The greatest disservice that we can do to those that we work with or for is to allow technology to take the place of common sense. I spent the evening with MBA pals at Serrano's this week. Some arrived earlier than others, famished from a long day of work, and began eating. As others arrived, the table began to fill until we had a group of about 12 people...all ordering at different times with different tickets.
The waiter, who had clearly outsourced his common sense skills elsewhere, became so flustered by the number of orders and different orders. Unfortunately, his errors in common sense (and his bad attitude) made it impossible for the restaurant's POS system to help him. Ah yes, that's where technology fits in. Let me explain.
Basically, the crowd came in two waves. The first wave, ordered, ate, paid, then commenced to buying drinks and other things a la carte (if you will) from the bar. Instead of creating a separate table and allowing the POS system to do all of the work, he got flustered. Hence, he kept everyone on the same table, even though he had basically closed it out.
The following ensued: 45 minutes before chips and salsa were ever brought to the table...after we had to ask a manager. 1 Hour before our drinks ever made it to the table...after we had to ask a manager. 1 hour and 30 minutes before our food made it to the table...after we had to ask a manager, who let us know that as our waiter did not use his POS system correctly, our order was never placed. Oh yeah, my food was not correct. In fact, I think I ate someone else's food from the other end of the table. My B.
The moral of this story...Technology is here to help us. This whole issue could've been quickly resolved by using the technology appropriately and by doing a quick organization of the table's needs and status of each individual...A.K.A. The common sense. The technology is there, but if you do not know how to use it properly, then it becomes useless.
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