I have over 25 years experience in customer service yet, I just looked up the definition to make sure I had it correctly. You may wonder why I thought I may not have the right idea. Well, below is my story from last Friday night.

Friday Night Dinner

My boyfriend and I were going to go out for dinner last Friday night. He got caught up with work so I was starving and headed down to a local establishment to have a craft beer and dinner. I live within walking distance of two local bars. One has a much better selection of beer than the other but they are both bars.

I walked into Legends and sat at the bar as I was alone and the place was busy. I didn’t want to take up a table for just one person. That might have been my first mistake.

The people on my right side were pretty chatty. They complained about their service so far. They were going on 45 minutes of waiting for food when I got there. I figured waiting isn’t bad when the food is okay.

Customer Service

Remember I just had to look up the definition of customer service. It’s a noun that means “the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services.” That means it is on the company to provide assistance or advice. It is not on the customer to drag these things out of the company.

When going to a restaurant, I anticipate that I will be greeted and at least have a menu, possibly even a drink, in front of me in a reasonable amount of time. That time is less than ten minutes.

What Happened

I sat at the bar while the people on my right, waiting over 45 minutes for their food, were served. I watched the people on my left get served appetizers and then their food brought. I still have not heard word one from an owner or employee of the sports bar. At the ten minute mark, I left – telling the owner why on my way out the door. She apologized and said they were short handed.

I have children, adult children, who work in food service. I understand being short handed. I do not understand a restaurant or sports bar that does not have some common decency. If someone had acknowledge my existence – that assistance provided by the company in customer service, I would have probably stayed. I would definitely not have posted on Facebook where the owner is now talking about me as if it was my duty to flag down someone to get customer service.

May Be A Southern Thing

It’s possible that this un-customer service is a Southern thing. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy. I live in tourist town. Population is just over 1200 people. Yet, I have found that the business owners expect their customers to do a lot of work.

I made a statement on Facebook where I suggested that business owners shovel their sidewalks after snowstorms. We do not get many but we got a 12 inch one last December. I had comments that said I should volunteer to shovel business sidewalks. That is not going to happen.

Also not going to happen is me trying to flag down someone whose job is to provide me with service.

I’ll end this by saying, I walked back towards my home to the other bar in town. It took me about seven minutes to get there, get seated and have a beer in front of me. Were they busy? Undoubtedly. Were they as busy as the other place? Possibly. All I care about is the service I get and Salty Dog’s will be the place for me from now on.