Customer Service Fiascos
This past weekend was Brick City Weekend/Family weekend. My dad flew in to visit me from Colorado and on Saturday we had lunch and dinner at two different restaurants. During lunch, our server was very nice but she was also running around like crazy. My dad and I kept telling her to take her time, and we’re easy and not in any hurry. She came over to give us our food and told us she was waiting for silverware then she would bring us some. A few moments later she came back apologized again and said she was still waiting and had to take care of another table’s order. When she came back, we told her she was doing a great job. I told her this past summer I had worked at Starbucks then two different restaurants and how customer service has not been easy. She agreed with me then told us a story about how, on the previous day, she had been working and a lady had tried taking an alcoholic beverage outside which she was not allowed to do. She told the lady this and the lady started arguing with her and threatened to beat her up after her shift.
What’s Happened??
My dad and I were astounded. Before Covid, people were their normal-picky-selves when it came to eating out and being rude to servers, but since Covid, it’s like people don’t have any sense of respect. Being at work and having impatient customers, whether it’s for their latte, alcoholic beverage, or one piece of lettuce that looks funky, deciding to be rude, snapping at their server, and demanding a refund, it’s gotten ridiculous. Even if there’s a wait to be seated because a restaurant only has 3 servers on the floor and 30 tables to cover, some people see the open table and get confused on why they can’t be seated.
Staff Difficulties
Later that evening, my dad and I went to dinner at a very cute, small Mexican restaurant. It was an hour or so before we were going to watch RIT’s men’s hockey game. Again, we had an awesome server, but a few minutes after we ordered, our server came over to apologize, said our food would be out very soon and that their food runner had just walked out. Keep in mind this was only an hour or so before the hockey game began, meaning after the game college kids were probably going to be looking for somewhere to eat and the restaurant would be packed without a lot of servers and no food runner. Both restaurants were lovely, the people there were great and the food was great but it was interesting how both locations were having their own difficulties in some way. Whether it’s customers, staffing shortages, wait times, etc, something always seems to be happening.
Kind Note to Others
To all the people out there who are having a more difficult time dealing with staffing shortages, longer waiting times, and don’t understand what’s going on. We all are in the same boat. Covid resulted in a lot of people losing their jobs, businesses and restaurants had to close, and lots of places are short-staffed and constantly busy, and being overworked. But please, I ask you this one thing, we all are on the same side going through this together. Try to be patient and understand the stress that’s being put on restaurant workers. We’re all doing our best to make sure everyone gets taken care of in the quickest way possible. So let’s all take a deep breath, we’re in this together and hopefully, there’s nowhere to go but up.