Mr. Manager and Customer Service

Working for almost 2 years in a customer service oriented industry has made me change how I personally expect receiving customer service. It dramatically increased my expectations as a consumer. I always make it sure that people I help out at work gets 110% customer satisfaction right after our transaction. The extra mile is always present when I help out. I couldn’t help it but to expect the same in return when it’s my turn to become the consumer.

Yesterday, right after my shift, I decided to treat myself to some retail therapy. It’s the time of the month again where I immerse myself in the countless possibilities of being at the mall. After my haircut, I started at it. Store after store I went searching for the best buys someone like me can have. To tell you the truth, as much as I would’ve liked to say I bought the coolest pair of loafers someone could buy, I was only able to get myself a pair of cheap earphones (Though it sounded like it was worth $200. It’s the Philips SHE255). I wasn’t able to find something I really liked. I went from Glorietta, Greenbelt, to Galeria but nothing tickled my interest. So I just got the earphones because Cash was raving about it for weeks now. (You wouldn’t believe how discerning she is when it comes to stuff so I know that it is a good pair).

Getting back in tune of my intro, right after the shopping spree, or lack of it, I decided to hitch a ride from my mom to our house. That was around 4PM. She agreed but she had plans for an early dinner before going home. So we agreed to meet at her office’s lobby then straight to the restaurant. Wan Chai is a Chinese restaurant near her office. It is the restaurant she unfortunately chose. It is the restaurant where the manager apparently doesn’t value customer satisfaction. She ordered some fish, shrimp, beef with broccoli, and half a dozen varieties of dimsum and dumplings. The food is your normal Chinese delicacy; nothing too special about it. At least it didn’t reek with MSG like some of the other Chinese places. It was time for the shrimp dumplings.

It stinks!!! It tasted so old that the shrimp was itchy on the palate and the wrap felt like wood. I immediately asked for our waitress after I had the ghastly how-dare-they-serve-and-call-that-food thing completely out of my mouth and some water to wash out the wretchedness. I politely pointed out the lack of freshness of the dumpling and asked all the other ones served be taken back. I also asked them, with the approval of my mom, to just cancel that particular order. The orders were taken back to the kitchen and after a few seconds, Mr. Manager comes asking what the deal was about. I again politely pointed out that the shrimp dumpling was bad. He started being defensive that when the orders came, it is always fresh. It’s always straight to the freezers. My mom butted in with her points of not knowing that it is indeed fresh and what if those were week-old dumplings. Mr. Manager didn’t just agree with us and walked away and let us enjoy the rest of the decent dishes. He had to just prove his point that the shrimp dumplings were the finest and we had to pay for just one order since it was already consumed (or mutilated).

That was the moment I thought he went too far. He expected us to pay for something that was inedible. He expected us to barter with good money and bad goods. Money was not the issue. The issue was about us not being happy campers because of a product of theirs. Mr. Manager didn’t even apologize, much less empathize, that we had to endure such a horrid experience from their establishment. He just pointed out that we had to pay for the order. He simply just went too far; and my mom felt the same way. Mr. Manager got his share of tongue-lashing.

If that had been my restaurant, the order was immediately cancelled after the customer pointed out that it was bad, no questions asked (or rebuttals for that matter). Then the customer would have a choice of replacing the order with another one with out extra charge. They would even get an extra dish on the house. In that way, I would make sure that my restaurant will not have a bad reputation (more revenue for us). That particular customer will still come back (more revenue for us again). My restaurant will have a free marketing campaign by word of mouth (more revenue for us again). Everybody will be satisfied. The stupid dumplings will just be marked as bad in inventory.

That didn’t happen. I don’t think my mom (and everybody from their company) will dine in that restaurant again. Rumors will start to build about that restaurant. Eventually, no one will eat there and they will be forced to close down the franchise. Such a pity.

If only Mr. Manger was aware of customer satisfaction, he’d be a better manager. Hopefully his boss will not hear about this ordeal because it will mean his job.

So what happened with the shrimp dumpling ordeal? We paid for the stupid single order that was “consumed”. Mr. Manager didn’t personally assist with serving the bill. And, hopefully Mr. Manager will have the urge to switch careers (With any luck not in a customer oriented industry unless he learns the value of customer satisfaction) to avoid that from happening again with other consumers.