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So who else is at Hilton Orlando this week?
McKinsey & Company I received an offer from McKinsey & Company in 2021 and I’ll be starting later this year after graduation. Obviously because of the pandemic, inflation is slowly trending upwards. Has anyone asked for a base salary increase before even starting the job? Any advice on how to approach this?
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I do think things are shifting, but it depends heavily on leadership. Restaurants that value staff retention over placating toxic guests are changing the culture. It’s slow progress, but it’s happening.
It definitely isn't as bad as it used to be. I feel like more and more managers are sticking up for employees and not letting customers be crappy to employees.
People seem to forget that the actual quote says "The customer is always right in matters of taste", meaning the customer is "right" about what they like, not about factual inaccuracies or unreasonable demands.
Management should be as objective as possible and back their team as much as possible. If the team member does happen to be in the wrong, make it right with the guest and then go talk about it privately, off the floor.
To actually answer your question, yes I do believe a lot of the tolerance of nonsense has disappeared. I'm thankful for that!
The customer is not always right but customer service is still a thing. You don’t want bad reviews and if you get one, at least smile knowing that it’s coming. Do what you can to please them, always.
As someone who currently works in Retail and has worked in Food Services a good 15+ years I can say without a doubt that is the case. I've noticed a lot of customers having pissy and entitled attitudes over the past couple of years and have seen employees and managers alike not putting up with it anymore, I myself have banned a few people from the store I work at who acted the fool and got verbally abusive towards myself or a coworker. Just a couple nights ago I had some old man act like a petulant child over not being able to get the type of coffee he wanted due to the Bean 2 Cup Machine being out of order, He got huffy and grabbed his mug and as he got to the door he called me an A-Hole, I followed right behind him and said "EXCUSE ME?!?? DON'T STEP FOOT IN THIS STORE AGAIN!" Yeah we aren't putting up with this childish behavior anymore.
There are 3 ways I look at it. First I listen without interruption. Let the guest get it all out on what they are upset about then act. Second fix the issue. If we forgot something or taken too long to get something, just get it. Then figure out why it took so long. Many managers will go looking for the server to fix the problem. Finally figure out why they are overwhelmed. Is the server overwhelmed, if so, why? Did the hosts double or triple seat them? If so, that’s another issue. If the server is in the weeds and just going slow are they not paying attention or worse looking at their phone? Phones are my Kryptonite. I see them on the floor, I lose it.
Bottom line the guest is always right even if we know they are wrong. Or they are right until they become abusive. Once an F Bomb is dropped at me or my server. I warn them once that we will not be spoken to that way, they do it again, conversation ends and the Police are called. I have had a guest start yelling at me because he didn’t like my server named Mohammed. He was new, we all helped him with the table, but the guest didn’t like him because he was Muslim. The guest was angry and drunk and walked up to me and started yelling. As he was yelling, he pushed me. That was it, game over. My male servers saw him push me and reacted. We all grabbed and threw him out (hard) and called the cops. It was a party of 8, we threw them all out. He got arrested. He was a heart surgeon as well. (Nice guy) I didn’t press charges because he wrote me and my staff a long contrite letter admitting fault and apologizing.
Thank you for saying that. I am old fashioned basically because I am older. I have been doing this a long time. I try to teach my younger managers how to react. Going off at you in the middle of the dining room gives me cause to fire that manager. You can’t do that under any circumstances. It just shows me you’re lousy at your job and need to be doing something else.
I hope you find a restaurant where the managers aren’t too young or don’t overreact to every little thing. Most managers nowadays aren’t properly trained. They learn from ill equipped managers to start so they just carry on bad habits. Drives me insane actually. Good luck to you.