Can I have a side of customer service, please?

As our fast-paced world finds us looking for options to speed up processes, we have implemented systems and products designed to make our lives easier. I’m not just talking about technology replacing maids like Rosie the Robot on the Jetsons, or the phone system replacing a human when you’re trying to call your bank that leaves you pressing 1 to send you to cyber-nowhere. I’m referring to the dying art of customer service in the restaurant industry. I can understand the lack of the personal touch in fast-food restaurants. My expectations are inherently low. I drive through. I place my order from a minimum wage teenager. And my only hope is that my order is correct. What a lovely surprise when I go to Chick-Fil-A and they actually smile and say, “My Pleasure”! Not “You’re welcome”. No “Thank you”. It is customary for Dan Cathy’s associates to let every one of their guests know that it was their pleasure to serve them. When a guest walks into a Moe’s they are enthusiastically greeted with a hearty “Welcome to Moe’s”! These are examples of a fast food and fast casual restaurant who haven’t forgotten to acknowledge their guests. And notice I call them guests, not customers. Guests are people that you invite into your home, and you would naturally treat them better. You take pride in your restaurant. Your place is cleaner, your employees are friendlier, and you truly care about your guests and the impression you leave with them. With customers, you will serve and they move along. Which experience is more memorable? But what happened to the customer service in a full service restaurant? I recently met with an advertising representative who was trying to sell me on a texting platform that would replace servers and extra bartenders. He added that when bars are so busy that people can’t get the attention of a bartender, they can text their drink order that will then be sent to a special printer. One person will be designated to watch that printer for orders to appear. Isn’t that great? No! If your restaurant or bar is so busy that you feel you need to implement a texting program solely to fill customers’ orders, you don’t have a shortage of technology, you have a shortage of staff! How many guests walk out the door because of your lack of attention and customer service? If you can designate one person to watch a printer, get him on the floor taking orders! And when was the last time you were actually greeted at the door by a hostess at a full service restaurant? Remember restaurateurs, these are your Directors of First Impressions. If I wanted to greet myself, seat myself, and hunt down my own beverages, I would have gone to a fast casual restaurant and saved about 30%. But I came to full service for the “service”. Where did it go? Can we make a pact to get back to creating memorable experiences? And can I have a side of customer service, please?

Is Your Favorite Restaurant "Dad-Friendly"?

Recently my hubby played Mr. Mom for the day so that I could attend some meetings. After missing some important milestones last year spending time in Iraq, he has made it his mission to be a very hands-on Dad. So he did what every fun dad who can’t cook did; he took them to McDonald’s. Plus, they have an indoor playground. Fun AND food…BONUS! After eating what we all know is not the most nutritious of meals of greasy cheeseburgers and French fries, but the only sustenance my babies live on these days, they were rewarded with time to burn those excessive calories on the jungle gym.

Ah…these precious moments hubby is enjoying watching Jack play with his little sister. Er! Stop! Houston we have a problem! The cheeseburger has kicked in and Jack has a blowout. What to do? Ok. Breath. Don’t panic. What would Mommy do? She’s always so calm and organized and can change both babies at once while simultaneously writing her blog and making a delicious meal. (OK, I embellished a bit). He’s been in battle. He fights crime everyday and puts away bad guys. Certainly changing a baby’s diaper in a restaurant should be a piece of cake, right? He quickly, but calmly corrals both children and takes them to the men’s room to clean up Jack. But this McDonald’s, one of the most “Kid-Friendly” restaurants on planet Earth doesn’t have a changing table in the men’s room. Now what? Hubby is faced with the challenge of putting Jack on a pad on the dirty floor while trying to keep Zoe from splashing in the toilet like she was trying to feed the stingrays at Miami Seaquarium and attempt to clean Jack up so he can high-tail it out of there. Welcome to my world Honey!

At MyKidsPlate.com, we have spent 3 years researching what parents across the country look for in a Kid-Friendly restaurant, and of the Top 30 Attributes, a “Changing Table in Men’s and Women’s Restrooms” ranks number 16 and 65% of parents tell us it is Extremely or Very Important , and “Changing Tables are Equipped with Cloths” came in at number 29. And according to research from Koala Kare Products, baby changing stations are equal in importance to childrens’ meals and family-sized restroom. Further, Koala Kare’s research from a national market study indicated that 77% of parents have used baby changing stations and 90% say they use them at least monthly and McDonald’s doesn’t even have one in their men’s room?

