Monday, August 07, 2023

The customer isn't always right

Restaurant owners and staff are regularly forced to be accommodating and diplomatic in response to complaints from disgruntled customers - so it's only fair that they should be given the opportunity to turn the tables and call out the irritating habits of those they serve. The Guardian's Tony Naylor has done just that.

Needless to say, no-shows feature prominently, as do less extreme variants on the theme of guests who "see a reservation as a loose outline, not a fixed arrangement". Also in Naylor's list are impatience, requests to venture off-menu, and fabricated allergies and intolerances.

It seems that no-shows are not the only form of bad behaviour to have discernibly worsened since the pandemic. Prices are increasing in keeping with rising costs, but is this trend also inducing customers to act with a greater degree of entitlement?

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