Some of you might know that we are having a rough situation on our Facebook page regarding a customer complaint. We have explained the situation to the customer and have not commented further on it since.
I find it pointless to discuss the matter further but recent comments have personally attack and wrongly accused Evelyn of doing certain things that was actually done by me. I find it necessary to clarify some of the comments.
On the Status Update
I was the one that left the following status update on our Facebook page.
"some customers are so ridiculous that they called for delivery and have food delivered to the cafe. sigh. Don't we deserve a bit of respect?"
I was very upset over the fact that someone had outside food delivered to the cafe without the courtesy of first checking with us.
Does it matter that we did not have a wide selection of food or only certain food items are available or the delivery man offered to deliver to food? Not to me. Equating inadequate choice as the right to consume outside food is not a fair one.
The main point is that the least one could do is first check with us prior to ordering and asked if we are alright with it. I was upset that this minimum level of respect was not even given.
Was it right to post this on the Facebook page? Some might think it is wrong to do it or that we are complaining. To me, this is not about right or wrong. It is a choice that we made, a choice that was made since the cafe started. For those who are aware, we have been blogging and sharing about happenings in the cafe since we started in 2005.
We share with readers the challenges that we faced, happy moments as well as unhappy moments. Similarly for this case, this is something that made me really upset and hence I share it. The intention was never to complain but to express my personal disappointment with the incident.
We share what we feel, be it good and bad and yet we can also be accused of saying even worse things behind our customers back just because we shared something that we are unhappy about?
On making a big issue
Customer can leave whatever comments they like and as business we will be the one suffering the impact. It is not in our best interest to make a big issue over this incident.
When our staff went over to explain to the customers that no outside food is allowed, we hoped that the customers would have accepted it. When they requested to see Evelyn and Evelyn communicated the same policy, we hoped that it was accepted. When we asked the customers to consume their food downstairs we hoped that they understood that they need to consume the food outside the premise. They choose to interpret it as eating by the roadside.
In the end they did not consume any food on our premise after our repeated refusals but then again when did we ever said that they did?
We could have communicated better but like in life shit happened and planets mis-aligned. We will learn from this.
One-sided story
Did we provide only a one-sided perspective? We did not delete any of the comments. When the customer choose to complain publicly on our Facebook page, we did not remove the entry. We thanked her for her feedback and responded to her feedback.
The response from the customer is that the complaint is not meant to be a feedback but to inform the rest of the consumers the bad experience she had with the cafe and not wish to see more happy consumers come out disappointed like them after patronizing the cafe. If that is indeed the intention, a reminder to consumers not to bring in outside food would more than suffice.
We respect her opinion and we did not delete her post. We have our thoughts on the incident as well and we shared our side of story. If there is anything that required clarification, the channels are always open for anyone to pen their thoughts. We continue to be open as long as no one touches on sensitive subjects like religion or try to spam the wall with fake Rolexes and breast/penis enlargement links.
Improvements
We have never said that we are in the right. We handled the situation as best as we can and we will learn from this. We have also put up a notice to inform customers that no outside food is allowed.
We will look into crafting a standardize response to inform customers to consume their food outside the cafe so that the intention will not be misinterpreted. Maybe some of you guys can help to give some suggestion.
Parting Thoughts
I treasure the opportunity to manage Pitstop Cafe. It is not about the money. Of course I will need the money to sustain the business but it goes beyond just beyond serving customers because they pay the salary and rental. (And it hurts when customers use it to prove a point)
Through these years of operating the business, I have lots of fond memories about Pitstop. I have seen some of the guys from their poly days to their botak days in NS and now stepping into the working society. I witnessed customers that came to the cafe first as friends, then as couple, broke up, come back together again and now happily married. Others from students to adults and now with babies. It is just a wonderful privilege to be part of it.
I also have the privilege to work with a team of really fantastic crew. Some have left the cafe and move on to achieving greater things in life. For the current crew, I have no doubt that they will also subsequently achieve greater success and I am really proud that Pitstop Cafe is part of their growing phase.
I believe that customers and service crew deserve equal respect. I believe customer service is a relationship based on equality and goes beyond who is paying the bill.
We are not perfect but we will strive to make Pitstop Cafe a fun hangout for our customers and our service crew. Perhaps like what the customer said, Pitstop Cafe might wind up our business before we know it. Even then, I would still stick to this belief.
I like to take this opportunity to thank all friends and customers for your support and apologize if some of you are drawn into this. For the group of customers affected by this incident, I regret that we are still not able to get your understanding in this. Thanks again for visiting Pitstop Cafe.
WeeKee
Pitstop Cafe, be part of the fun!
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