It was during the short time that I was a bartender that I learned the most about true customer service.
It was a small-town bar that the customer base was made up mostly of contractors during the afternoons and residents at night. The owner was a very smart guy who didn’t take any bull from anyone.
I had known him for many years, having been a patron at his bar a couple of times, and seeing him in the stores where I had been a cashier/courtesy desk employee. It was at one of these jobs, working the third shift at a gas station/convenience store, that he asked me to come work for him. Not having any experience at this type of serving the public, I began to decline the offer. He was gently persistent and drove a hard bargain to refuse. Within a week, I had decided to take the position as his daytime bartender. Once again my life journey took an unexpected turn. One that brought many experiences. I probably could have done without experiencing some of them…but looking back, I realize that without them, I may have never become the person I am today.
After assuring me that making drinks, at least at his bar, was easier than I had thought. No blender, or frozen drinks to worry about. This was a plain old beer and whiskey joint so to speak. Any mixed drinks were plain and simple. I began to feel that maybe this could be something I could pull off. The bar was tended usually by one person, and after seeing how fast things moved during the busy times, I could understand why. Being a long narrow walk up and down the bar, there was hardly any room to pass another person behind the bar. Being the day bartender, I did not have much occasion to worry about it being busy…at least not at first.
As the owner began to understand my true style of customer service, he began to coach me in the quieter times on how to treat the customers. He called all his bartenders ‘Love’ or Sweetheart’. The way he said it was never demeaning and so we all learned to either bust on him jokingly or just take it on the chin. I have to say that the majority of the time I had a great working experience with him. So, I was a little shocked when one day he said “listen, Sweetheart, the customer is not always right. You have to take charge here. You are the boss after all.” I jokingly said, “I’ll have to remember that when you get too bossy.” I expected him to come back with a smart-mouth remark and was not expecting what he said at all. He told me that if he was drinking (which did happen when he would sit with friends that would stop to see him), then yes, I was the boss over him as well. He explained that I had to take charge like a boss with the patrons because if they were left to their own judgment while drinking, it could become very serious. If they had an accident on the way home and hurt or worse, killed someone, it would come back on me and mean a huge fine or worse; jail time for me as well.
He had my attention! I asked him just how I was supposed to “be the boss” when most of my interactions with customers were as an employee. He laughed and said that I would figure it out. And he was so right! The first time I had to stop serving someone, I understood what he meant. It kind of helped that I was already a mom at this time. I swear that talking to some of these patrons, was exactly like trying to deal with a two-year-old who wasn’t getting their way!
Another way that he taught me the customer was not always right, was through the jukebox. A regular request (often yelled out), is “Hey! Turn up the jukebox!” This was a request I had no problem complying to. I loved music, and it always seemed to motivate me. One afternoon due to the rain, the bar was rather busy with all the contractors that were in the area. We had a few new developments in the beginning stages of construction. That meant outdoor work, not something that is easily accomplished in the rain. I had no complaints with a full bar, daytime bartending doesn’t usually produce many tips. As the afternoon was moving along, someone asked me to turn up the jukebox. As I went to turn it up, the owner who always sat at that end of the bar said, “Love, don’t turn that up.” I looked questioningly at him and his answer was one I found that throughout the years, I applied to many other customer service situations. He said: “Take a look around the bar, and tell me what you see?” My answer was simple, “a full bar”. “Take a closer look, Love, what I see is a bar full of working men, who are having an afternoon of catching up with each other. Usually, at this time of day, they are working. You see them come in a few hours from now at the end of their workday and they are just here for a short time, having a ‘wind down’ drink or two before heading home. After that, the clientele changes to the after-dinner crowd that has ‘party time’ on their mind. That’s when you ‘crank up the jukebox. But for now, just keep it as background music. I assure you these men will hang around all afternoon.” Having worked for him now long enough, I knew to trust his advice. When I would get the request to take a dollar from the customer making the request and go play music, I would ask what they wanted to hear. Most of the time, they would request the artist they wanted to hear and I would go play the songs. But this particular day, I found that each time I got the request, no one would pick, they told me to pick. Keeping in mind what the owner had told me, I played softer rock and roll, or quieter country music. Not one customer left. And, son of a gun, if not at the end of the afternoon, one of the regulars leaned closer to me over the bar as he was finalizing his tab, and said “Thank you for today, what a great time it was! It was great catching up with these guys and you did such a great job picking out the songs, and keeping the music low and in the background.
