By Digoy Fernandez

THIS is one blog entry that seems to have elicited quite a fair share of comments, mostly in favor with a couple expressing reservations. For the enlightenment of those who felt that I should have expressed my desire to be served by waving my hand etc., in practically all the circumstances stated, the waiters or waitresses stood afar and did not even look my way.

Contrast this with the behaviour they showed after I had expressed my opinion on the (lousy) level of service in Gerry’s Grill. And this is not a random event. I noticed this in various times that I would go there with my family. What surprised me was North Park, because my son and I have never had problems with them before. And, as I said, on my second trip there, one waitress bothered to seat me and then left me to myself for the next fifteen minutes. Maybe some of the other staff were eating or undergoing a shift change, but whatever it was, the gods of service seemed to have deserted me that day.

A couple of days ago, my family and I decided to try out the Ajisen Japanese restaurant in the same mall for the first time. It had replaced the old one, Sakura, a restaurant that was a favorite of my son, and whose staff always went out of their way to make you feel at home. Well, Ajisen’s three waitresses were serving a full house but they managed to come up with very acceptable levels of service. I guess, all one has to do is try…something that was previously lacking in Gerry’s Grill. I will venture over there once again this month and see if their service has gone up a notch or whether they managed to backslide once again.

I also worked in a bank, and at one time helped develop our training and development programs. We had a highly motivated staff, both officers and employees, and the camaraderie is still existent to this day even if the bank was merged into another one. The branch staff was trained to perform different functions, and they were juggled around depending on where the pressure points would be for a given day. And, above all, they were taught to always smile and make clients feel that they were all Number One!

Over the years, I have developed an ability to make friends with all kinds of people, perhaps a hangover from a previous activist background that had us mixing with people from all walks of life. As a process, one appreciates that everyone is working to support himself or a family. This is why an attitude contrary to good service sucks, because if shows that the person concerned really does not care about his or her job. Pity.