As many say "chivalry is dead," civility continues to die. More specifically, in the customer service industry.
I would like to preface this with a monumental thank you to those that treat customer service industry, especially those in food service, with the same respect you would anyone else. You are the people that make our jobs bearable and even somewhat enjoyable.
For those of you who believe that we are lesser beings for serving you or that we are in our positions because we are less intelligent than you, I have a few words for you. You. Are. Wrong.
Story time.
Once upon a time at the restaurant that I work at a customer came up and ordered some food. The tone that was struck was not the most pleasant to begin with but it was late and my co-worker and I were willing to look past this. Said customer ordered a dish that took additional time to make and some additional food that took considerably less time. Customer wanted the food at the same time so we did not put her side in the oven at the same time. We informed said customer of the time delay and the customer in question seemed fine with it if not slightly disgruntled.
I had made the mistake of not setting aside that amount of food for the original customer and another customer had ordered the same thing. After informing the original customer of this I received a slightly stronger reaction, however I explained that we would upgrade her side order to a full order free of charge and we would have another order out for her in about 10 minutes. She seemed okay with this.
Two, yes, two minutes later said customer came up to the counter screaming about waiting twenty minutes for the food we had promised. First off, I'm no expert at math, but I am almost 90% certain that 10 minus two does not equal 20 minutes. But by all means correct me if I am wrong.
Secondly, there is legitimately no reason at all to scream in the middle of a food court. Unless you are dead or dying, use your inside voice. Said customer would not listen to us as we tried to explain the situation to her and she continued demanding her food right that second. Seriously?! I don't know about you, but I am not a huge fan of under cooked food. It is not physically possible to speed up the cooking time of your food without risking ruining it. And you arguing with us after we offered you a full refund on your order is not going to make it cook any faster.
Moral of this story? Don't be a jerk. You make yourself look ridiculous (as the customer behind us proved by exclaiming how obnoxious the original customer was being about the situation). You make us have a hard time serving other customers and making their experience pleasant.
Seriously. It takes zero effort to be a decent human being when dealing with those that are offering you a service. We aren't less intelligent than you. In fact, my two co-workers that oh-so-pleasant evening are probably two of the smartest people I know. They can do math very well and they don't need to be obnoxious brats to realize the reality of whatever situation is in front of them.
Just. Freaking. Be. Nice.
