1st
Substance Over Style
I often tell my staff how important it is to always approach others in church with a pleasant demeanor, with a ready smile, and a friendly attitude. I feel that personality can make up for many deficiencies we might have in our planning, organization or know-how. This philosophy came crashing down the other day.
I had the privilege of eating at a fine establishment in Blythe, CA. A group of us (10 guys) came upon the local Pizza Hut and decided to stop there for dinner. We were met with one of the friendliest waiters ever. He was engaging, funny, laid back, relaxed, and totally and completely incompetent!
As we ordered a variety of drinks, he went out of his way not to take down the order. He apparently does not own paper or pen. The conversation went something like this:
Waiter: What can I get you to drink?
Customer 1: I’ll have a diet Pepsi
Customer 2: Yeah, me too
Customer 3: I’ll stick with water
W: And what about you, sir?
Customer 4: I’ll have a Pepsi, please
Customer 5: Water for me please?
W: Ok, wait, did you say you wanted water too? So, that’s two waters?
C 2: No, I wanted a diet Pepsi
C 3: I wanted the water.
W: Okay, three waters. (What?!)
As the order grew, the waiter would politely echo the order… sort of. He invariably changed the numbers. Well, we might as well just wait what we get.
A few minutes later he came back with one Pepsi and one water.
W: Who wanted the water? And who wanted the Pepsi?
C 3 & 4: Right here!
And then he disappeared again, only to come back with two sodas. (remember, there’s 10 of us there. Are there no trays back there to put several drinks on??)
W: Okay, who had the Pepsi and who had a diet Pepsi?
C 1, 2 & 4: Right here please.
W: Okay, I will have to come back with your Pepsi later
C 2: You mean, diet Pepsi
W: Yeah, whatever. Okay, one of these is diet, one of these is regular. I don’t know which one is which.
At which point we had to sniff, taste and sip to see whose drink is whose. Good thing we’re good friends.
W: Actually, let me just get you a couple of pitchers of diet Pepsi.
Customers: Okay??
When it came time to order the pizza, he started with me. I think the whole group had decided to get the “Personal Pan Pizza with three toppings of your choice for $3.99” so I ordered:
C 2: I’ll have the Personal Pan Pizza with black olives, red onions and pepperoni, please.
W: And what for you?
C 1: I’ll have the Personal Pan Pizza too with extra cheese and mushrooms and olives.
W: Ok, and you wanted extra cheese too, right?
C 2: nope, I wanted the black olives, red onions and pepperoni, please.
W: Got it. (note: he’s not writing ANY of this down!!!)
He went down the line with 4 or 5 of us while the guys at the back of the table feverishly write their order on a napkin, anticipating the chaos ahead.
But, after half a dozen orders he announces that he’ll “enter those into the computer” and he’ll be back in a jiffy.
5 minutes pass and he returns with the news that the store is completely out of Personal Pan Pizzas. He tried to convince us to the fact that the Mia pizza is like the Medium pizza, just different, and pretty much orders for all of us!!
After about 45 minutes I actually ended up sharing a Mia pizza with “Customer 3” with Mushrooms, black olives and … something else, but we didn’t dare mention that the order was incorrect. We were just glad to eat.
We laughed, we cried, and we learned a lesson. Well, at least, I did:
Just because you’re nice, does NOT mean you don’t need to be competent.
Kompetency is King!!
