Problem customers pose quandaries for restaurants

Bill Glover was quite fond of his appetizer: braised pork belly drizzled with jalapeno ketchup and served with creamed corn.

One of his customers, who apparently had a sensitivity to spiciness, had other ideas and wasn't shy in sharing her thoughts.

"She looked at me with this real callous face and said, 'Where do you get off putting this on the menu? My tongue is swollen and I can hardly talk.'"

Glover, chef and owner of Sage American Bistro in the University District, said he apologized but the guest wouldn't relent. He asked, in front of a room full of astonished onlookers, what he could do to make her happy. She said nothing and stormed off with her dining companion, who also had a choice expletive for the chef.

So the customer's always right? It depends on who you ask.

"You always have to lean on the side of the guest is right," Glover said. "But on the food-service side you can't believe the things we encounter. People leave this profession because they get bitter dealing with the public."

Indeed, pleasing guests is the objective of any diligent restaurateur. Certainly, they have some legitimate complaints: a forgotten fork, cloudy wine glass or cold chicken fricassee.

So how does one differentiate constructive criticism from downright abuse?

Industry veteran Paul Liu, owner of Haiku and Bento Go Go, said customers cross the line when they insult the staff.

"A lot of times when you talk civilly with them, the owner or the manager talks to them, they behave differently," Liu said. "Sometimes they don't and when they don't, you politely ask them to leave."

It's an endless discussion in the food-service industry, said Jarrod Clabaugh, director of communications for the Ohio Restaurant Association.

"We always encourage our members to train their staffs on the importance of etiquette," he said. "Whenever a customer's request can be followed, like leaving a particular item out of a dish, they should do their best to meet that request."

Most patrons are easy to please, Clabaugh said.

"But, some customers' requests can be overreaching," he said. "It's important to walk the line carefully."

Howard Cannon of Restaurant Consultants of America, based in Alabama, said restaurants can never overvalue customer service.

"In the old days it was 'The customer's always right,'" he said. "Now you can barely get an operator to agree with that. Ultimately they're not trained to believe it."

Cannon said the industry has grown so much, so fast, that operators couldn't teach the finer points of service to their staff. And, in his professional world, there is no substitute for first-rate customer relations.

"The food is an important component" of restaurants, he said. "But there are plenty of people who will eat mediocre food if the service is world-class."

His company sends secret diners in to test the determination of servers. They will, for example, say they found a hair on their burger. The servers too often will look for the wayward lock or quibble with customers when the solution is simple: "Toss the old one away and get them a new one," Cannon said.

"Service is a lost art in this industry," he said. "Those that stay focused on it usually have better sales growth, significantly better profits and a significantly better culture and environment than those who don't."