Manners, please?
Sometimes I’d wonder why some of us aren’t taught common courtesy in coffee shops. Like, why? I also wonder if it’s not common sense to be polite. Nawp, nah, nada not where I work. The location of the cafe where I’ve been working is surrounded by regular household income - rich neighborhoods. Most of those I encounter are pretty good and decent. There’d just be a few times when all these mispicks of the Good Morals and Right Conduct (GMRC) class would all come together! Ugh, trust me, it’s 10x draining to handle these people.
Okay, so one would come up by the counter, be on their phone, while ordering a drink. There’s a lot of communication going on with the one on register and customer just in this transaction. We’d have to ask what size, hot or iced, if they want cream or sugar, which type of sugar, and some other clarifications. That doesn’t even end there! We’d ask them to sign a receipt, and if they’d want to keep their copy. It takes about 2 minutes minimum for this whole process if you’re quickly decided on what to order. But imagine if the one on register has to ask in charades version, and would feel so excused to bother you for all these questions, WHILE you’re out there speaking to somebody on the phone. That’s some type of rudeness. Some would even raise their pointer finger to stop you from talking. At this point though, I am seething.
One other thing that bothers me is when a customer would order a drink or something different, like a special. They try it and realize how they didn’t like it. The barista made the drink right, but it just wasn’t their thing. Isn’t it just right to have learned your lesson to read and know what that drink is, before ordering it, and see if you’re willing to take the risk of trying something that may be of an acquired taste, because of your not-so-fine palette? Isn’t it just right to simply order another drink that you’d rather have?
They’d come up by the bar and say “I tasted it and it’s just… not my thing or not what I imagined it to be. Can you change it?”. I just want to say “No.” and walk away, but I just can’t. So I say “Oh… okay. Which would you want instead?”, and go ahead to make the drink. In my mind, I’ve thrown the drink replacement to the customer, but I… can’t. I hate it because everything we do has a cost and price to it, but we also have to weigh which would matter more. Would it be a bad review while slapping some sense to the guest, or just end the conversation and get them what they want?
Some people just don’t know what it’s like to be “people”, cause um… excuse me? Manners, please?
