Check the Attitude at the Door
May 11th 2007 21:39
I went out to dinner with my girlfriend Amy and her family about a month ago. We went to Denny's for a late-night breakfast. Now, I know Denny's isn't world renowned for their cheery and helpful service, but in this situation it would have been easy to make a happy customer.
Our waitress, a young girl, came over to the table to take our order. She started with the drinks, as is standard procedure. After about 10 minutes, which is about 8 minutes too long, she came back with our drinks and took our food order. I hadn't really noticed up until this point, but she had never smiled since she first sauntered over to our table. She asked for each of our orders and quietly wrote them down in here little notebook. At least she had a notebook. I get a little nervous when my server doesn't write anyone's order down. I always think to myself, "You may be good, but not that good." Anyway, when she was done taking our order and about to walk away, without a thank you of course, Amy's aunt asked her a question. She said, "Ma'am, do you think we could get a smile tonight?" So obviously it wasn't just me that had noticed the drab manner of our server. The server replied, "Oh, I'm sick. I don't feel good and I'm tired."
What!?! Oh you poor thing. Let me leave you a really big tip because you don't feel good.
Now, I don't really know the rules for serving food, but I think it would probably be the manager's job to send this girl home so she didn't infect every person she handed food. Not to mention she got a few of our orders wrong, so obviously she wasn't fit to be working that night anyway.
But, all of this could have been avoided. Even though she felt under the weather, with a smile and a positive attitude, I would never have known she didn't feel good. Amy's aunt would have never asked for a smile to bring up our servers life story. And I would have chocked up the messed up order as a simple mistake, which we can all make.
But the lack of smile, lack of a simple thank you, and lack of a positive attitude made for a sub-par experience for everyone involved.
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