Why piss him off at all? For those who cannot keep within the limits, it will be useful to know exactly how the waiters act when the client has pissed them off.
In a recent study, 438 American waiters described what they usually do when they encounter a bad customer (1).
- 79% tell jokes behind his back
- 65% make you wait a long time for an order
- 61% ignore his requests
- 52% directly respond with rudeness to rudeness
- 25% are able to tell without batting an eye that this particular dish is over
- 11% secretly increase their tips when paying by credit card
- 6% do something with customer’s food
Even a very angry waiter will still bring your order intact. Unless he is in the bottom 6% of our list… And while it is impossible to reliably determine this, it is safer to follow simple rules of courtesy.
Of course, rarely does anyone go to a restaurant in order to annoy its employees without fail. Rather, we simply do not imagine how the whole process looks from the kitchen. Or we play the role of a welcome guest, forgetting that the role of a hospitable host is no less significant.
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- Please!
Let’s try to look at the world through the eyes of a waiter – this is a useful exercise in empathy. Here the first visitor appears in the hall, and a hit parade of what the client is capable of opens. All cases are taken from real life.
- Snap your fingers or whistle for the waiter (it looks pretty in old Hollywood movies).
- Order a dish, and then try it and return it because you have an allergy (but you read the menu with the list of ingredients and even with pictures, the waiter quietly thinks).
- Place an order while talking on the phone (“Yes, this suits me – wait – I’m not for you …”).
- Order something that is not on the menu (of course, we have fish and rice; but our guys from the Italian restaurant will not make you sushi from this).
- Ask for a carafe of water and, taking a lemon out of your pocket, make yourself lemonade.
- Scolding the waiter for an underdone steak (he doesn’t cook the dishes, and he doesn’t write the prices either).
- Write on the check: “You look great today,” but do not leave a tip.
- Having dined with a large company, ask to split the bill after you have been calculated (task for Archimedes).
- Delay with the order or stay at the table in the midst of dinner, and also occupy a table for a large company together (you have already eaten for a long time and now you are quietly hanging on Instagram, not noticing the gloomy looks of the waiter, and a dozen more people are languishing at the door to get into the restaurant ).
And generally speaking. The waiter always sees mankind either hungry or chewing, takes away plates that would drive any housewife to despair, and at the same time is always glad to see you again. It seems we are now too!
1. E. Huntera, L. Penney «Antecedents of Customer-Directed Counterproductive Work Behavior», Human Performance, vol. 27, № 3, 2014.