Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Give Me Your Order

I know for a few of us in blog world, there are times that we more often than not, post about service from a restaurant or store gone bad. I'd like to balance the blog world with a positive post on the subject. We had gone back to the same ("what did you say?") restaurant to eat breakfast the morning of the funeral. Southwest Florida and indeed all of Florida is now under the annual migration of (as we affectionately call them) of "Snowbirds." The restaurant was full of snowbirds eating breakfast on their way to or from church. Barb and I were seated at the last available table. When our coffee came I began to worry. No, it wasn't the caffeine. My concern was for how much time it was going to take us to get our food under the best of conditions.

Our waitress, Joyce, came over to our table and I immediately told her of our intentions to pay for the coffee and leave. I assured her we weren't mad but just in a hurry. Joyce looked at me as if I was alien which seems to be an epidemic lately with me and women. But this time it wasn't a misunderstanding of what I had said but rather I didn't know how good Joyce was. She told me with confidence, "Give me your order and I'll have your food out with plenty of time for you to get where you're going. Looking at almost every seat in the restaurant filled, I wondered if she was genuine or desperate. Going against my best judgement Barb and I gave Joyce our order.

Within 10 minutes are food was on our table and my jaw was on the floor. Joyce was amazing. I thanked her for her service, asked her if she came up toward Cocoa, and invited her to church and a meal on us.

I think its important for Christians to be as pleasant and understanding as possible when encountering the world. Most folks in the service industry will tell you the rudest and cheapest crowd to server is the Sunday morning - going to church folks. It shouldn't be that way and especially for folks like Joyce.

Comments:
Kudos to Joyce! In every profession and walk of life, there are those who care about giving good service, products, etc., and those who don't. I'm glad to hear a positive story and glad to know a "Joyce" exists out there. I think there are several, actually! Lots of times, the servers are not altogether to blame, anyway. There was a recent article in the paper about a waitress who is trying to get January identified as "Be Kind to Food Servers" month. This article stated that most servers are paid something between $2 and $3 an hour and depend on tips! In today's world, that's mind-blogging.
 
So was your breakfast order WW compliant?
 
Judy - O.K. - Lets start "BKTFSM" right here and now. Thanks for sharing.

Greg - It actually was.
 
Here's to all the Joyces of the world. I'll be on the lookout for one in my town... and I'll be sure to thank her!
 
We have several favorite servers at our favorite restaurants. I am known to be a bit of an over-tipper. So usually they remember us and are VERY NICE!!
 
Terri - Sounds like a plan.

Donna - I am as well.
 
I have a couple of friends I meet with biweekly as an accountability sort of thing. We have had the same waitress for two years now and wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. Not because of the quality of her service (which is excellent) but because of the quality of HER.
 
You know that I have an ever so slight tendency to be just a bit sarcastic, right? You may have seen just a bit of that in me over the years. Now that we are living in a place with a small town mentality and we're growing a business, I have to be very, very careful about how I respond to others "out there" and especially in these situations. People all around this area know who we are ... this post is a great reminder of simply treating people with respect and a Christ-like attitude regardless.
 
You would never survive in a Swiss restaurant.
 
Steve - I think my "Joyce" was one of those as well.

Greg - I agree, that is, I agree with how important it is to treat service people with respect. My days of cleaning carpets in restaurants and seeing how poorly waitresses were treated probably makes me a bit sensitive to the subject.

Brady - Maybe I'll get a chance some day, eh?
 
I hope so!
 
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