I guess at this point in life one shouldn't be surprised to see a supposedly well thought out system failing within a business. But it still shocks me to see the occasional meltdown in a business where I'm a mere consumer (leaving my journalist superhero outfit in the closet for the time).
Such was the case recently with my family at a restaurant in suburban Philadelphia. It was a heavily-themed restaurant enjoying long lines on the weekend. Plenty of energy. Plenty of customers. The colorful drink menu alone is a spiral-bound notebook.
Mind you I'm no expert on restaurant operations. As you'd expect, the waiter/waitress takes the order. But then, someone else on a solo mission brings the food to the table. Who's in charge? You tell me.
We had two different cases where someone else's orders came out to us. "That's not our food," one is forced to say, even as the plate is in mid-swoop down to the table. At the last second the runner puts on the brakes and looks at us like "are you sure you know what you ordered?" Uh, yes!
Later, an entree plate came out to my son, as my wife and I were served. It was not what he ordered. Of course, the waitress wasn't there. Accountability is distributed, meaning it is hard to pin on anyone.
Second attempt to bring out my son's food. Not good. Fish was only about 20 percent cooked. And it wasn't tuna. No, he didn't order sushi. By this time, my wife and I had completed our meal. Not a huge deal, but we were all frustrated.
Eventually, the supervisor came over to apologize, saying that was "the worst part of his job". I was trying to ponder how much sympathy he was due at that point. We all kept cool, understanding that getting upset wasn't likely to accomplish much.
Some 15 minutes or so later, the fully-cooked, correct order came out. The supervisor asked if there was anything he could do. We suggested my son might like some dessert to go. They kindly complied and also didn't charge us for my son's entree. A friend tells me he's had lunch at this busy restaurant many times without incident. In case you are wondering, I did leave a tip and also filled out one of those online surveys promising someone $5,000 in a drawing or something like that.
We all have bad days and this will soon be forgotten. Still, I can't help but think this is a system where the goal of efficiency comes at the expense of service quality. And, I'm not sure we'll go back there again.
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