'Interesting' Customer Service

Posted by Aaron Bloxsome on 17 October 2009

Tags: customer service, restaurant, Northbridge, work politics

I went to a restaurant in Northbridge a few weeks ago (I won't say which). We had a nice meal, service was ok, everything seemed fine.

Whilst we were eating, I noticed this lady behind the counter, I guess the manager, on the phone having a really long, drawn out conversation. Maybe she was catching up with a long lost friend or something. I remember thinking to myself, what if someone needs to phone the restaurant, quite possibly a customer?

Anyway, a good hour later, we finished our meal and got up to pay. While handing over my bank card, the waiter sheepishly asked if we could pay by cash. Confused by fact that they had an EFTPOS machine on the front counter, I saw the waiter's eye turn round to this woman, still on the phone yakking, looking like she had absolutely no intention of finishing up soon.

We didn't have any cash (not that that was the point) and just laughed. Needless to say the woman eventually noticed and got off the phone so we could pay using the EFTPOS machine.

What I found really amusing was how the staff member was more comfortable about asking us to pay cash, rather than actually confronting his boss and asking her to get off the phone. I think this says quite a bit about the work politics you get in many places, set ups where 'subordinates' are so worried about getting into line with their managers, that they'll even do this at the cost of the customers.