“The customer is the arbiter of moral righteousness”: The woes of not having customer service in Europe

Last updated on: August 13, 2018 at 1:58 am by Stephen G. Adubato

“The customer is the arbiter of moral righteousness”: The woes of not having customer service in Europe 2018-08-13T01:58:37+00:00 Stephen G. Adubato

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is the fourth article in a series entitled “My Mediterranean Adventures”

As I sip the last drops of my tinto de verano, the automatic mister sprays my face with room temperature water…a brief moment of relief in the afternoon heat of Andalucia. My knee starts bouncing up and down, and I look left and right for the waiter. “Where the hell is he?” I think to myself.

My friend and I finished our tapas 5 minutes ago. I’m still waiting on tap water—which I asked for twice. And now I’m ready for the check. Seated next to me is a group of three who had started eating around the time we sat down. Their glasses of wine were still half full. A dark haired woman with sunglasses laughed playfully at her friend’s joke as she lit her second cigarette.

Finally, the waiter came around. “You want the check already?” He said, kindly but surprised.

In America, we are spoiled with the commonly held belief that we deserve good customer service. But where did this idea come from? And what are its implications?

On a practical level, American waiters and waitresses rely on the money they make from tips. In addition to not being paid very well by most restaurants, the cost of living is much higher here. In Europe, waiters are paid generally well, and their bills aren’t nearly as high as ours.

“Equality Forever” seems sustainable….

On an existential level, I’m compelled to believe that (1) the American exaltation of the democratic value of equality, and (2) the general consumerist logic that if I want something, I deserve to be able to get it, have played a role in the development of our standards for customer service.

Land of the free market and the home of the brave CEOs who keep going for more

I think about how offended my family members have gotten when a waiter forgot to tell the kitchen that they didn’t want tomatoes in their salad. It’s not like they had a deathly allergy or anything, they just “didn’t like them” (because raw tomatoes “are gross.”)

“I want to speak to your manager.” The offended American has a whole supply of defenses when provoked. In a good restaurant, the manager while come out trembling…even groveling, pleading with the customer to forgive them. “Here are two vouchers for a free meal, sir. We promise this will never happen again.” The fear of the disgruntled customer telling his friends about how horrible the restaurant is—or worse, writing a bad review on Yelp—looms over his head like a dark storm cloud.

The future of America

Why are we so entitled in America? Why do we deserve to be treated like royalty? On one hand, I think there is a real intuition that human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. On the other hand, I wonder if that sense of the customer’s “right” to good service is based on a twisted notion of human relationality which has been tainted by a capitalistic view of power. The dynamic between the customer and waiter is less of a human interaction as it is a transaction.

As frustrated as I was by the lack of customer service in Southern European restaurants, I feel like they treated me more like a human than like a potential source of money. Forgetting to bring me my tap water and taking forever to bring me bill made me feel more like a fellow human being. Humans are forgetful. They can still be kind and friendly even when making mistakes. Them not looking at me as a powerful source of wealth put us on equal footing which the seemingly-artificial pretense of “treating the customer right” doesn’t allow for.

So who’s got it right? I can’t say I’m sure. I’ll leave that for the customer to decide.

my mediterranean adventures

customer service

secularism

Previous Post

August 6, 2018

“Touch my body, bro”: Sex, Death, and the Male Body

Next Post

October 21, 2018 Let Me Feel the Lack: A meditation on Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category my mediterranean adventures Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 March 2019 January 2019 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz