That's just another way to degrade and demean the employees.
Service employees are not human.
You can't degrade that which has no value.
value is in the eye of the desiring
Why does this have so many upvotes?
I feel like I'm missing something
You've stumbled upon a very rare phenomenon:
a sarcastic comment that was correctly understood by most readers, without an
/s.
The WORST service is at places like this. I want to assume the expertise and competency of every person I interact with. Especially in the service industry. The best service I get is terse, direct, and professional. I don't need my fucking barista to pretend they like me. I need them to get through the 15 fucking orders before mine in a timely fashion so I can get on with the rest of my day. And if some dickhead doesn't know what a machiato is, he can get his happy ass to the back of the line and order it again.
Barring allergies or medical issues, shut the fuck up and move on. If getting the wrong coffee is the worst thing to happen to you in a day you're living a pretty charmed life.
But then again, I did get fired from Starbucks as a teen.
I used to work in cafe, and love to go to cafes now still (like actual cafes - I say with pride and joking snobbery, coming from a country where starbucks isn't really considered a cafe) and I honestly still have no idea why people go to cafes in the first place, if they're only there for the coffee.
Instant coffee tastes okay (with milk) and is a whole lot faster and cheaper than a getting a coffee from a cafe.
Cafes sell customer service, a nice ritual, and a nice place to hang out, with nice beverages included. In my opinion.
I want to assume the expertise and competency of every person I interact with. Especially in the service industry. The best service I get is terse, direct, and professional
I don't understand why more people aren't like this. When I am interacting with someone who is at work, the trait I want to see the most is knowledgeable, not friendly.
If I'm dealing with you in a professional capacity it's because I have something I need from you. I'm looking for a result, not a conversation. And if my dumb ass is wrong about something then I want to be told why. That will force me to question my assumptions and possibly save me from mistakes in the future.
This is why I much prefer restaurants in places where tipping doesn't happen.
There's no BS about the waiter/waitress pretending to be your friend. There's no organizing the restaurants by sections with one waiter/waitress covering only their section, whoever's available when someone needs something deals with it. When your food is ready, any waiter/waitress around will grab it and bring it to the table. Also, because the places don't depend on tips, they don't care as much about how the waiter or waitress looks. That means people tend to stick around for longer, they know the food, they're good at the job, and because they don't need to keep flattering you, they can be honest.
You can be both, ya know? You can be competent and okay to be around.
oh, absolutely. Friendliness is not unwelcome.
But given the choice of dealing with someone who is competent but unfriendly, or incompetent and friendly, I would take the former over the latter 10 times out of 10
Thats okay. I got fired from Starbucks because I told everyone who would listen that forces people to write an endearing message on every cup completely ruins any impact they may have.
I mostly agree, and personally would never send food back, but I think it's fine to mention something if you think you were served the wrong thing. Coffee or otherwise, you might have someone else's order or the barista might have made a genuine mistake. Maybe they put the order in wrong and you were charged for something more expensive that you didn't order etc etc. It's never acceptable to be rude to anyone including waitstaff, but I think a lot of social anxiety is wrapped up in this idea that you're somehow the problem if you mention that you didn't get what you ordered and paid for. The idea that you have to buck up because it's not the end of the world is bad in my opinion.
assume the expertise and competency of every person I interact with. Especially in the service industry.
the turnover at these places is insane, because they hire shit people, due to offering shit pay. there IS NO expertise, and rarely competence. if you ask a question about the product, they'll say "i don't know" and walk away. this is largely the fault of management and training, but also--would you give a rat's ass about the 15th guy in line's hurry when you're getting paid jack shit per hour? i fucking wouldn't. the attitude is you'll get it when you get it; if you stopped at starbucks when you're already running late, that's a you problem
Cunts used to do this shit at Starbucks all the time.
"This isn't a macchiato."
"Sure but Starbucks thinks it is. You can tell me how you'd like your drink or I can refund your drink."
Worked 99% of the time, unless someone just wanted to argue. In that case, they just got refunded and asked to leave. Our store was almost all regulars and we didn't have a drive-through, so we didn't have to deal with this shit much.
