Mistakes happen; it's how you deal with them #095

The story of a special Christmas lunch...

Christmas lunch with a special friend. A much-anticipated venue. Delicious food. Quaffable bubbles. What could possibly go wrong?

The incident

Enter a waitress carrying two glasses of champagne…a smile, a stumble and my friend found herself wearing the decaying fizz, as the apologetic waiting team swarmed around.

We laughed. We said so easy to do, mistakes happen. It was an accident. Of course we don’t need dry cleaning it’s only jeans and a jumper. Please don’t worry.

And took them at their word when they said in soothing tones, “we’ll make this up to you”.

A reasonable quid pro quo.

The solution

We finished our main course and contentedly sat back in our chairs to bask, replete in our delicious lunch.

Barely had the plates been cleared, and before we could take a breath, another waiter arrived bearing forth a glamorous array of puddings. Fruit, Greek yogurt with compote. Baklava. And two scoops of rich, about to melt, ice cream.

At first glance, a perfect solution to the champagne shower. A kind offering. It certainly looked alluring. And the waiter seemed pleased with their flamboyant gesture.

The thing was, we were full. Puddings not really our thing. It certainly wouldn’t have been what we’d have ordered. What to do?

How could we refuse? How could we be so ungrateful?

The people pleasers in us took over. Not wanting to make a fuss, or create waves, we ‘selflessly’ made a start. Ignoring our states of fullness, and spiking sugar levels, we ploughed on, pretty much clearing the plate.

The indignation

Fit to burst, the bill arrived.

Unsurprisingly we hadn’t been charged for the pudding offering. But, and this is when our indignation started to rise, we had been charged for everything else. Admittedly not the champagne my friend ending up wearing, but the two replacement glasses. Plus, the 15% service charge. All before VAT.

Only then, as our sense of being ‘fobbed off’ rose, did we start to regret our genial passivity. Reality dawned;

We’d been given something we didn’t want, felt unable to refuse, which hadn’t cost the restaurant anything.

Was our cynicism correct? Did the restaurant chose the no-loss option for them? Or did they truly believe we wanted more food and their response was generous and appropriate?

We’ll never know.

The learning

As ever in life, there are lessons to be noticed and learned.

Clearly my friend and I have tongues in our heads. We could have spoken up. Yet as fully paid-up people pleasers who want to be liked, complaining, or refusing the puddings, let alone asking for the service charge to be removed, was clearly beyond us.

My lesson? Get uncomfortable and say what I think next time.

For the restaurant? They missed a trick. They forgot their role is to serve and delight. To leave their customers raving about their experience, telling all their friends to go. Surely the best form of marketing.

You

As ever I’m interested in you.

How would you have dealt with the situation, whether restaurant manager or diner? Have you experienced a similar situation where a treat left an unsavoury taste in your mouth?

Pour yourself a calming cuppa (much safer than champagne) and drop me a line. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And remember you’re never going to be any younger than you are today. Where in your life are you people pleasing when you should simply say what you think?

Until next week my friend,

Ruth x

I hope you enjoyed my tasty morsel. If you did, please leave a comment, like, share or subscribe, it’d put a spring in my festive step. Thank you.