I ordered Dominos last week, they tortured me over the phone
asking for directions (I was patient coz my house is not the easiest to find).
They delivered after 50 minutes and the guy kept calling asking me to come walking
down the lane on a rainy day. I wanted to hammer the fellow when he finally
came but when I saw him I felt sorry, he seemed to be around 18 just out of
school. So I tipped him and later I was told by Dominos itself that I could have
gotten the discount of late arrival. Two days later, really Dominos?
Few days back I went with Lakshani to Green Cabin, we
ordered 4 éclairs, 4 cream buns and some weird looking cake which she was
excited about. While I was paying she was standing to get the food, the guy behind
the counter who clearly had good common sense asked ‘methana kannada’’ it was a
LOL moment but she politely said ‘’naha take away’’
Then at TGIF, we ordered the lunch promo, finally when the
food arrived it didn’t look anything similar to the picture on the offer (which
was nicely printed and laminated), so when we told the waiter that it doesn’t
look like what is in the picture, he replies : ‘’ah no sir that picture is only
for marketing purposes’’ I still don’t know how to react to that.
Recently at Peach Valley they brought the wrong food, the
waiter didn’t seem to agree when we told him it’s the wrong order, then at Bars
Café the egg koththu didn’t have egg in it, we told the waiter, he grabbed the
bowl from the person while the she was eating it and took it, just like that.
Victimized several times with horrible customer service, I
always feel bad to complain to the management however unacceptable the service
is. I felt that the person will get fired, and I truly didn’t want a person to
lose a job just like that so I always laughed it off and let it go. Plus good
customer care comes from solid training given by the restaurant, that’s what I
thought until I met Wijayapala.
Min Han is our dodgy little chinese spot (that’s what Gail
calls it) opp Mahanama. The place is not at all posh, it had bright
orangish-pinkish mixed table cloths and chairs to match. When you walk in,
Wijepala comes in a flash and asks politely if we want to dine in or take away.
He shows you a table, brings the menu and when we are ready to order he stands
and smiles patiently waiting. He recommends what is the best dish and believe
me he is spot on ! The place has about ten tables and he manages the entire
place by himself. For a person around 70, he is really really fast. He comes
and pores green tea (and Gail had around 4 glasses because he kept pouring and
she felt bad to say no) brings in your order super-fast. He is a smiler, a pocket
dynamite type of a happy go person.
His marketing skills are pretty great too. He suggests
different dishes to try, and laughingly says ‘’edath oka kaawa ne miss, ada
meka kaala balanna’’ (yes he remembers what you ordered before) there is
something in him that you get convinced and immediately agree. The best part is
he always asks you how the dish is, not in a pushy annoying way but in a very
curious twinkly eyed way. Actually he is more excited about our order than we
are. More concerned about how it tastes and that is exactly how it should be. No
point having the best food on planet if your customer service is bad, its all
about treating people right. It is clearly rocket science to many Sri Lankan
restaurants because most even forget to smile.
It is very easy to please hungry people. (not if the food is
crap of-course) You just need to be honest about what you have and apologize if
you make mistakes. Customers don’t expect you to be perfect, they just expect
you to fix things soon. If you can be humble enough to accept your mistakes,
anyone will do great. Afterall we are human and mistakes are bound to happen.
Wijepala kind of walks you out too, I’m sure he is not paid
great money nor he is in an age to be running around the way he does. But still
he seems to be passionate about what he does.
It made me realize that finally it falls down to the person,
the person who he is and if the person loves his job or not. You cannot hate
your job and give it your best, you got to love what you do and do what you
love.
All the restaurants and hotels in Sri Lanka, should get a
dose of Wijepala soon :-)
P.S. – their food is awesome too ! (If you go to Min Han,
please do tip an extra 50 bucks to him for me)
