When you’re greeted in a restaurant with bad service, do you doubt the quality of its food?
If a restaurant’s parking lot is littered with garbage, do you question the tidiness inside?
If a restroom is dirty, do you worry about the cleanliness of the kitchen and the people who work in it?
Real World Story: On a recent Sunday afternoon, my husband, mother and I were leisurely sightseeing in a small southern California town. We were enjoying the quaint feeling of this lovely community, so we decided to stop in for lunch at a restaurant in a converted bank building.
We weren’t able to easily enter the building since my mother is in a wheel chair and the restaurant’s main front entrance has steps leading into it. My husband ran in ahead of us to see how we could enter. He quickly came back and showed us around the side of the building, through a back entrance, and into the restaurant. While we were walking, my husband told us that the employee with whom he talked was not exactly happy to serve us. Making matters worse, we noticed garbage on the floor.
We started to seat ourselves at a back table, since there wasn’t any room for my mom to maneuver anywhere else. Minutes later, an employee told us that we could move to the front of the restaurant. Although we said we were fine, she repeated her request — this time more forcefully. We told her, again, that we were fine where we were. Finally, impatient with us, she said we couldn’t sit there unless we made room around our table for other people to pass. Geez, she could have been a bit nicer and clearer in explaining why she needed us to move.
After we were situated at a new table, a waiter took our order. Although he was pleasant, he never returned to check on us or to refill our water and chips. We felt insignificant. During our stay, I went to use the restroom. Guess what? Yep, it was disgusting. The toilet was filthy and the floor was littered with used paper towels.
Our lunch was an awful experience! We were treated poorly, surrounded by garbage, and the food turned out to be mediocre. We were initially very excited to eat inside this beautiful building, but the service and the food made our experience less than average. We will never return.
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- Regularly spot check around your premises for anything out of place, including the parking lot and restrooms. If there’s garbage on the floor, simply pick it up. You don’t always need to call the cleaning crew.
- Greet all customers as if they are the most important people in the world. If you can’t do it, perhaps working in a service job is not for you. Find another job.
- If you need a customer to sit somewhere different than where they want to sit, explain why it’s necessary to move and then offer to help. And, how about smiling every now and then.
Remember: First impressions are extremely important and are the responsibility of all employees, at all times, in all circumstances.
What do YOU do to create great first impressions? Please share in the comments section below.