customer service vs customer behaviour

I've this thing about good customer service. Nothing irks me more than a grouchy waiteress, lousy service and bad attitude. When I eat at a restaurant/fast food joint/cafe, the quality of customer service affects the way I rate the place. No matter how terrific the food may be, or how great the ambience may be, rude attitude of the service crew immediately puts me in a major bad mood.

But being on the other side of the fence, having served in a fruit juice bar before, I know how important it is for good customer behavior as well. It really brightens up my day when the customer shows courtesy and reciprocate my smile and saying a word of 'thanks'.

So I live by the principle that it is important to display good customer behaviour. I love giving a smile to the waiter/waitress who serves me with passion and politeness, and display great customer service.

Yesterday I witnessed a display of ugly customer behaviour.

I was at 'Simple Peranakan' having dinner with 2 of my colleagues before our "Dim Sum Dollies" show. As I was at the counter waiting for foot the bill, I heard a man (with a distinctive ang mo accent...so he must be either an ABC, or a singaporean who had received an overseas education) behind me, asked rather rudely, "Why is my bill taking so long to come?"

Okie. Truth is, the restaurant was packed. The restaurant was shorthanded. But I must admit that the service crew had done nothing but their best to speed things up and not keep the customers waiting, coz we sure didn't have to wait long for our food.

There was this poor lady at the cashier frantically trying to settle all the bills.

She gave me my bill, I checked, there was an error, so she had to ammend it.

As i stood there waiting, the man kept grumbling. He kept saying things like "I've got a show to catch you know, if i miss it, it'd be your fault". I mean seriously... doesn't he have eyes to see that there's only ONE CASH REGISTER?! how fast u want the lady to bill you?! And besides, it was ONLY 7.40pm..the show starts at 8pm LOR!!!! what the hell is his problem?!

His attitude (and accent) really pissed me off big time. He went on and on, complaining and grumbling.

Until I could take it no longer.

I turned, glared at him and said "Can you please wait? She can only handle one customer at a time!"

He gave me a shocked look and shut up.

I signed the receipt and left.

Shit, I should have said something wittier like.. "did you leave your manners at home?!"

seriously.... some people ar ...cmi. *rolls eyes*

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Anyway, it was a great night out with my colleagues and their spouses. All seven of us (5 girls - my colleagues, and 2 guys - their husbands) went to catch "Dim Sum Dollies" at Esplanade Theatre. It was great. =) We had some good laughs. I personally loved the start where there were all these historic figures who didn't want to "discover" Singapore. I loved the rickshaw part. I loved, of course, the "Men in White" segment. haha... actually all the characters played by Hossan Leong were hilarious. Esp the meeting of Ghandi and Mao Ze Dong. =)