Attention to Detail

What is more important in the grand scheme of things:  the company or the customer?

I go to Disney Parks for one main reason:  the attention to detail and the care for the “little” people who frequent their establishment.  As a homeschooling family, we must make sure that we get the greatest value and experience for our money spent.  I’m sure that many of you reading this try to obtain the same things.

I’m bring this up because I messed up today.  The kids had physical therapy today and Charlie was off, so we took the occasion to go to our local mall to look around and have lunch.  I should have known better!  Every time we go to our local Ruby Tuesday, it is the same awful experience.  However, today was worse than usual!  We were seated next to a booth that had two young guys sitting in it.  Our waitress (shared with the “guy booth”) was young and extremely unprofessional.  I wasn’t sure if she was flirting with them, but she sure didn’t pay much attention to our table or any of her other tables.  She almost knocked over our drinks because she was looking and talking to the “guy booth”.  As she walked by, shortly after we were seated, she asked us if she could get anything else for us.  DUH!!!  How about taking our lunch ORDER!  It was the same thing through the entire meal.  While we were waiting for our check, I went up to speak to the manager.  I asked him if he had noticed what was going on.  He said that he had not noticed and that our waitress was new.  One would think that a manager might keep an eye on a new employee, but he didn’t.  Not only was he not observing what was going on around him, he didn’t think that his customers needed better service.  He thanked me for my observations, and that was it.

Now, let’s contrast that with our experience at Disneyland.  In November, we stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel for two nights.  We spent the afternoon of checkin at the swimming pool.  When we went up to take a shower, we noticed that the water temperature had huge temperature swings.  Without adjusting the temperature, it would turn ice cold and then scalding hot repeatedly through the shower.  We called the front desk and were assured that someone would come up and fix it while we were out in the parks.  We took a shower the next night, and it was the same ice cold/scalding hot variety but worse even.  We called down and spoke to the front desk again.  Since we were leaving in the morning, the night lead adjusted our room rate to compensate for our problems.

So, which is more important?  Well, if the company is more important and doesn’t treat the customer fairly, then the company will lose business and fade away.  When we went to Ruby Tuesday, it was the middle of lunch time.  It should have been busy, but the restaurant didn’t appear more than half full.  Will it fade away?  After today, I hope so.

What about Disney’s response to our problem?  It seems that Disney pays attention to the needs of the customer.  Disney valued our business and was there to take care of our needs because Disney wants us to return.