In an age where everyone is so entitled, people tend to forget how to draw the line. I feel bad for whoever made up the slogan "The customer is always right," (he must be kicking himself for that) because, let's face it, the customer is only right about 60% of the time. People will complain about ANYTHING and managers have become jaded and bitter. They don't care about your bullshit as much as you don't care about theirs. They just want to clock in, do what they have to do and then clock out. It's come to that. Now, I am not saying that there aren't people who don't take passion in their positions and don't love what they do, but in this day and age (yes, I feel I am old enough to say that), people in a high position within the service industry quickly become jaded, resentful, and bitter.
I decided to write this article because today I received such amazing customer service that I feel the need to write about it. Here is what happened.
This morning, I got paid for an extra job I did on top of my regular full time job. For the first time in I don't know how long, I wanted to take my family out for dinner. It was going to be a little family date. We looked around first to see which restaurants have kid's eat free (since I am quite possibly the cheapest person in the world besides George Banks), but there was nothing. Then my husband realized that Montana's was all you can eat ribs.
Now, if you know my family, you know how crazy they are for ribs. I could take them or leave them but my son and my husband love them more than anything in the world. So, we got dressed (yes, we'd been lounging in the house for most of the day, hiding from the 40 degree weather) and made our way to the restaurant.
We ask for seats for three, get shown to our booth, and order our drinks (A Cesar for me, apple juice for my son and root-beer for my husband). We're all STARVING and perusing the menu for fun. The guys know what they will ultimately decide to get, but as usual, I have no idea. When the waitress comes with a SPICY Cesar (I asked for minimal spice - but that is besides the point), she asks if we're ready to order. I basically whine that I have no idea what I want so she smiles and leaves. A minute later she comes back and says: "I'm either going to make this whole process easier for you guys, or more difficult....We have no ribs."
My husband's face just drops; he looks like he's about to cry. She tells us they only have enough left to serve the people who have already ordered.
Let me just clarify this for you: It is 5:00 on Wednesday afternoon - all-you-can-eat-rib-Wednesday - and THEY ARE OUT OF RIBS. Supper hasn't even started yet and they have NO RIBS. How does this even happen?
We tell her we will figure it out and she leaves. We talk about going elsewhere but my son hasn't eaten in 3 hours and he's turning into a monster. We decide to stay. I never intended on getting ribs, so I'm not too heartbroken but my husband still looks like he is going to cry. When the waitress comes by again, I ask her if it's possible to scrounge a few for my son who is only getting a kid's meal and will only be getting 3 or 4 ribs anyways. She asks the manager and everything is fine.
Except it's not. My husband still has to decide what he's going to get. I tell him to get whatever he wants, "Order a steak!" I say, trying to make my starving husband feel better.So he does. He orders a steak, medium, with a baked potato, all the fixings and corn salad. I order my usual (cause I always try to venture out and I always end up getting the same thing) and my son gets his ribs.
Only about 10 minutes later, the food arrives. I dive in, and so does my son. My husband takes his time cutting his meat up nicely, and then suddenly, as he's cutting, some blood squirts out. WTF! He looks at me. "This was supposed to me medium." He says. Now, I prefer mine almost bleeding so I tell him it's good, he'll like it. So he keeps eating. And then he starts to cut up his potato. As I'm shoving my food down my throat, I look over and he's tapping his potato with his knife. I can hear the thudding of the knife on the potato.
"I think they overcooked it." He says.
I look closely. "They microwaved it. And for too long."
He looks at me, his eyes sad. First, no ribs, and then they screw up his consolation meal. What is happening to this world?!
Let me just clarify things. There are people who would willingly put up a stink over something like this - send it back, demand a new steak. My husband won't and that is for one reason and one reason only - he worked in a kitchen, he knows what goes on. So, instead of saying anything, he cuts around the blood and eats what is ALMOST medium, but more like rare. Watching him eat, I've had enough. We went out to eat so we could enjoy each other's company and not have to worry about the food - just eat and be merry. I tell him that either he says something or I will. He says, "You're paying." That is more than OK with me. I've had a few rough days, I have some aggression to let out. When the waitress comes by, I ask her for the manager. Within minutes, he's at our table.
I am trying not to be condescending and rude because really, I know it probably isn't his fault, and also, because you get places a lot easier when you're nice in spite of a bad situation.
So I say to him, "Today is Wednesday, no?"
