Saturday, 8 March 2014

The restaurants that thrive on insultting their diners
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Personally, I am positive that Thailand always has a good reputation for service mind. I usually hear some mottos about how important clients are, such as costumers are always right or costumers are king and so on which encourage service staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. Therefore, the first time that I saw the title of this article, it is absolutely caught my attention. Can insulting your customers ever be a successful business strategy?

There are some of diners in famous restaurants were cajoled, bullied, insulted and mocked by waiting staff, but many diners loved it for examples, scores would queue up at the 500-cover restaurant to be verbally abused over the chicken satay and pork fried noodles and celebrity chef Marco Pierre White once boasted of throwing out 54 customers in a single night and , the reputation of Michelin-starred Dublin chef Kevin Thornton was burnished after reports he verbally abused a man who asked for chips with his meal. However, there are some managers of the restaurants who concerned about rudeness service and admit that their staff could be impolite before but they are trying to change the image to be better.

Sincerely, I always have an anxious feeling every time when I eat out at restaurants, especially a luxury one. I’ve been trying to find the answer, why do I feel that way. My explanation is that it has something to do with the psychological theory – self esteem. For example everything about a restaurant makes me feel grand, so when you don’t think you deserve that you would feel conflicted and that lead you to an anxiety feeling. I strongly believe that your attitude towards yourself is the most important.

I personally prefer to eat out at moderate restaurants which I can be myself and feel more comfortable that I don’t have to pay much attention what other people are thinking about me or feeling conflicted while I’m having dinner, in psychology it’s called as social judgment. If I accidentally go to eat at a high class restaurant, I’d rather choose a good mannered service one. Probably, because I feel more positive about politeness culture than rudeness mannered at my dining table.

Kelly, J. (2014, March 7). The restaurants that thrive on insulting their diners. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved March 8, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26468295




4 comments:

  1. That title also caught my eye when I was checking the BBC News as I do every morning. I'm glad that Yao chose it to respond to.

    I loved the Fawlty Towers TV series that the article mentions, with a short quotation showing Basil (John Cleese) directing his usual rudeness to his paying customers.

    I rather like eating at five star type restaurants, but I expect the staff to do their job, which includes making customers who might be new to it feel comfortable. One of my happiest memories eating out was when I took all of my brothers and sisters to my favourite French restaurant in Sydney to celebrate my oldest sister's 50th birthday. She isn't used to that, and it is one of Sydney's most exclusive restaurants, but the staff are great: they did their jobs very well, explaining about the food and wines where it was useful, but not in a way that would make anyone feel silly or ignorant for being there.

    I also enjoy the kai yang from one of the stalls in the soi in front of my condo - a very different vibe to places like the restaurants at the Erawan, and no wine list to confuse. I think they're all enjoyable at different times and with different people.

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  2. Not directly related perhaps, but it occurred to me, so is a legitimate response for me to write up: I think that restaurants should be able to set their own standards, and even to refuse some customers. After all, some restaurants have dress codes and won't allow people in unless they're wearing a jacket, so why shouldn't they also be allowed to say men only, or women only, or no children (I think they can and do say "no children"), or whatever.

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    Replies
    1. And that reminds me that I strongly disagree with laws that ban smoking in all restaurants - this seems to me an unjust violation of people's right to choose for themselves.

      A most stimulating blog post from Yao.

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    2. But I think the format might not be the most reader friendly.

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