"My pleasure" said the obsequious waiter at Proof on Main, one of Louisville's top restaurants this Memorial Day weekend. "My pleasure" he said every time my husband or I said "thank you". Hubbie said, "It's not his pleasure. It's his job." To which I replied, "Well, 'my job' just does not get it as an appropriate response to a customer. If he said "my job' every time you said 'thank you', you'd be laughing so hard you couldn't finish your bison tenderloin."

Thus began the conversation on what a waiter should say to a customer, since, in doing his job, he should be thankful and gain pleasure from a)having a job and b)having a job that allows him to serve paying customers. "It is my pleasure to serve you" was what he meant, I am certain, but shortened it to "my pleasure" since he was so ever present. And trying to be obsequious. Which he accomplished nicely, I might add. We will return to Proof on Main for those special occasions as it does feel good to be a customer there.

The night before at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, another Louisville culinary location of renown, we had the opposite experience. Our waitress was barely attentive, and the food was overpriced and VERY slow to be delivered. Because of the extreme wait, I had asked the hostess (2 of them NOT busy, I might add) to make a call for me (cell phone reception is nil there for some reason) and she told me to go outside where I could place the call myself. Aggravated, I did just that, and had several people confuse my presence at the door as some sort of welcome wagon hostess service. This experience and the almost $200 bill for bad service for only one meal which we split will mean that Jeff Ruby's does not get our business again soon.

What customers want first and foremost is to be appreciated, and to have someone's attention. Whether it is in a restaurant, on a phone call, or in a retail store, or on line. Customers want to be appreciated as they are about to drop some money to someone's bottom line, and getting the customer to do that is sometimes not easy. Remembering names is probably #1 on the list of what makes a customer feel special. Don't you love it when someone knows your name and addresses you when you come back into a store or restaurant? Then #2 is getting whatever you are trying to do, done correctly. So efficiency and effectiveness in the buying process is appreciated. #3 might be knowledge of the subject, and if the sales person is lacking knowledge, then finding the answers to questions instead of just saying "Gosh, I don't know" and leaving it there. And #4 would be make the customer's life easier. They may not always be right, but they are always the customer.