Our customer service is, for lack of a better word, crippled, especially restaurants, and I wonder if there is even a longing to do better. The reason I believe we are offered poor service is because we accept it and never complain, it’s absurd.

Recently, I was disappointed, again, by one of the big restaurants in the country. It wasn’t the first time I went there, ordered, and they took their sweet time. Granted the food is tasty, but that doesn’t mean they should keep people waiting. 

In 2019, I vowed never to step foot in this particular restaurant again. It was a promise I meant to keep because I can’t sweat to earn money and then also sweat to spend it. No way!

But a few weeks back, a friend suggested we meet and catch up. I had to avail myself because it was ages since we last had a face-to-face conversation. My friend suggested that very restaurant, given how long it had been since I’d last been there, I hoped they had improved their service, so I didn’t object.

I arrived before her and she joined me in a few minutes. All was well, we talked, laughed, reminisced about the good old times, and had a pretty good time, until we realised that we had actually been talking for over 20 minutes and no waiter had bothered to come to our table to take our order.  After 30 minutes, we managed to call a waiter who was already running up and down, serving and taking orders from almost everyone. I thought to myself, why would such a busy restaurant not hire enough waiters? 

Meanwhile, some people didn’t even have seats and kept asking the same waiter to assist them, but in vain. The place was a mess, noisy, and most people hadn’t been served yet we found them there. Finally, the waiter took our order. That’s when I realised that I am actually a patient person. Sincerely, who waits for chips, rice and liver for over an hour?  It was too much really, and we couldn’t wait any longer. We tried to look for the guy to cancel and search for a better restaurant, but he was nowhere to be seen. We decided to leave, frustrated, and luckily, we found a Chinese restaurant close by. It was the best! They welcomed us, we placed our orders and we were served in less than 15 minutes like they promised. Their service was exceptional. It’s now my new hangout. Each table in the restaurant has a bell that you ring in case you need service and to top it all off, the food was yummy. 

You will never find me in the other restaurant again, and will warn as many people as I can about it. One disappointed client can actually make you lose plenty more. If our local restaurants do not improve on customer service, they stand to lose customers. Say ‘no’ to bad service.