Dunkin Donuts Faux Pas
We witnessed an example of terrible customer service at the Dunkin Donuts near Route 2 in Cambridge on Sunday morning.
All six of us walked in to get breakfast before driving up north to go snowboarding. Hua ordered a breakfast sandwich first, and while the rest of us ordered, he put salt and pepper on his sandwich while standing near us at the counter.
A worker named Rado came up, look at him sternly, and shouted, "You don't do this here!!! We have tables!" and pointed at the seating area behind us.
I looked at him and responded, "You mean: 'Could you please move to the tables?'" implying that he should have asked more nicely.
He looked at me and shouted: "I don't speak English!" to which I responded "So we won't come back here again." He said "fine" and went in the back of the store to brood.
Another friend of ours, Jared, asked to speak to Rado and explained politely that he was offended that Rado was so rude to us, and that we would be back to talk to the manager of the store.
At that, Rado responded "OK. It is my fault. I apologize," in a very unapologetic sort of way.
Interesting - Rado disproved himself as a non-English speaker. The word "apologize" is not your standard first-year English word, while "please" is one of the first words everybody uses.
As a business owner, I think I would ensure that each and every worker knew how to speak to employees in a polite way. There are rude people in every culture, and they act rudely no matter what language they are speaking.
There is no room for such rude language, either body language, tonality, or verbage, in the service industry. Yes, it really is that black and white.
All six of us walked in to get breakfast before driving up north to go snowboarding. Hua ordered a breakfast sandwich first, and while the rest of us ordered, he put salt and pepper on his sandwich while standing near us at the counter.
A worker named Rado came up, look at him sternly, and shouted, "You don't do this here!!! We have tables!" and pointed at the seating area behind us.
I looked at him and responded, "You mean: 'Could you please move to the tables?'" implying that he should have asked more nicely.
He looked at me and shouted: "I don't speak English!" to which I responded "So we won't come back here again." He said "fine" and went in the back of the store to brood.
Another friend of ours, Jared, asked to speak to Rado and explained politely that he was offended that Rado was so rude to us, and that we would be back to talk to the manager of the store.
At that, Rado responded "OK. It is my fault. I apologize," in a very unapologetic sort of way.
Interesting - Rado disproved himself as a non-English speaker. The word "apologize" is not your standard first-year English word, while "please" is one of the first words everybody uses.
As a business owner, I think I would ensure that each and every worker knew how to speak to employees in a polite way. There are rude people in every culture, and they act rudely no matter what language they are speaking.
There is no room for such rude language, either body language, tonality, or verbage, in the service industry. Yes, it really is that black and white.
posted by Allison at 10:40 AM
3 Comments:
Dear Alli, thanks for your nice message yesterday. I have started work again & I am pretty tired out of sync.
Now on firday night,I can finally catch up on your blog.
Regarding that entry: That is just so rude, I am glad that you said something.
However, I do want to point out -from my 2.5 years in retail hell, that while I know the customer is always right; sometimes can be a real jerk.
It wasn't the case there though.
LOL at your comment on his vocabulary, it was right on!
Bih hugs,
isa
Hi Isa,
You're right, sometimes the customer can be hell.
But there is still something to be said for "extreme diplomacy" on the service provider's side.
My father is fantstic at dealing with unruly people: he simply speaks slower, softer and more simply, as if talking to a child. He is always polite but able to insert dry humor in a way that is truly an art form.
that's pretty smart of your dad!
he is very wise.
i remember one of your entries about him saying if something keeps you up at night, it is just not worth it or something along those lines & i thought that was great!
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