Chapter 15: Time Management

Dexter was pleased with the article he was about to post on the website. The title of the article was, “The Customer is Always Right... ?” The question mark in the title was the whole point of the article. The past week had been spent interviewing people who worked in a service capacity. Some of the stories they told were very interesting.

One waiter had relayed a story about the time a woman yanked on his arm while he was walking past her table, carrying a tray of food for another table. The tray had spilled over the woman. She had complained to the manager about his incompetence, demanded to have her dinner comped, and a gift certificate for dinner at a future time. He’d had to pay for all of that.

Another waitress spoke about a family in which the teenage girl had believed she was royalty, as a result of her father calling her ‘Princess.’ The girl had ordered the most expensive item on the menu. When asked about her preference in salad dressing, the girl began telling her parents a long story about something or another without ever answering. The waitress was left standing there trying to get the rest of the girl’s order.

Finally, the girl looked at her and said, “I’ll get to you in a minute. I’m telling a story here.” The father nodded his head with a vacuous smile on his face. The mother looked embarrassed. The daughter’s behavior only got worse as the meal progressed.

Another waitress told about one family that had kept her fetching and carrying almost to the exclusion of allowing her to serve other customers. First it was to get a clean knife after someone had dropped one on the floor, then water, then rolls, then more rolls, then extra napkins, then one of the kids spilled their water, and the list of errands just kept increasing. They complained that the salads weren’t presented artistically enough. The husband sent his dinner back after he over-salted it. According to them, nothing was done correctly and they had never had such horrible service. It was the smirks on their faces when they made their demands that really had irritated the waitress.

Another waitress complained about the drunks who came into the diner where she worked. She was tired of being fondled, pinched, propositioned, and generally harassed. She wondered how those men would feel if some guy did that to their daughter.

One manager of a restaurant told about a family that allowed their five year old kid to stand on his chair and scream for a solid thirty minutes without making the least attempt to quiet the child. The family sat around the table as if there was nothing wrong. It was so bad that other customers were leaving. When he had asked the family to leave, they had gotten belligerent. How dare he criticize their child? Their attitude was that if other people had a problem with how the child behaved then it was the problem of those who were complaining. After all, kids will be kids.

Dexter relayed those stories with the comment that service was a two-way street. Not only was having a good server required, but so was having a good customer. Manners mattered. Servers in service industries were people trying to make a living, and deserved respect. They weren’t slaves.

He admitted there was a fine line between being a demanding customer and being an asshole. One way to keep from crossing that line was to be polite. Simple words like ‘please, thank you, you’re welcome, and excuse me’ went far to keeping one on the correct side of that invisible line. Compliments were always appreciated.

A good customer recognized when a server was extremely busy, and would wait patiently for service, at least to a point. It was a balancing act, and people made errors. Over-reacting to poor service wasn’t appropriate. Applying a standard of service above that expected for an establishment, wasn’t fair to the employees. A diner would never provide the kind of service one might find in a five star restaurant.

After reading over the article, Dexter posted it on the web, hoping that it might get some attention. He had gotten quite a few emails about how he blamed only the servers for bad service. It was only after talking to the full waitstaff of a restaurant that Dexter truly appreciated some of the issues servers faced.

Dexter turned to Amber and said, “That’s done.”

“Your afternoon is free of appointments,” Amber said.

“You mean I have a free afternoon?” Dexter asked.

He had given her complete control over his schedule. It wasn’t that she ordered him around, but that she freed him to focus on what was important. Essentially, he went where she told him to go. Fortunately, she hadn’t told him to go to hell ... yet.

“Well...”

“Well, what?”

Amber said, “I think Calvin is looking to talk with you this evening. You might do one of your front porch beer-fests.”

“That sounds okay to me,” Dexter said.

He rather enjoyed those occasions when he and his neighbors gathered on the front steps of his apartment for a quick beer and a little conversation. He and Calvin always had things to discuss. He found that Mary was a fascinating person in her own right. She had interests in topics that he never considered. She challenged him to keep up with current events. Xavier remained somewhat of a mystery. He would occasionally join them, but preferred drinking wine to beer.

Dexter said, “Remind me to pick up some wine and beer on my way home.”

“Pick up some wine and beer on your way home,” Amber said while looking down at her notebook.

“I meant for you to remind me when I left here.”

“I’m leaving early today,” Amber said.

“Why?”

“I have a date,” Amber said. Seeing the uncertain expression on Dexter’s face, she said, “A real date with a guy.”

“Nice. Is he anyone I know?” Dexter asked.

“No,” Amber said.

“I hope you have a good time,” Dexter said.

Amber said, “I hope so, too.”

“Where are you going?” Dexter asked.

“I don’t know. That’s the guy’s job,” Amber said.

“I guess so,” Dexter said feeling a little sheepish.

“Yes. Well ... I want to go over your schedule for tomorrow so that you won’t be surprised should I come in late tomorrow.”

“Hit me with it,” Dexter said knowing his Wednesday schedule by heart.

Amber said, “Tomorrow morning you have your standing meeting with Eric.”

“I know,” Dexter said.

“You have a lunch appointment with Janet at the Silver Cockerel,” Amber said.

“I do?” Dexter asked surprised by that. He didn’t remember making any kind of suggestions that they meet tomorrow for lunch.

“Yes,” Amber answered.

“Why?” Dexter asked.

“Because I said so,” Amber answered jokingly.

“What are we supposed to talk about?” Dexter asked.

Amber stared at him for ten full seconds.

“You’re partners in a business. Talk about business. You told everyone else at the company to have lunch together occasionally, in order to build a better working relationship with each other. As management, you and Janet should practice what you preach.”

“I can do that,” Dexter said.