I made an online order recently and was super excited to receive it in the mail. I got the notification that the product had been delivered, but when I checked the mailbox, the package was nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, the postal service was unable to help me with the problem, but they suggested I contact the seller, so I did. I messaged the seller, explaining the problem, and she responded promptly, telling me that it is often that a package gets lost, whether it slips between the mail carrier's seat or just simply gets lost in shipping. She agreed to send me a replacement and was very prompt with sending it to me. She never got frustrated or refused to make the problem right, even though it wasn't necessarily either of our faults. A moment when I had some problems with a faulty product sticks out to me. My family and I like to go out to eat on Friday nights, and on one particular Friday night, we went to Cracker Barrel, and one of my siblings ordered pancakes. After a lengthy wait, we finally received our food. The food was hot, the service and waitress were great, but the only problem was that the pancakes were raw. We waved over the waitress and showed her the problem, and she was swift to replace the pancakes- this time fully cooked. She also threw in a small discount on the replacement pancakes and a free drink. I am thankful that I have not experienced any difficult CSWs, even though either of these situations could have taken a different turn.
Throughout my waitressing career, I didn't have many difficult customers. That is, until my last day on the job. I had a couple come in and sit in a booth- it was a particularly busy night. The gentleman wanted a salad, and after I brought his salad, he asked for a type of dressing I'd never heard of. I politely apologized and explained to him that we did not carry this dressing, but I offered him any of the dressings we did have. However, he was very upset we did not have the one he wanted and rejected the rest. He then told me that if we didn't have that dressing, he didn't want the salad. I spoke to my supervisor about what to do and relayed what my supervisor had told me to the gentleman. He could get another side, but he would still have to pay for the salad- per the restaurant's policy. This made him more frustrated, but he asked if we had any baked potatoes to replace the salad with. I had previously told him that we were out of baked potatoes as it was a very busy night and baked potatoes were the top-selling side, but he seemed to forget. I reminded him, and he then threw his hands up and yelled out something like, "Well, does this restaurant have ANYTHING?". I understood his frustration- he came to a restaurant to have a nice salad, and to his dismay, not only were we unable to fulfill his request, but we also were unable to provide the substitute he requested. As this unit mentioned we should do in a situation like this, I apologized again, explained that I understood his frustrations, and told him the sides we did had again. It is easy to say I did not receive a tip from that couple, but throughout the interaction, I kept myself calm and collected and did not take anything personally.
The restaurant I waitressed at was a multi-cuisine, one of those being Mexican food. We occasionally had a group of Spanish-speaking individuals come in, and I had a very hard time understanding them. Because of the language barrier, I had to come up with different ways to communicate with them like pointing at the dishes they wanted on the menu and using simple Spanish, like numbers and "yes/no". Now, working as a beauty consultant, I work with a lot of older women. Sometimes, even though I am following the dress code, they make comments about my clothes, hair, and makeup, which again, I don't take personally. I recognize this is most probably because they grew up when ways were different than they are now. I simply respond that these are the new styles and what I like, and usually, they are understanding. These are examples of cultural and language diversity as well as age-related diversity.