story before you insincerely say: “Sorry, we don’t have fruit.” while looking at a truckload of it sitting just far enough behind the scenes to not be immediately apparent to the customer. Sure, it may not be on your menu… it may not be an authorized “option”…. you may not have been taught how to “deal with it”…. your decision makers may be too busy to offer guidance….. you might even have been given a procedure that clearly discourages the use of “fresh fruit” but…. if its there…. and you don’t at least acknowledge it when a customer asks about it… it could cost you and your company a lot more than a few moments of inconvenience or <gasp> the burden of having to figure out something new or different. Customers have a way of figuring things out. Especially when you slap them in the face with it.
My waitress probably didn’t think it mattered that she boldly declared there was no fresh fruit five minutes before she served me fresh fruit in a “slightly different context”. It did. It always does. Learn from her mistake… and that of the company that employs her. There is ALWAYS a high cost for lying to a customer. They’ll pay theirs. In fact, they’ve already started to pay, haven’t they? Send me an email for the name of this famous restaurant chain and the location of the restaurant where this happened. I can be reached through the CAPAtrak “contact us” page. Just be sure to put: “Tell me the name of the restaurant” in the subject line.
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This entry was posted on June 19, 2007 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Day-to-Day Observations, Social Commentary. Tagged: consumer, customer, honesty, lies, quality, restaurant, service, truth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.