He says, "Yes, it is."
"All you can eat ribs Wednesday?"
He smiles and nods knowing where this is going.
"And there are no ribs?"
"No." he looks down at the table. "I came in at 4 and was informed that only 7 racks of ribs had been smoked all day. Why they chose to only smoke 7, I don't know."
I genuinely feel bad for the guy. He basically walked into a shift knowing within the first 5 minutes that it's going to be a shit show and he's going to spend the majority of his shift getting yelled at.
But, I hold my ground. I turn to my husband's plate. "His steak, can you tell me what that is?"He looks at it. I want him to tell me how cooked (or uncooked) he thinks it is before I tell him what it should be (we've had this problem before where a manager basically explained to us that we didn't know how to order steak).
The manager laughs. "I would say that this was medium rare."
I nod and then I tap the potato. "And this was microwaved - and for too long. He couldn't even eat half of it." I sigh. "I am disappointed to say the least."
And this is what the manager says to me: "I completely understand. If I were in your situation, I would feel the same way. You come in here expecting one thing, you compromised and are still disappointed. It's not fair." He looks at me. "As an apology, I am taking care of your meals tonight."
I am flabbergasted. All our meals?! Unsure of what to do, I say, "You can just do his meal, you don't have to do all our meals."
He smiles. "I know I don't have to. But like I said, you came in here expecting something and you weren't able to get it so as my apology, I will take care of your bill."
I was totally shocked. I had not been expecting that. I am the type of person who only complains if it is completely warrented. I don't ask for discounts for stupid mistakes and I don't get upset with waiters or managers for having accidents - everyone is human. The only time I will push or get upset is when I am being treated like a bill instead of a person. This manager did none of those things. He empathized with us, he understood how much it sucked (I mean, let's face it, it wasn't do or die here, but it did suck. Some people don't get to go out for dinner often and it's horrible when a family gets the money together to go and the food turns out to be horrible). Still shocked, I thank him and tell him how appreciative I am of what he is doing and that it really isn't necessary. He smiles and assures us it's been taken care of and wishes us a nice evening.
Amazing, right? I thought so. We don't go out for dinner as much as used to, preferring to eat at home and spend our money on other more important things, but when we do, we often get treated like second-class citizens. It is so rare these days that a waiter, a shop attendant, a manager, actually takes the time to sit down and empathize with your situation and then GO ABOVE AND BEYOND what is expected of them. Hell, all I was expecting was for him to give us 1/2 off my husband's meal!
So after all that was said and done, do you know what we did? We didn't skulk, we didn't act like we were entitled to this free meal, we didn't get up and walk out like this restaurant (one we had gone to many times) was the scum of the earth. Instead, I got up and I went to the back where our waitress was and asked her if I could tip her. I only had debit and so I needed to ensure that although I wasn't paying for dinner, I could still pay her tip with my debit. Luckily, I was able to and I thanked her profusely while she offered to help us pack up my son's desert. In the end, one good deed created an appreciation that amounted to another good deed. It would have been easy, and was even expected of the staff, for us to simply get up once we were done and leave, but what would that do? It wasn't the waitress's fault that there were no ribs, it wasn't even the manager's fault. Why am I going to take out my frustrations on these two people when I don't blame either of them - nor should I?
I guess this post is about how entitled people have become and how rare empathy and understanding has become in the service industry that something as seemingly menial as this drives me to write an article about it. I just hope that by tipping the waitress (although it wasn't a HUGE amount, it was more than I would have given her had we paid for our meals) even though we felt a wrong had been done that she would then feel appreciated instead of embarrassed and she would then give it back to someone who would then give it back to someone else. It's crazy how such a small thing can make such an impact on someone.
We LOVE Montana's; we've been going there for years, but lately, I've heard some pretty negative things about the location in question and so, to be honest, I was worried it would be a complete shit show - and it had the potential to be one. But everyone involved in this situation were sensible and logical and it turned out really great for everyone...well, that is until we passed the two guys on our way out with large, beltless pants who were raring to go, that poor manager.
So, unfortunately, I am horrible with names and I either didn't catch it or don't remember it but to the manager and waitress at the Innes rd location, I thank you for being human and less-jaded. It's a rarity these days and I appreciate it so much. Take this as a lesson kids - be kind. Stop expecting the world to be handed to you on a silver platter. Do good things and good things will come to you.
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