The customer isn't always right

By Cliff McCollum
Posted 4/29/16

Prior to my career in journalism, I worked in food service for 14 years, and, in that time, I learned a few things about modern human behavior.

Customers are now endowed with a set of rights and a sense of entitlement that is becoming …

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The customer isn't always right

Posted

Prior to my career in journalism, I worked in food service for 14 years, and, in that time, I learned a few things about modern human behavior.

Customers are now endowed with a set of rights and a sense of entitlement that is becoming increasingly problematic.

We're becoming a society so focused on our own individual needs and wants that we run roughshod over anyone or anything that stands in our path.

I know what you're thinking. "How do you know this, Cliff?"

Well, working on the front lines of this battle in food service, I can tell you about the most damning piece of evidence I have: the inability of customers to order off of a menu.

Customers now seldom, if ever, follow the menu.

Instead, they create their own dishes, fusing together various items that I'd previously thought were uncombinable, all in an effort to slake their desire for their perfect meal.

I've received orders for quarter sandwiches, and I had to cut two pieces of bread into four distinct parts and make four tiny sandwiches.

The key word in that sentence: had. Was forced to do so.

In business, you have to keep the customers happy, even if their requests are whackadoo and show a complete lack of understanding or logic.

Businesses empower customers to act in such a manner because they are deathly afraid of bad word-of-mouth reviews in person or on Yelp.

In small communities like the ones here, a few negative customers can easily begat a going-out-of-business sale.

Because businesses empower customers to act this way, customers become emboldened and make even crazier demands.

They show up 30 minutes after businesses have officially closed and expect to be waited on and served.

They scream and yell, and they get their way, often getting free items from management wishing to quell any negative vibes.

Folks, I implore you, be better customers.

Show retail staffers and food service employees the amount of respect you should show your fellow human beings. Pets get treated better than waiters in our society, and we allow it to happen.

Realize businesses have limitations, and don't expect your perfect item or dish to be there exactly as you envisioned it.

If you do want to have things exactly your way, for all our sakes, stay at home. Don't poison the world with your self-centeredness.

Cut the crusts off of your own sandwich, and please leave those good food service folks be.