Customer Service? What's that?!

Business in this day and age thrives on providing "customer service" and aims to "delight" the customer of the service, whether it is in a bank or an airline or just about anything else that involves an individual offering a service and a customer willing to pay for it. Sounds simple enough, and it really is that simple. And yet...

Today we went for dinner to this Punjabi Dhaba place at the end of a busy, and hectic day for us. We were both hungry and wanted a good place to eat. Going past the place in question, I suggested we try it, since we hadn't tried it before. Settled in and ordered what we liked, and were informed that the dal isnt ready yet, so we substituted that with another dish, plus some rotis and rice to go with it. We were halfway thru the meal when we were told that the rice will take about "panch-dus minut" to arrive, we waited, and waited, and waited some more.

Half an hour later, there was no sign of the rice, and meanwhile the waiter had offered (rather generously, he must have thought) to warm up our side dishes and get us fresh plates. Anyways, half an hour later, we got up and left, and while we offered to pay the tab, there was no apology from either the staff or the owner who was at the place at the time. Our money was quietly accepted, without any note of apology.

On the walls of the restaurant hung pictures of the owner of the restaurant (in Lucky Singh style, from Lage Raho Munnabhai!!), with celebs including Amitabh Bachchan and others..I wish the guy had spent some of his valuable time off from socializing with the who's who of this world, to provide us hungry souls with a decent meal.

For those of us who hope to open a restaurant some day, and those of us who do already..please make sure we serve what we promise, and some more. Providing a meal is an honorable thing to do, lets not degrade it by making it appear like a burden, a chore. If we can't make our customers happy, we have no right to be in the business to start with.

Restaurant owners, please take note.

Customers like us need to voice our opinion more strongly, specially when we are unhappy with a service and want it to improve.. (I for one have seen someone do this regularly..and while his frankness used to be a matter of concern to me, I think it emboldens me to speak up as well, instead of taking everything at face value..keep the inspiration coming, dudee!) :)