6 Responses to “Are You Annoyed When Customers Try To Give You Money?”

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  1. Lourdes

    I guess I would have to counter with: You are booked for 3 workshops in a day at one company. They then want you to do 5 and they’ve already booked a room and invited the people who flew in from another office. That should be okay, right? You may or may not have another afternoon appointment. You may or may not have errands to run.

  2. avishp

    Thanks Lourdes,

    Interesting situation – I’ve had similar stuff happen. It’s not necessarily *ok* (in fact, I think when someone changes plans on you without letting you know it generally leans towards being unprofessional). There’s a difference between someone asking you when you show up “hey, can you do two extra workshops?” and someone telling you, “we changed our schedule and brought in more people so you have to do 2 more.”

    In either case, our best response as service providers who are hired/getting paid, is to grin and bear it, so to speak, and be as accommodating as possible. And if they’re going to pay for two extra workshops, that’s what I want to focus on, and not the errands that will have to get put off or appointment I may have to cancel. And whether I can or can’t, I am going to be as polite and professional as possible.

  3. Nathan

    I’m sorry but that’s just inconsiderate to make an inaccurate reservation. It makes the host/hostess’ job much harder than it should be and they do not share in the wealth that the additional diners bring.

  4. avishp

    Nathan,

    I agree that making a major change in the reservation without letting the restaurant know is a pain (in fact in the article I say that I totally understand if people want to bitch and complain about it out of earshot). My point though is that stuff is going to happen (i.e. Ding Happens) and what’s important from the business side is how those unexpected events are dealt with – especially when the unexpected event brings in more money.

  5. smurray

    Avish, I see all your points, and concede each. One other thing to consider, from a restaurant’s point of view, is that they may have other reservations and customers that are affected by one party showing up with an extra table’s worth of diners. It can throw off the whole system, and push every reservation after that out of whack. That said, Ding does happen, and it’s not like dining parties don’t show up late/not at all/with extra people all the time. Restaurants (and other establishments) must be prepared to handle the unexpected in a professional, polite, and customer-conscious way.

  6. avishp

    You are very right Sarah. Also, I think it is well within a restaurant’s prerogative to say “no” if they can’t accommodate the overrun, provided they actually try and then say “we’d love to help but we are booked solid.” The “yes and” mindset isn’t about always giving in or being a pushover; it’s about a) how you react when changes happen and b) the attitude and approach you take when you have to say “no”

    thanks for the comment!

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