An indoor playground runs between $10,000 - $65,000, plus liability insurance, to make a restaurant kid-friendly, and the cost of a baby changing station in a restroom? Under $200! If a restaurant like McDonald’s is willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars in kid-friendliness, why not a couple hundred dollars to make their restaurant “Dad-Friendly”? And here’s another idea for those of us with more than one child. Koala Kare makes Child Protection Seats that allow parents to comfortably secure children while attending to other matters in the restroom for under $100. That sure would have come in handy with baby Zoe!

MyKidsPlate.com, a division of Kid Friendly Restaurants, seeks out restaurants that are kid-friendly or family friendly. But until this incident, I never put much thought into whether or not they were “Dad-Friendly”. I was talking with one of my restaurant clients recently about the lack of changing tables in the men’s rooms of some of their restaurants and he asked me, “Do you make your husband change diapers”? You bet I do! So the next time you are in your favorite Kid-Friendly restaurant, check around to see if it’s “Dad-Friendly”!

Where's The Service?

Yay! It’s Friday night, the end of a long hard week. Time to celebrate and kick off the weekend! So the hubby and I load the kids in the car and head to one of the dozens of local restaurants for a family dinner and some fun bonding time. Well, that was the plan.

We picked a pizzeria that we had tried once before when it first opened, and didn’t quite enjoy, but decided to give them another try. I’ll call them “Tony’s Coal Fired Pizza”. We waited just a few minutes for our table, and when the friendly hostess brought us to our table, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the table was already set with the 2 highchairs that I had requested. It was all downhill from there. When our server finally came to our table to take our drink order, I learned that the only drink choices were soda or lemonade, neither of which is suitable for a young toddler. This restaurant has a bar that serves beer and wine, but no juice or milk for children? So after ordering my diet soda, I walked down the street to an (in)convenience store to buy milk for my kids to drink. After bringing our own drinks we waited for several minutes before the server came back to our table and in a very snotty tone said “So, do you want menus?” Uh, yeah! We didn’t come here to drink our own beverages and sit in your dimly lit, overly noisy restaurant and watch you ignore us. We want food! I asked her if they have kids’ menus, which they don’t, so our family agrees to order a plate of chicken wings, a salad and a large pizza. When Miss Congeniality returns to take our order, my husband tells her that we would like the chicken wings, a large pizza…AND SHE LEAVES! Is she returning? Did she forget something? At this point, I am so flabbergasted, that my typically passive personality has turned me into the Incredible Hulk and I’m pretty sure my skin was turning green. When she walks by, I say “Excuse me, we were in process of ordering and you walked away. Can we finish ordering? We didn’t even get to tell what we want on the pizza! And can we please have a salad?” Where is the manager in all of this? He is leaning against the take-out counter with several other employees watching the hockey game.

When I was a kid, we went out to eat when it was someone’s birthday or anniversary. It was a celebration of something more than just the survival of another week or because Mom didn’t feel like cooking. According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry receives 49% of the average American’s food dollar, and with over 945,000 restaurants in the US, restaurants need to be fighting to get my hard earned 49%. At www.mykidsplate.com, our customers tell us that “overall good service/servers” are one of the Top 30 Attributes they look for in a Certified Kid-Friendly restaurant. This particular restaurant was not only NOT kid-friendly, they weren’t even people-friendly. In 1980, we were on the brink of a recession that started in January 1981, and unemployment was 7.5%. Today, unemployment in this country is 9.9%! So my question is, why are these servers not trying harder to keep their jobs? Restaurants are closing their doors left and right and I can almost see tumbleweed rolling down Main Street in my town. Do the restaurant owners not care that their staff has become so callous towards their patrons?

Dining out is becoming a luxury again for many families like it was 30 years ago when I was a kid. When was the last time you had to wait an hour for a table at a restaurant? My husband and I usually try to go out to eat when it’s Kids Eat Free night at one of the local restaurants, and www.mykidsplate.com has a calendar for visitors to search restaurants in their neighborhood that offer Kids Eat Free deals. But as far my neighborhood pizzeria is concerned, unless service improves, I’ll spend my 49% elsewhere and ask, “Where’s the Service?”