Slip, Slop, Slap.

Does it seem like I have food on the brain lately? Actually I do! Does an APPETISER of Spring Bay scallops infused with chilli jam topped with a coriander wasabi followed by a STARTER of Confit of Petuna Ocean trout with a soft green pea puree and glazed apple salad, garnished with a salmon and squid ink then the ENTREE of Szechuan Pepper spiced soft shell crab with salt and pepper Yamba prawns, drizzled in a champagne lime oil accompanied by a lemon sherbert and finally a MAIN comprising Grilled south Australian Hiramasa King Fish with saffron flavoured scampi parfait, sauteed baby green asparagus sauced in a lobster jus sound like heaven to you?

Well, it probably does and it should have EXCEPT that it was overcooked and the glorious seafood was reduced to a gory mish-mash that really never did the product any justice. If I was forced to make a choice anyway, I’d say the lemon sherbert was about as good as it got.

The restaurant was full and people everywhere were being served up these sumptuous gastronomical delights (rather, that’s what they should have been!) and I was beside myself as to understand why people were accepting it at all?

So, why do we settle for poor standards (in this case, food) or even customer service? Because we don’t like to be seen to be whinging? Don’t like to make a fuss but feel resentful throughout the dinner that we’re paying so much money for what amounts to slop? I can’t understand it. But we do, more often than not!

Now, I understand having a bad day for any number of reasons. It happens. But why should I (or anyone else for that matter) have to put up with bad food or even bad behaviour that makes my experience (whether dining out or going to the movies) so awful? I mean, what did I do?

One of the first spiels that you hear from marketers and business owners is how they will give you great customer service. My experience is that they’re long on talk and short on home delivery. And it can happen at both ends of the consumer spectrum.

My solution, if it’s food and not what you ordered, that is, you get overdone rather than medium rare. Send it back, there doesn’t have to be a huge outburst (but you do need to stand your ground and you do have to remember what you ordered). Be polite too, there’s no reason to forgo good manners. But get what you want in a way that doesn’t demean your request or your reasonable expectation.

By the same token, I don’t hold with the adage that the customer is always right (some aren’t) BUT I do hold to the premise that the customer is still the customer and if you currently work in a service industry then that in my opinion is a much more realistic premise to work from. The rest is conflict resolution and as we all know, it can be a toughie. Goodluck.

For the rest of us, life as you’ve heard me say time and time again, is too short for bad food and bad customer service. Really! It is.