After that afternoon, I always looked at each situation at the bar, to see if any application of “the customer isn’t always right” should be applied. Or when I was able to combine my “customer service with a smile”, attitude, along with the ‘sorry bud, but you are all set tonight’ line I always dreaded. One of my favorite memories of interacting with the regulars was the day I was able to set one of them straight, using a little of everything I had learned. It went sort of like this….
There was a guy that came in every day at almost the same time of day. He was extremely opinionated about everything, and his voice was so loud, you could hear him across town.
He would come in through the far door and walk across the room to the bar and sit in just about the same seat every time. By the time he reached that seat, his beer was waiting for him and I was greeting him with a huge smile and resounding “Good Afternoon!”
I had learned through experience that I could keep watch on how each customer’s beer was doing by placing it with the label facing the customer leaving me with a clear view of the progress of the drinker. This practice also allowed me to always be “around” at the time they were going to ask for another one. Or, if it was their first beer, I would ask them if they wanted another. Most of the guys loved this type of service and showed their appreciation through their tipping. This guy was no different, as far as liking the extra service given. But, this guy never tipped. Not one time, not one penny. The other bartenders, all hated him and would ignore him until he yelled for another beer.
This one particular afternoon, he came in, in a rather good mood for him. After a while, he got up to use the men’s room. At that time, there were about 8 to 10 regulars in the bar. I was wiping the bar down and was at this guy’s spot when he was walking back to his seat. Not sure why I thought he would get any humor in this, I stupidly said “wow did you leave this dime for me?” Of course, I knew he hadn’t, he never would. But, I was not quite prepared for the calling out I got for asking. It went something like this:
“You Waitresses and Barmaids are all alike, you get a job working minimum wage, and then expect that you are going to get a tip, just for doing your job. It is your job to wait on us, and clean the bar and serve us, yet you even expect a certain percentage from us. And your service to us is based on how much the tip is. “
He went on and on, saying basically the same thing only using different insults to get there. When he finally began to lose wind, I (by now being at the other end of the bar), said very quietly, and calmly “Gee, tell us how you really feel. Are you finished?” He nodded yes, and the rest of the guys, seeing the quiet smile on my face, knew something was coming.
I said, “First of all, don’t mistake me for a waitress, or barmaid again. While yes, I do serve you food, clean up afterward, and when the bar is closed, I do wash all the dishes and sweep the floor. My job title is Bartender. That means I tend to this bar. It is I who decides who drinks in here. But I truly understand your frustration about the tip thing. You are right, I agreed to tend this bar at a particular dollar amount, and it would not be fair or right, to expect the customers to fill in the rest. So let me ask: every time you come into this bar on my shift, is your cold beer at your seat by the time you reach it? And when you reach your seat, are you not greeted every single time with a sincere ‘good afternoon’? And during your stay here, have you ever had to wait for, or get my attention to bring you another beer? Ever?” He answered yes to the first two questions, and no to the last one. I continued, “And all of this was without you ever leaving me a tip correct?” Again, he answered truthfully. “So, then I guess it is not true what you just said. As a matter of fact what is true is that I do not serve my customers according to their tip amounts, and I expect respect from all of them, mainly because I give it to them. One final expectation from you though, is if you ever call me a waitress or barmaid again, you can find another place to drink. Understand?” His affirmative nod was all I needed.
The rest of the guys chuckled because it was the first time they ever saw this guy silenced. The biggest surprise was on me though, because when he left that day and every time after, he left me a dollar tip!!! I truly never expected that. Best of all I had his respect.