Something Hit the Fan

Woke up this morning to a message on the food review about a customer that walked out last night after they were seated and then missed by the wait staff.  Fabulous.  Pretty much makes me want to puke.  Having waited tables I know how hectic it can be and how hard it is to remember and keep straight everything that is going on. At the same time I think our people spend too much time doing things that are not productive and are not customer oriented.  And so this crappy review that others jumped on lead me to send out a straight forward message to all of my front end employees about customer service, about taking responsibility, about stepping up and not dropping the ball.  When I read these kind of revues I just want to curl up in the fetal position and cry, okay, maybe that is a stretch.  I think I would much rather go beat the crap out of the punching bag.  It is really frustrating because our problem was not lack of people last night it was someone missing an assignment and no one else paying attention to it.  And so we refocus. We apologize to those who were offended.  We do our best to train the waitstaff again on the importance of every customer, every table, every time.  We trust that our people will do the job right.  Often times they do and it is good.  Those positive messages are always wonderful to see.  Unfortunately when a negative message comes up it seems to fester and inspires additional comments that rip on our business.  That is a bit upsetting.  I don't like it when something hits the fan.