One thing customers need to see at most of the restaurants they eat at is a sense of urgency by those helping them.  When people go out, they want to at least feel that the staff is actually there to lend a hand.

It’s not my problem

Now I never liked waiting on customers who feel the need to pass their personal stress onto their servers.  One time I was the manager of a place and a lady came in with her two kids (teenagers) and wanted to get dinner before her show that started in forty minutes.  I told her that I would be happy to serve her, but she would not make it to her show in time.  She was so offended that she called the next day to speak to my supervisor and complain.

It is not fair to the restaurant, to the server, to the cooks. etc., to stop everything they are doing to accommodate that one customer who is not in control of their life.  They are, and rightfully so, going to put their energies into making sure the other 100 customers in the place are taken care of.

“Um…excuse me…”

However, how many times have I sat down at a bar, only to be ignored by the bartender because he is busy closing out a bunch of checks in his POS system, or left standing at the front door because the hostess is not quite finished with her text message, or unable to get my food that I can see is ready in the kitchen window because my server is not yet finished telling his very interesting golf story.  And I play golf.

Management should make attempts to remind staff why they are there in the first place.  Leave the ego out of it.  It’s not about them. Don’t forget:  We exist for the customer.  We can never lose sight of that.  Actually, we can, but we won’t be around for long if we do.