This isn’t what “the customer is always right” is supposed to mean. It means that the customer is always right when it comes to matters of taste, for their own subjective experience. If some guy wants to buy a puke green car, don’t tell him it’s ugly. Just sell it to him. On the other hand, if the customer is convinced that cars don’t need brakes and is insisting you remove them before he’ll buy it, tell him to go away.
“This macchiato is terrible!” “I’m sorry. No charge. Can I get you something else?”
“This isn’t a macchiato.” “It’s the only kind we have.”
Macchiato is a special case though. A traditional Italian macchiato is a very specific thing. It looks like this:
It’s a shot of espresso with a little bit of steamed milk added.
On the other hand, Starbucks has popularized a completely different drink that they call a macchiato:
Which is basically a large cup of frothy steamed milk with a shot of espresso poured into it.
Depending on what they’re used to, people will vastly prefer one over the other. This is usually determined by where they’re from (America or Europe). “The customer is always right in matters of taste” should definitely apply to which one they prefer!
Stanno due bevande con il nome "macchiato". Sta espresso macchiato come puoi visto nella premia foto, è latte macchiato come puoi visto nella seconda.
Macchiato means "marked" or "dirtied". One is coffee dirtied with a little foam, and the other is milk dirtied with a little coffee.
I've sadly had arguments with baristas over this, even when I specify "espresso macchiato" over "latte macchiato". Anyway hai colto nel segno, I bet this is what the problem was.
Starbucks has to make it that way because their espresso and coffee taste like shit.
It's unfortunate Starbucks pulled the same thing with macchiatos that Taco Bell did with gorditas. Why couldn't they just use a different Italian sounding word?
tracks with my experiance, in a hardware store you get all these chuckleheads that come in and want "a good ol' bang-a-long" and your like "sir... what is a bang-a-long?" and they throw a ten pound hissy fit and go "how in the gul durn heck of a cats pussy do you not know whahat a fucking bang-along-a-bang-bang is, I'll kill you" and once they're done being a stupid asshole to you they huff off and come back with a hammer and show you what their granddaddy told them is called a "bang-a-dang-a-ding-a-dong-dong" and they can't grasp that the people who make and sell said hammer didn't get that message from Pee-Paa. Then the next lead poisoning victim comes in and asks for an O-ring, and you have the GALL to ask them what they are using it for, and throw their ten pound hissy fit, because they haven't been punched in the mouth enough as an adult I guess, and run off to find one, then come back and show you because you not being able to identify with only "and O-ring" to go off of which one of the 10,000 different size and material O-rings you carry they specifically meant means you have never heard of an O-ring. Then an unfrozen caveman comes in and ask for a telephone installation, which... you don't mind helping him put minutes on his phone with a card, but he actually expects you to install phone lines from the city services to his home, you know, that thing the guy at the key cutting desk is KNOWN to do. traditionally.
I don't miss working in tools & hardware
one lady stumped two of us one time when she started throwing her hands up exasperated and yelling about how the fuck couldn't we know what a half inch drill was and her husband sent her to get this one thing
we were standing in front of the drills, including some with half inch chucks. we had asked her if she wanted the hand tool or a drill bit, and I thinks she'd responded neither or something, because we couldn't figure out what she wanted and what we offered wasn't right, apparently
like ok lady idk wtf you want then, but there are the drill bits over there, and the drills are right behind you. peruse at your pleasure.
and oh god the number of times someone came in for a plumbing item and assumed everything was the same size...
That isn't what the phrase means, that's a better phrase, but it is a recent invention that was pulled out of someones ass.
Right. The "matters of taste" thing sounds good, but it's been debunked.
When I was a kid, my first real job was at a well known big box store. One time a customer stops me and asks where something is in a department that I'm not familiar with. Back then there were no handheld computers for easily searching inventory.
Customer becomes angry when I can't find what he's looking for so I call the assistant store manager on duty for help. Manager comes over and the customer proceeds to tell him just exactly how stupid he thinks I am.
