Positive Rep for an email address!!!

[Hootie]

I want the email address for the CEO of an accounting firm named BDO...

http://www.bdo.com/

Or an email address where I can be heard...not just that shitty contact form.

I need my voice to be heard.

POSITIVE REP for good detective work.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

It should be? According to you?

Open a pizza place and do it properly then. This one doesn't belong to you.

Oh, I wasn't aware that I had to be in the pizza business to have an opinion on this. But that would certainly prevent this type of thing from happening, no?

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Oh, I wasn't aware that I had to be in the pizza business to have an opinion on this. But that would certainly prevent this type of thing from happening, no?

Yes, of course you are entitled to your worthless opinion about how a business that is not yours should be operated.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by chiefsnorth

The thing people here don't get is, all business is repeat business. Either they have been with us in the past, or this is our chance to dazzle them with great food and service so that this visit is the first visit of repeat business.

If they only come once a year, I still want to sell them $500 worth of product once a year. If we do that to all the potential once/anum business customers, we've built significant business.

Do you know how hard it is to get a customer in the door? Restaurants send samples and certificates to these places trying to bring in corporate business. They place big orders, don't use discounts, and are likely repeats.

It's big money. We have to make money or everyone is out of work. I am not servig the best interest of my employees by dressing down a big pocket customer no matter how much they feel in the moment that is what they want.

Are you in the restaurant business? If so, how would you have handled the situation? Would you have simply told your employees tough shit, or would you try to make it up to them somehow?

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

Yes, of course you are entitled to your worthless opinion about how a business that is not yours should operate.

You didn't answer my question, and if you are in the pizza business I am more than willing to listen to how you would've handled the situation as well.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by chiefsnorth

The thing people here don't get is, all business is repeat business. Either they have been with us in the past, or this is our hands to dazzle them with great food and service so that this visit is the first visit of repeat business.

If they only come once a year, I still want to sell them $500 worth of product once a year. If we do that to all the potential once/anum business customers, we've built significant business.

Do you know how hard it is to get a customer in the door? Restaurants send samples and certificates to these places trying to bring in corporate business. They place big orders, don't use discounts, and are likely repeats.

It's big money. We have to make money or everyone is out of work. I am not servig the best interest of my employees by dressing down a big pocket customer no matter how much they feel in the moment that is what they want.

Isn't the fail rate on restaruants somewhere in the mid-80s?

As you noted - they're volume businesses with very small profit margins. You take the $500 and subtract actual costs and you're looking at probably $475. Then you consider payroll taxes, etc... and you're looking at what? $400 left over as revenue? That gets you 150 hours of waiter hourly and that waiter hourly gives the server an opportunity to earn an income that far exceeds what he'd be making elsewhere with a similar education.

Or it pays the electric bill that month. Or maybe the renters insurance. Or 1/4 of the mortgage payment.

And I'm supposed to just go 'eh' when some dumbass that doesn't see my monthlys decides to throw a temper tantrum because he excercised poor judgment and screwed his co-workers?

There's just way too much on the line for small business owners, especially restauranteurs, to allow that kind of thing. This isn't firing him for chirping back at a snarky customer (anyone that's worked at a restaurant for long enough has done that); this is taking him to task for using my brand as his badge when dealing with a billion dollar corporation on a vendetta drive that will likely cost me money.

This just doesn't seem close.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Donger

You aren't answering my question. In the above scenario, what if the waitress knew that the food was awful and told you otherwise. In other words, she lied to you.

She still gets a tip from you?

Define "awful"? Is it not fresh? I don't understand your hypothetical. The server might honestly love the good they recommend and you might hate it.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Flop,

I'd fire him, too. At the very least I'd send him on a month long vacation to think about it. If the person I train to work for him in the interim does an acceptable job, I Wally Pipp his ass.

The problem isn't the consternation, but how he went about addressing it. In the event that my employees (my employees at my establishment who are ****ing with my livelihood) feel wronged, that comes to me. You don't act unilaterally, you bring it to me and I make the decision as the man who's name is on every business loan, every mortgage and every contract attached to the business.

If I'm a good manager, I work with my employees to make it right while also attempting to salvage a business relationship with the 'client'. If, on the other hand, I'm reckless as hell, I allow my mid-20's bartender with a HS diploma to go badgering the CEO of a company that just dropped $500 at my establishment the night before.

C'mon - how could you, as a business owner, allow that? It's an absolutely putrid business practice and it reeks of the inmates running the asylum. You don't hang your employees out to dry, but you absolutely cannot condone a line-employee making that decision without consulting you.

This. And then more of this.

Have we heard the conclusion, yet?

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

You didn't answer my question, and if you are in the pizza business I am more than willing to listen to how you would've handled the situation as well.

I'm not in the pizza business, and here's an answer to your question: Yes, an automatic gratuity would have prevented Hootie from proving that he deserves to be fired.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

I will say this much, Hootie should've consulted with the restaurant owner before doing anything on his own. But if they ignored the situation, it's at that point all bets are off. You just can't sit back and let your employees take it in the ass like that and not expect some kind of backlash.

Totally agree about talking to the owner first. I understand chiefsnorth position as well because if this was an regular business customer you probably just lost their business for good.

[luv]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

The tip is supposed to be based on the level of service you receive from the server, and nothing else. There are a lot of people who don't see it that way though.

I know I'm late in the conversation, but I agree. I've never worked in a restaurant, but I have a couple of friends that do. At least where they work, servers/bartenders make less than kitchen staff. My bartender friend loves to tend bar, but he's thankful that he's in the kitchen three times per week, as that is "steady" income. He gets paid the same per hour no matter what in there. When he tends bar, how much he makes depends on tips.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by sedated

not liking what you ordered and being served bad food are two different things.

if I order a pizza with pineapple and anchovies and don't like it = my fault.

if the pizza comes overcooked and the pizza box looks like its been through a cycle in the dryer = company's fault.

You don't think I covered that?

[chiefsnorth]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Are you in the restaurant business? If so, how would you have handled the situation? Would you have simply told your employees tough shit, or would you try to make it up to them somehow?

Not the restaurant business, but not something totally dissimilar.

I would fire the guy who caused the trouble, offer the company a free meal or a big discount if it were local and workable.

For the employees that night, I'd probably offer them an extra shift the next week or make some other consideration that will help them replace the income. But it's still their job to live with this occasionally in this line of work.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Metrolike

Define "awful"? Is it not fresh? I don't understand your hypothetical. The server might honestly love the good they recommend and you might hate it.

You wrote: "Some of us didn't finish our meals because it tasted like shit."

What is the waitress knew that it tasted like shit, and told you that it was good?

[DeezNutz]

The employees suffered through a sad learning experience, and never again should they not include gratuity on large groups. This is an essential practice and suggests nothing about "tackiness," as Hootie alluded to earlier.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Donger

What is the waitress knew that it tasted like shit, and told you that it was good?

We're supposed to know this how? My mind reading is a bit off, unfortunately.

Tips: quality of service, period. If you were the dumbass who ate at a shit restaurant, that's on you, and we've all been in this position.