Be where you are * Want what you have * Say what you mean * Mean what you say -- Portfolio, opinions and fiction by Kim Norris, writer, editor, and lover of ramen.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Going Deaf in the Neighborhood (In the Category of Be Where You Are.)
I had the damndest experience yesterday, a jaw-dropping
moment of rudeness in a service-oriented establishment. Here’s a fact: If you run
a service-oriented business, and you don’t believe the customer is always
right, you are doing it wrong.
Listen, I bartended and waited tables immediately after
college and all through graduate school. I know firsthand that the customer is not always right. Occasionally the
customer is a drunken asshole who needs to be arrested rather than mollified.
Occasionally they are cheap jerks who think it’s enlightening to leave, in
place of a tip on a $40 tab, a business card for their stupid church, like oh
sure, that will feed the cat and me.
(I just realized, 24 years later, I still really
hate that man…shaking mad all over again…he and his dour-faced wife were a
picky, demanding table, rude from the first hello; they ate like pigs, left a
mess, and business card instead of a tip…actually wrote a little note on it to
the effect that God was the only tip I needed. The Lord prepares a special hell
for assholes like that, but I digress.)
Yesterday, Friday, was Valentine’s Day. I had been working
from home since the snowstorm hit Wednesday afternoon, which is nice to be able
to do, but cabin fever had set in. My husband and I managed to dig out the
driveway by noon yesterday and decided to go out for lunch, an early, more
practical spin on a Valentine’s Day meal. We went to Applebee’s in
Christiansburg, because we tend to like their bartenders, and on any given day, we are likely to run into at least one friend
or acquaintance. It’s our “feel good” neighborhood spot, and if I understand
the Applebee’s brand correctly, they want us to have that experience. We’ve
been hanging out at this particular spot pretty regularly since the day it
opened back in the mid-to-late 1990’s.
The nice bartender, I’ll call him Jim, was working, and as
usual, a friend and husband’s co-worker sat at the bar. (Their mutual employer
had closed due to the 20+ inches of snow that had fallen the day before). Jim
poured us the usual without needing to ask and handed over menus. I could
barely hear his greeting because the music volume was unusually loud. I then
became engrossed in the flurry of incoming emails from the post office – mail
carriers reporting the successful delivery of the Valentine’s Day treats I
mailed to friends and family just before the storm hit. So I missed the
conversation between my husband, Jim, and the General Manager, I’ll call him Bonehead.
When I finally looked back up, the nice Kitchen Manager (not
Bonehead) was urging my husband to use the survey number on our receipt to tell
them how we feel. I could barely hear the conversation. I like Lenny Kravitz, I
really do, and I wanted to fly away, but the driving bass and percussions were
just too loud for lunchtime. I asked Jim, “Can you please turn the music down?”
He shook his head, and looked confused. My husband said, “No Kim, he can’t
that’s what we were just bitching about. Didn’t you hear any of it?”
“Well, no. The music is too loud.”
So they patiently explained to me that when Jim asked
Bonehead to please turn the music down, Bonehead told Jim, “the volume is set
by the owner and if you don’t like it, you know where the door is.” I was
floored.
“For real?” Suddenly the conversation with the Kitchen Manager
about the survey made sense. “Yeah, I’ll take a survey. Or better…” I whipped
out my smart phone and pulled up Twitter. “Hey @Applebees,” I typed, “the music
in your 24073 store is too damn loud and the manager won’t turn it down. Help!”
I had a reply within moments, and a tip of the hat to the Applebee’s
social media team for getting that right. “We can’t help you quickly from here,
but please tell our customer care team.” The Tweet included a link to the
customer care web site, but it was too large a form to deal with on the smart
phone. About that time, Bonehead wandered by to speak to the table directly
behind us (not sure if they were complaining about the music). As he walked
away I flagged him down and asked him, “Can you please turn down the music?”
He all but rolled his eyes and gave my husband a look like,
“Can’t you control her?” The he
explained how the owners set the volume and that was that.
I said, “But we would like to have a quiet conversation, and we
can’t do that politely at this volume.” Lenny Kravitz’s voice trailed off as
the song ended and a thumping hip hop number came on.
Bonehead had to raise his voice to make his retort audible.
“We’re having a conversation now,” he said defensively.
“Not a quiet one,”
I half-hollered back.
“Well I can turn it down for now, but the next time you come
in, it will be back at this volume so you may as well get used to it.”
My jaw dropped. “No need to bother,” I told him. “We’re
leaving.” Bonehead gave me a nasty look and stalked off. We paid the check for
the two barely touched beverages and left. We didn’t leave a tip on principle,
but we’ll slide by there later today, and if Jim is working, we’ll slip him a
twenty.
I continued roundly bashing Applebee’s on Twitter from my comfortable
seat at O’Charley’s (which is less than a mile from ‘Bee’s). They urged me
again to contact their customer care team, so when I got home, I did. The form
allows for 1500 characters, a veritable banquet of words, compared to Twitter,
so I told the whole sorry tale, including the veiled threat to that nice
bartender, Jim, who had tried to intervene on our behalf.
Then last night, my phone rang. It was the regional manager
for Applebee’s responding to my email. I’ll call him Clark. Clark sounded
horrified about the “threat” made to Jim, which pleased me. As a former
bartender, I know what a hard job that is, and Jim is good at it. I told Clark
if Jim lost his job because of this, I would be angry. He assured me that would
not happen. He apologized repeatedly, and not just because we’re regulars.
(“Newcomers shouldn’t have to listen to overloud music either,” Clark pointed
out.) He offered to send a gift card as well as his business card. “If you ever
have a problem with any Applebee’s” and then he chuckled slightly, “in Virginia,” let me know. We appreciate
your support of our brand. I’ll be bending the ear of the owners at that store
next week.”
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. Hopefully, Jim will be able to hear some of it, and
maybe he’ll share a detail or two with us, if we go back. I told Clark he could
send the gift card, and maybe I would use it at a different store, but
truthfully, I’ll probably just give that to Jim too. It will make up for the
tips he will miss out on. I can’t, in good conscience, support that particular
location under its current management. Too many other restaurant managers
within a two-mile radius understand: the customer is always right.