{"id":3266,"date":"2009-12-02T22:56:02","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T08:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2009-12-02T22:56:02","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T08:56:02","slug":"customer-disservice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/12\/02\/customer-disservice\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Disservice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ruby_Bacon_Cheddar_Prime\"<\/a>Went down to Windward Mall to get a Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger<\/em> at Ruby Tuesday<\/em>. Was seated almost immediately, which was a surprise. Guess it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very busy during the economic downturn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c lots of empty tables. It took at least three minutes (probably more like five, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it to seem like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m exaggerating) for server first contact. She was a trainee being ghosted by an experienced server, so the fault really falls on the trainer no matter how nice she was. It is inexcusable to have that long a delay before a face-to-face with the customer. It is worse to use customer dissatisfaction as a training tool \u00e2\u20ac\u201c don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow the customer to become unhappy then point out to your trainee, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead, proactively address the customer and lead by example. I almost walked out. That whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not busy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing manifested itself in reduced staff, so even if it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for the trainee floor staff, the kitchen was understaffed, so food prep was slow.<\/p>\n

My burger came out fine, predominantly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153medium\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, with a bit of a char on the edges. As a cost cutting measure, plates come with a little metal bowl of ketchup instead of them bringing a bottle to the table. I had to ask for a second cup, but got it a lot quicker than I got initial service. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really fault the food. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really worth $14 USD in my opinion though. The $3.50 Blue Moon hefe was.<\/p>\n

Where does one go to top off a night of customer dissatisfaction? Of course to Borders<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the only place in the mall where you can get more disservice than Ruby Tuesday! I quickly found a manga I wanted and took it up to the register. There was only one station open, and there was an older couple waiting there. Apparently the cashier had gone to check on something. She eventually returned, and finished the transaction, but not before dragging it out with all the canned rhetoric they are trained to give you. The girl in front of me went up and was captured by one of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do you want to___\u00e2\u20ac\u009d questions, in this case, donating a book to Toys For Tots \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a worthy cause, so this didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother me. Midway during the sale, another worker slithered up to the edge of the register area and asked the cashier, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153did you get ___\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The\u00c2\u00a0conversation went on for a while in as close to a whisper as one can possibly manage across that distance between the magazine rack and the second farthest register.<\/p>\n

Finishing the transaction, the cashier went on her celly, her waifish body squirming slightly in her tight black tee and black jeans, finger twirling the wire on her handsfree since her black hair was too short, black high-top Chuck Taylors going alternately from toe to heel on alternating feet as she rotated her hips from left to right.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, I was busy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 with a customer<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153customer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with that rolling-the-eyes open-jawed derision that all teens have as a practiced art. I instantly envisioned whoever \u00e2\u20ac\u0153he\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was being some hipster wannabe hanging out at Starbucks across the street by Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, nursing his chai latte next to his fixie while Twittering on the netbook that he carried in his Chrome messenger bag.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at his bike and you’d get, “Yeah, that’s mine – not everyone can ride one.”<\/p>\n

No, beyotch, you are still busy with customers<\/em>, since there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s me and the lady behind me waiting for you to get off your personal call on work time and work<\/strong><\/em>. She eventually looked at me with a frown from behind black-rimmed glasses and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you can come here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with that same slack-jawed face. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a direct quote. No shit.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did you find everything you were looking for?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Not really, since I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find good customer service. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes, I did.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you a member of our rewards program?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she scanned the book. Beep.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, I am not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would you like to sign up?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcm sure they get some kind of points for signing people up, otherwise they wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask in the first place. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be dammed if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do anything to benefit this person even if I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in a rush.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, not right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I leaned to take a fake glance out the storefront, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got someone waiting outside who I told \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be right out\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when I got into line five minutes ago.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Full snide mode activated. No, really. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not shitting you \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is as verbatim as I can get!<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would you like a bag?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even flinch! Could she be so jaded or vacant that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t detect a biting dig?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need one\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hold on, this one takes a little long,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she waited for the second printout with all the advertising krapp on it to come out of the thermal printer. She really seemed to not have caught the dig. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Here you go. Have a good evening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thank you. You too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I actually felt a little sorry for her. For a second or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Went down to Windward Mall to get a Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger at Ruby Tuesday. Was seated almost immediately, which was a surprise. Guess it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very busy during the economic downturn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c lots of empty tables. It took at least three minutes (probably more like five, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it to seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,12,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJYlx-QG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}