Recently, when I was out having dinner with my colleagues, I met a really rude waitress.
It happened a few months ago when my entire team was out celebrating the fact that we had hit our targets for the quarter. It was a big deal, and the company founder came along too.
We were so happy and relieved to be out together celebrating after months of hard work. However, once the waitress came in to take our orders, it was clear that she had a really bad attitude. She seemed unhappy to be serving such a large group and mixed up our orders. When the wrong food came, she refused to fix the problem. In the end, the company founder had to go and find the manager himself and explain the situation, and we got a different waitress.
At the time, we were all really upset and annoyed that the incident had ruined our big night out. However, I think it was particularly upsetting for the founder of the company, as he places great emphasis on good customer service within his own team. He always insists that all staff, no matter what business function they work in, attend regular training on customer service. This is to ensure that we treat our customers with respect at all times, even when their expectations might seem unrealistic or they are dissatisfied with our service. Although people don't often break this rule, I have heard of a few incidents where customers have complained about poor service. When this happens, the founder of the company gets personally involved and makes a big effort to smooth things over.
The incident in the restaurant really reinforced the importance of courtesy and good customer service to me, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.