Sinking Ships

The restaurant looked nice. Most of the tables filled. Smiling staff. A sign indicated a free drink was on offer and the menu had an Italian flair. A popular brunch place by all accounts. But it was not to be.

"I ordered a bloody Mary, not an orange juice."
"We ordered thirty minutes ago, can you see what the hold up is?"
"No, no one asked for the pancakes. Where is the vegetarian omelet?"

The confused waitress got more and more so and eventually just started sending over the busboy with pickles instead of pepper and napkins when we had asked for mustard.

"Looks like we're that table," my friend Carson said.

I agreed and remarked that I was surprised the manager didn't try to at least send us some free wine to try and cover up for all the problems.

"No," said Carson. "You don't understand. I worked in a restaurant. When one table starts going bad you don't try to save it. You're not getting a tip from them." He searched for his fork which the busboy had thoughtfully removed. "So you just let them sink."

I'd never thought about it that way, but of course, Carson was right. Let the bad customer get all the way bad and concentrate on the customers you can save. I noted that the tables around us seemed to be filled with happy patrons and replete with full compliments of condiments and silverware.

Because it is a fact that there are bad customers who, ultimately, you cannot satisfy. So why bother trying?

The Internet is why.

How many times has someone told you they had a problem with United, SouthWest, American or another airline and never to fly them? I used to counter by saying that I had had a bad experienced with every airline in my travels. It was beyond the control of the airlines to get every passenger a great flight every time.

But now I too am a sucker for the Internet's ability to turn one bad apple into an entire rotten orchard.

For example, I have been looking at taking a vacation in Santa Fe. I found a nice looking hotel called, appropriately enough, Hotel Santa Fe. The website is great. The haciendas look amazing. Expedia gives good reviews. But some travelers on tripadvisor.com say it isn't worth the money and the hacienda is a rip off that sometimes has no view and leaky showers. I note that many of those who complain site the earlier complaints of others--the literal bad apple syndrome.

So I don't go there. I book somewhere else. The one sinking ship customer has soured me. Why risk having the same experience when I can click and see the hotels that have not yet been sullied?

The same is true of eBay, Amazon, menupages (a restaurant menu site for New York City). Also note the many websites devoted to customer's individual complaints. One bad review is death for everyone from a baseball card dealer to a bookseller to a hot dog stand. Take careful note, Mr. Business, how much effort eBay sellers put into commenting on bad reviews, trying hopelessly to put the blame back on the bad customer.

In the past, even Mary Lou Retton could automatically ignore the Russian judge because the Olympic scoring system through out the low and the high score. But that is no more. Now companies must bail out every one of those sinking vessels lest one hit the bottom and its wreckage haunt them for ever more.