The manager -- whom I will call "J" -- was a miserable, gruff, chain smoking SOB who is like 6 months from the end of his 36 year career. But he stops the customer mid-tirade and says, "Now wait just a minute. We're happy to help you find what you need but JubilationTCornpone is a fine young man and one of our best associates and I am not going to stand here and listen to you talk about him like that."
The customer leaves in a huff. "J" looks at me and says, "Just because the 'customer is always right' doesn't mean they get to treat you like shit. He can go to hell. We don't need his money."
I never really liked "J" because he was a pain in the ass but he earned my respect for that.
As others have said, the best way to handle this is to try and figure out what this customer thinks a macchiato is by asking them instead of resorting to shamanistic divination rituals.
It's still rude of them to be such a self-entitled blowhard about it but I guess that's par for the course.
This would also explain why American service staff are so friendly and forthcoming to me whenever I have a request. I'm always nice and patient about it and try to explain my wishes clearly without the stupid attitude. I apologize when I've made a mistake and invite constructive resolution of the issue. Works like a charm.
You try that with euro waiters or other service staff and they'll just tell you that's not how we do it (fuck me, right 😑).
As an aside, I work inpatient psychiatry where it's not so much that they're always right as much as that it's pointless and even counterproductive to argue. In those situations you don't say "but this is a-" you say "I really wanna talk over the details of how to get you exactly what you want" then try to elicit the details of (to use this example) what they think a macchiato is.
Now, the reason I prefer working inpatient psychiatry as opposed to costumer service is that when they start yelling I get to say "oh, my apologies. I'll come back when you're more ready to talk about this!" and just leave. And then if they follow me to keep yelling...
The list of things I'm not allowed to do will always be longer than the list of things the waiter is legally not allowed to do. The waiter can legally just fight back, and I'm never allowed to do that. But the second they become significantly verbally threatening or physically threatening in any way, the list of things I'm not allowed to do to someone as part of my job suddenly becomes much shorter than the waiter's.
You know, if waiters could call a code and administer a 10-2-50 on unruly customers, we'd probably see fewer outbursts.
Admittedly a lot of people think "voluntary" makes this a customer service situation where I'm not allowed to do that when the reality is that I just have to call somebody afterward to decide whether we're changing their status to involuntary or kicking them out and calling the cops.
In that exact moment where I judge a threat to self or others I'm 100% allowed to use my judgment to neutralize the threat provided I a) maintain their hemodynamic stability and b) only do what is precisely necessary to neutralize that threat. Now that exact risk assessment doesn't have as much formal training behind it as I think it should but it's also usually at least partially a team decision and if the assigned nurse is newish there's usually at least one nurse involved who has a decade plus experience (unfortunately these days that's usually me). But like I said, there's always a list of things I'm not allowed to do, but once significant threats of or actual violence happens, that list gets very short very quickly.
A lot of people think there's this secret third option where they're just allowed to buck up at my techs and throw things at them and that is just 0% ever a thing. I'll let them get one incidence of bucking up at me or throwing something small at me like a small paperback just so I can truthfully document that I tried to go the least restrictive route, but I never ask my subordinates to take on that risk since they don't have as many options to escape or get the situation back under control.
"What do you consider a Machiato?" is still "Customer is always right".
You could even phrase it so the "customer is right about what a machiato is", like "I'm sorry, this is what we call a machiato here, can you tell me what you're looking for?"
Hiding behind the bar trying to guess someone's order isn't good customer service. Asking the customer to clarify what they want so you can make it exactly how they like it is good customer service.
If a phrase has had half of itself amputated, it's almost always so right wing people can use it as a bullshit justification. Also looking at you Blood is Thicker Than Water.
Like "one bad apple spoils the barrel"
Just dismissing criminals in your midst as "bad apples" misses the point. The phrase is meant to say you need to find and get rid of those apples before their corruption spreads to the rest of the barrel.
The LAST method was telling because it was the last thing you tried before getting fired by management who always took the side of the customer.
He wanted it in a paper cup with a layer of Caramel like they make at Starbucks
The customer is always right, in matters of taste. Is the full version it.
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