The restaurant business is so much harder than it looks. Sure you, the customer, are aware of poorly cooked food and inattentive, rude service, but restaurant owners face a lot of challenges you, the customer, never see. Like paperwork, employees who steal or don’t show up, and broken equipment.
Then there are the diners and the rally slogan: The customer is always right.
We all know this is not true. Especially now that Yelp! is here to enable bad behavior. I love to see restaurants fighting back. I would. This morning I spotted a post of Gene Gates’ Facebook page. He and his wife, Julie, own and operate Battuto, a lovely restaurant in North Dallas. He asks;
Tough spot. A family of four, with a baby screaming and fussing, and a regular at another table ready to leave because of the kid. Should we understand kids are loud and fussy, or ask them to take the child outside?
My take? You ask them to leave and offer to pay for their dinner and comp them another visit. Why? Because other customers will see what you did and be customers for life. I’m all for taking kids to fine dining restaurants and schooling them in dining out, but when they misbehave the parents should take control. What’s your take?
