JC - Technology and Stuff

It is very easy to get comfortable in life, especially the everyday things we do. You know what I mean, things that don’t affect ‘the big picture‘. Things we do automatically and out of habit. The question is though, does that make it alright? Or should we take more notice of the little things? Things that we don’t like or agree with?

It’s all a question of boundaries and familiarity to a certain extent. Let me explain. If you go to dinner at a restaurant you have never been to before and you are really looking forward to going there, then you tend to pay a lot of attention to the ‘experience‘. If the food is not good enough or the service poor, you will surely complain. If, on the other hand, you’re at home and your partner cooks something that is not up to expectations, you’ll suffer through it and generally not say a word. Why is that?

Like I said, the difference is one of boundaries and familiarity. In the big scheme of things, one ruined your evening and the other just disappointed you for a few minutes. At these two diverse ends of the spectrum it’s easy to differentiate. The problem occurs somewhere in the middle.

There is a pub I go to that I like to think of as sort of my second home. It’s a social gathering place where I meet up with a lot of friends and we discuss the small, and not so small, things in life. For those Americans that are familiar with the concept, it’s a sort of ‘Cheers’ bar (‘where everybody knows your name‘). Because it’s a ‘comfortable‘ place for me, I generally tend to overlook little problems there and treat it more like I would treat dinner at home, as in my analogy earlier. But should I?

I was seated next to a couple last night, having dinner and there was a problem with my food. It turned out the kitchen had run out of potatoes and was using ‘instant mashed potatoes‘ instead of real ones on the plates. In the scheme of things I was disappointed, but not angry. It was more that no one bothered to tell me in advance and offer me an alternative. After all, instant mashed potatoes are a little like wallpaper paste, and I really do not enjoy eating them. What I didn’t realize, however, was that the couple sitting next to me had also ordered a meal and they received instant mashed potatoes as well. For them, the substitution of the potatoes appeared more of an issue than for me (on the surface), because they were less frequent visitors to the pub. Their comment was that it might affect when they came back to the pub again to eat. Nothing was done to offer them an alternative. I complained, like I said, and a few minutes later I noticed that all meals that would normally come with mashed potatoes were now coming with fries. But still no apologies to either me or the couple.

You see, the strange thing is that if you are a regular visitor to a pub or restaurant then the owners view you as if you were their partner getting a bad dinner, rather than a first time visitor having a special night out. They subconsciously figure you’ll come back anyway, so no harm done.

Society enables this habit and in some ways even encourages it. We all let little things go unnoticed until one day those little things have increased in size and become big things. Then it’s too late to stand up and say something. The question is, when do you start to say something? I’ve put together a list of little things I’ve noticed that happen in this place that I, a regular customer, see on a frequent basis. No one thing on its own is a deal breaker, but taken overall it’s a serious list of problems that will and has affected customers returning to the pub.

• Servers and bar staff disappearing on smoking breaks during shifts
• Servers taking long personal phone calls during shifts
• Customers waiting long periods of time to get served because servers do not notice their arrival
• Tables not cleared promptly after customers leave
• Menus that limit the customers from getting snacks at certain times of the day, but instead insist they have a full meal
• A kitchen that closes earlier than any other pub in the town
• Out of date information on marketing materials including websites and ‘happy hour specials‘ on the bar
• Lack of servers on busy shifts and no ‘on call‘ person available
• Lack of opportunity for new servers to work ‘good‘ shifts (this causes very high staff turnover - again not good)
• A ‘keep it in the family‘ approach to employees that leads to an abuse of authority and a lowering of staff standards
• A reluctance to advertise or market to new customers or to promote the pub’s uniqueness in certain market segments
• A kitchen that believes pub customers are second rate to the separate restaurant customers
• Restrooms that never get cleaned mid-shift
• Management that is rarely present and working / overseeing things during the busy hours
• A general management attitude that believes adequacy is a good enough standard to aim for

Now of course there are lots of things that the pub does right. Of course it does, or else I and the other regular patrons wouldn’t continue to go there. But that’s not my point. My point is that we notice the little things and each little thing adds up, especially if we say nothing about it. Little things build to big things and in the end they lead to tragedy. If your partner constantly makes meals you dislike, in the end something else will cause a big blow up and it could even mean divorce or something similar! When we are unfamiliar with something we speak our mind more readily, and that is a good thing. Complacency and familiarity leads to different reactions.

So, I have decided to stand up for my little ‘Cheers‘ pub and say something. I run the risk of being unpopular. People get offended very easily, especially when they see it as a personal thing. But, at the end of the day, it’s just a business. I am someone who spends money, just like the next person in the pub (probably a lot more than most of the next persons actually), and I have a right to voice my opinion. I also have a right not to go there. The pub also has a right to ask me not to go there. I hope that does not happen. All I am asking is that the little things are attended to before something good with great potential becomes something bad that affects the majority of all its day to day customers.

So, should you ever complain about your local pub or restaurant? YES - You have an investment in it, whether you realize it or not. Your investment is not in shares, but in time and a contribution to the atmosphere and ambiance and clientele. You as a regular customer often see more of the workings of the place than the management. I urge you for the sake of the business and your relationship to let them know. But gently…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Home, Stuff, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.