We just got back from having dinner at our local Cracker Barrel.
Here’s how it started.
Hostess: ” How many ? ”
Me: ” 5 ”
Hostess: ” Smoking or Non ? ”
Me: ” Non ”
Pause while she looks at her papers.
Hostess: ” We have a table for 5 in Smoking ”
Me: ” No thanks, we’d prefer not to inhale smoke, eat our dinner and pay you for that pleasure ”
Hostess: ” How about this table ? ” She points to a table about 5 feet away with 4 chairs.
Me: ” No thanks, there’s still 5 of us. We didn’t lose anyone during this conversation, although you’re getting close to losing me. ”
She looks flustered, so I offer to give her a few minutes to look around the store, which is about 30% unoccupied on Labor day, during the dinner hour. $3.08 gas will do that for you.
Hostess: ” Last name ? ”
Me: ” Sigers. S-i-g-e-r-s. ”
Hostess: ” It’ll be a few minutes ”
Me: ” That’s fine. ”
Notice there weren’t a welcome to Cracker Barrel in there. No thanks for coming. No how are you doing today.
15 or so minutes later, when they’ve been able to scoot two tables together to accomodate our large party of 5, we’re seated. A waitress comes and takes our drink order. My wife gets coffee AND tea. I just get tea. Sweet. Daughters get 2 Coke’s and 1 tea. Unsweet.
No offer of lemon for our tea. No offer of creamer for my wife’s coffee.
She brings the drinks and sets them all at the far end of the table, away from me. We have to pass ‘em all ourselves.
She takes our orders and away she goes. She comes back in a few minutes and offers to bring out some biscuits and jelly for us to start with. This is the last act of kindness.
My okra isn’t ready and daughter #2 is missing some fries. She promises to bring ‘em out in a second.
We eat our entire meal and then she returns to see if we need any drink refills, which we do. Needed ‘em 15 minutes ago, when I still had food on my plate. Still looking for that okra and for those missing fries. She finds them, of all places, in the kitchen. Hah ! How’d they get in there ?
We ask for boxes to put the food in that we didn’t get a chance to enjoy DURING the meal. Maybe tonight, after they get nice and cold, we can enjoy them.
She brings the check to me, first time we’ve met tonight. Figures that now I’m worth coming down to meet. Hi ! I’m Mike and I’ll be the one tipping you tonite.
I go to the register and the young lady asks if everything was okay. I tell her no. She asks what the problem was, so I reveal all the juicy details. She offers to take some off the bill, so I ask her if that would make all the boogie men go away. She say’s no, it won’t. I tell her, then, in that case, just leave it alone. She persists and I tell her to please leave the check the way it is. She says that the server we had was kind of new. I ask if that makes it okay for her to do a poor job. She say’s no. Good girl. You’re right.
I pay the check and tip just over 15%. Dang ! It’s hard to be mean.
At least one person in there knew a little about customer service.
Is it too much to ask to have a pleasant meal and get good service at the same time ? I hope not. If it is, I’m going to start keeping my $50 bills at home.
Peace.
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