Customer Satisfaction: Truth and Consequences

I do not know if one server lied to us or not. But the possibility that he did tainted our impression of customer service at this location.

I enjoy peanut butter and jelly on toast or an English muffin for breakfast. The first breakfast I asked if I could have that. The server immediately answered that of course I could.

The second breakfast I asked for the same thing. The server stated that they did not have peanut butter. I said that I had had it the day before. Then his story changed slightly. He said they were out of it, that they were out of a lot of things. (The last part is more truth than the customer needs!)

The next day, I ordered it again and the waitress said she didn’t know if they had peanut butter or not, but thought they must, because what kitchen didn’t have it? (That was probably sharing more of her thought process with the customer than was truly professional.) She looked and found peanut butter.

Of course, it is possible that the second day the restaurant was truly out of it. But the way the server answered and his body language made me suspicious. If you don’t know, it is always better to say so and then find the answer. And if you don’t want to take the extra effort to satisfy the customers, then it is time to look for something else.