Scene From A Pancake Restaurant (with apologies to Billy Joel)

 

So yesterday morning, I am among a group of six people about to enjoy a late Sunday morning brunch at a well known pancake restaurant located in the McKnight Road corridor.  (Hint: It wan't Denny's or Eat 'n Park).  The place is packed.  I am sitting on the end seat in a booth.  Traffic among the waitstaff is hectic, and, lo and behold, two of them bump into each other and a pot of very hot coffee spills, with a good portion of it landing on my leg.  It was quite hot at first, but soon cooled down, the waitress was quite apologetic, and no real harm was done other than some brief minor discomfort and the need to visit the laundry room when I got home.

I am now about to appeal to those of you in a service industry, particularly those who might be in the food services/restaurant business.

As I see it, the management of this restaurant had the following options:

1. They could have torn up the check for our breakfast (I had a separate check for two people).
2. They could have comped my portion of the check.
3. They could have given me a gift card for use on a future visit to the restaurant.
4. They could have done nothing.

If you guessed that they chose Option #4, you would be correct.

Now I never owned or even worked in a restaurant, but I did work in an industry where Customer Service was very important (and really, is there a business where customer service ISN'T important?), so I know which option I would have chosen had I been in charge.  Like I said, no real harm was done, but the next time I want to go out for pancakes, I'm going to Denny's.