A friend of mine is a chef and runs a blog with some tremendous recipes. In addition to being a great place to stop by when looking for dinner ideas, John Vito tells fun stories from his life as a restaurant owner. One of the best stories to hear him tell in person is about customers asking him to put cheese on a chicken salad sandwich. John is against this particular modification and has a recent blog explaining why. He sums it up it one clear paragraph:
And that really is the whole point of this discussion. Businesses are too quick to accommodate any request from a customer. Whatever they might want, it is done. It doesn’t matter how much training, how successful, or how creative the output of the entrepreneur. Somehow, somewhere, restaurants, and frankly all retail, lost their backbone. Continued reinforcement of this behavior has the customer empowered with the wrong tools. When they should use their shoes (by walking out) to build a better experience, they are using their mouths (creating scenes to force their way) to do so. What used to be an adventure of different cultures and regions of the country through food is now merely an excuse to force one’s experiences, often limited, on others.
Every time I hear this story I laugh and wonder if he’s right. Really what I want to know is how much welfare was created or destroyed when this power shifted from the company to the customer? I have no idea how to answer this question but I’d love to hear ideas if anyone has them. Until then I think I’ll find some chicken salad and a premium slice of American cheese.