When I was a young boy, my parents taught me to be a good boy, to stand up for what I believe in, and to play by the rules. Those rules applied to anyone that wanted to be just a good boy as I was, and ultimately to those that “wanted to go to heaven”. These rules slowly transposed to everyday situations, and quickly enough I understood instructions in public transport, at cinemas or other public places to be important and to be followed. The example I want to focus on today is restaurants.
You are taught to sit up straight, not to play with your phone, generally: to follow standards that were in some case created hundreds of years ago. You are also asked to order from a menu as this is what the chef decided to be the best – the chef’s rules so to speak.
Now it seems that the older you get, the more you start appreciating them rules not being applied for you (or is that just me?). When I go to a restaurant, and I fancy a particular dish, but with a different side or prepared in a different way, and the waiter/chef agrees to this without any issues, I feel valued in my desires as a customer. The same goes for me going to a restaurant in a very casual attire, and not being looked at funny, as this confirms to me that my personality is more likeable than my clothing style is dis-likeable.
It has come to my attention that asian (in particular chinese) restaurants apply this to new as well as to existing customers. If there is a particular dish you fancy that is not on the menu, and if they for instance bought this type of dish for their family, they will still prepare it for you. If you go to a chinese restaurant at 4 in the afternoon, for as long as there is someone there that knows how to start the oven, they will prepare a delicious meal for you. I am under the impression that only Adriano&Co in Luxembourg has the same positive approach as a non-asian restaurant.
The question remains whether this makes me feel:
- valued as a customer as they build their model around me
- or important enough for the others to break their rules to please me
What do you think, and do you believe other service providers should bend their rules more often? Should the rules be adapted so as to reflect the needs of a changing society? No more menus or fixed serving times –> flexibility for workers that need to work ever more flexible hours?
I don’t know if this is relevant but here are 2 REGULAR aspects of my customer experience at a local fast food outlet. Bare in mind, it is one of the many cheap, greasy fried chicken shops.
1) the meal deals on offer dont interest me so i choose to buy food individually regardless of missing out on the wonderful combinations offered. I could get a steak burger, 2 chicken wings and fries for £2.50 but i HATE chicken wings. so i choose to buy the burger and fries seperately at a cost of £2.20. remember – for 30p more i could get those wings.
So i tell the guys behind the counter to get me the burger and fries (£2.20) and how i dont want the wings and i dont care about the £2.50 deal and yet these guys will f***ing argue with me about how its cheaper to get more food. even though the very first thing i said was I didn’t give a shit about any deals!
2) now this point here would make anyone jump over the counter and kill the guy serving. i estimate this has happened at least a hundred times over the last 3 yrs and it continues to happen. it doesn’t always happen but i could almost bet my life on it happening EVERY time with one particular guy.
as takeaways, steak burgers are wrapped in crappy thin paper and get bashed around and get cold quickly. chicken burgers on the other hand, cost more and are placed into the golden carton boxes everyone is familiar with. this is what all burgers should be stored in.
before the guy behind the counter prepares my steak burger, i tell him to place it in the carton box and 10 seconds later i see him putting my burger in the shitty paper packaging!!! so i remind him again and he complies. THIS happens almost every time. why? the guy couldnt get it right to save his life. one of these days i’m gonna jump over the counter and shove his head into the frying oil.
You may be wondering why i suffer this despite being aware the service never changes. all i can say is you get what you pay for and £2.20 won’t get you shit anywhere else 😀
lmao
Such a great example of poor customer service, yet your point validates the whole situation. Steak sandwich for 2.20? Well, some would even buy it even if it had fallen on the ground.
Price sensitivity is probably higher for you as you see the poor service, and that is why you mentionned the cost to be 2.20, not “about 2 quid”, not “less than a fiver”. It’s 2.20, and if tomorrow, it’s 2.30, you’ll notice and not be pleased 😛
Keep em coming 😉
lol i got loads of these…
here’s another:
there’s a indian restaurant in town. i’ve been going there for 20 yrs now. it is the only place in the entire world where i will buy a kebab roll from.
it costs £1.50 and what you get is a 6 inch long kebab covered in salad, with spicey chutney sauce, wrapped in naan bread. here’s the thing though – i don’t actually like the kebab inside. for me the highlight of this snack is the soft naan bread and the salad/sauce.
so a yr ago i finally decided: f*** the kebab. get the kebab roll without the kebab. this is the equivolent of getting a burger with no burger inside – just the bun and salad. so i tell the guy behind the counter to prepare a kebabroll without the kebab. understandably, he thinks wtf is wrong with this guy? he’s never heard of this before and thinks i’m f***ing with him.
anyway, the guy makes it and although i was prepared to pay full price for it (£1.50), he tells me it’s just £1 because there is no kebab inside. i think great! wow.
now the next time i go in, a different guy serves me. i tell him the same thing: kebab roll with no kebab. this guy goes ape-shit.
he tells me no way. if i want that, i gotta buy the ingredients seperately or buy the kebab roll with a kebab inside, exactly as everyone else! i tell him i’ll pay the full price of £1.50 like i have always been prepared to do. he doesnt wanna hear it. i tell him if he puts a kebab inside, i am just gonna throw that shit away. he doesnt care EVEN THOUGH HE COULD SELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY WANTS IT.
so i go with it and buy the kebabroll with the kebab at full price and leave.
i thought to myself afterwards, why did he freak out? i think he heard about me from the first guy or someone else. i think it turned out that the ingredients seperately (naan bread + sauce + salad, i requested) had a cumulative price of more than the £1.50 ‘deal’ that was set for the kebab roll. or maybe the guy wanted to protect his own ass in case i returned and accused him of forgetting to insert a kebab in a kebab roll (no matter how ludicrous and unlikely this is to even happen).
so once again excellent customer service provided by competent guys behind the counter. sales staff who IMPOSE a meal deal and REFUSE to give the customer what the customer wants even though it would SAVE THEM MONEY by witholding stock (as requested) + CHARGING THE SAME PRICE as agreed by the goddamn customer.
God, I love this town….