Taste of Lincoln

There was an article in the Lincoln Journal Star about a week ago that talked about customer service as it relates to all levels of your organization. They talked about how even at McDonald’s, customer interactions with their lowest salaried employees are often the most important.

It’s a bit of a walk from my office, but I’ve wanted to try the Manhattan deli for a long time. I’ve never been to New York, but I have been to Chicago several times and know what real deli meat should taste like. Although I know I’m a disgrace to my Polish heritage, but I despise sauerkraut in any capacity. I ordered a Ruben without sauerkraut and the person taking my order was very nice. It wasn’t crowded, but I knew it took a bit to put it together. After getting my sandwich, I walked all the way back to my office to eat this masterpiece at my desk. Upon opening it, I saw it was just covered in sauerkraut.

I was extremely disappointed and decided to call the deli. It wasn’t the same person that helped me at the counter and I very calmly explained why I was upset. I got the genius response of “oh, sorry.” I asked “is that it?” and he replied “yep” and hung up the phone. Now I’m just pissed off. I called back and of course got the same person. I demanded to speak to the owner or manager. He put me on hold for about 15 seconds and came back to say that they were not there.

But now here is the part of the story that REALLY sucks…

A colleague at work knows someone there and now I’m known as “the sauerkraut jerk”. This person felt the need to make himself feel bigger in front of his co-workers by telling them I hung up on him. Complete crap! For as mad as I was, I remained calm and professional throughout the encounter.

I’m spending the time on this because this is exactly what the article in the Journal Star talked about. As a result of this encounter, this lower level employee has a fictional hero story for his co-workers. I know how the real conversation went.

However, the owner of the business has a completely pissed off customer that is venting his anger on a public blog. There is no shortage of sandwich shops in downtown Lincoln and now there is one less on my list.