Editorial: Bad service simply not acceptable

Satisfying customers is an important role in hospitality.

The experience of dining out, or even grabbing a coffee at a cafe, can be greatly enhanced or diminished by the standard of service one gets.

Most customers, on entering an establishment, want to be made to feel welcome and then to be served in a timely manner to a fairly high standard.

Sometimes when a cafe, bar or restaurant is crowded, most people tend to give the serving staff the benefit of the doubt and wait quietly. I reckon many people would rather wait quietly than cause a fuss. However, there are times when you can simply exercise your right as a customer and leave.

I had reason to do this when I went to a cafe in Napier at the weekend. The woman behind the counter did not greet us when we walked in, but flashed a half-smile/grimace at us as she carried on doing what she was doing.

Eventually she walked back into the kitchen and another staff member came out but did not even look at us. The cafe was not very busy, but it seemed as if we were invisible.

After a while another customer came in and stood next to us. Would you believe it, they were served ahead of us. At this point we left and went to another cafe in the city.

We walked through the door and were immediately greeted with a cheery hello by the woman behind the counter. Our order was taken promptly and the experience was an enjoyable one.

One of the worst experiences I have had was at a cafe in the Hastings District, where on two occasions last year orders were messed up and we were kept waiting a long time.

Satisfying customers must be a demanding job and many of those in the hospitality industry do make every effort to ensure patrons have a good time. Unfortunately, some seem to believe they are doing us a favour by serving us.

The only way we as customers can counter this is to take our business elsewhere.