PS to Crazy Dash Night

 

PS -  Out of curiosity, I just checked my ratings, because I like to learn from my mistakes and am big into self-improvement - but that  40-minute wait on the food Sunday night had me worried.

Sure enough, somebody from Sunday gave me my first and only 1-star rating, though literally all other of my ratings are 5 stars, including 8 "above-and-beyond" ratings, especially with regards to communication and friendliness.

Now, just to recap, I did everything textbook. I ... 

1) Hit the "order is late/isn't ready" button on the app to let the DoorDash app log that the restaurant is behind.

2) Called each customer to apologize for the delay, letting them know the restaurant was behind and an ETA, giving them a choice between waiting or canceling. If they didn't answer, I texted the information. 

3) If they did respond, I again apologized for the delay at the restaurant, empathized with their frustration, also letting them know that it was frustrating for me, too, as I lost out on trips, but I and that I would text them once ready.

4) Let them know that although nothing could be done about restaurants being behind, one thing we can do to avoid lateness is to order "direct delivery" - this ensures that your order will not be "stacked" or tacked on to other orders. 

In fact, I've actually had store customers standing behind me when I called the customers to do this and said "That's awesome, nobody else does that, gives us that choice, they just cancel. GREAT customer service."

Which means that although the people who did respond appeared to at first be frustrated with the wait, appeared to understand the situation was beyond my control and due to the restaurant and thanked me for the update -  some A-hole smiled in my face and appeared to understand, but left me 1 star anyway, knowing despite none of it was my fault and I did everything I could.

(Again, there's that passive-aggressive communication in the South, where they smile in your face and act like everything is fine, but leave you a bad rating behind your back, rearing it's ugly head again.) 

Also, all of the orders on a busy late afternoon and Sunday night were from people literally within 3 miles of the restaurant, with 2-3 late-model cars in the driveway, none of them with handicap stickers. 

So sometimes, you can't help but think "Okay, I can't control the restaurant being behind on a busy Sunday, OR DoorDash stacking orders together because there's not enough dashers on -  all I can do is apologize for the delay and update you and try to make it right - but if you still don't like it, it's not like you're in a hurry because you're working on a Sunday, so there's always the option to get your lazy butt in one of your multiple late-model cars and drive  2 miles down the road to get it yourself?"

"Unless of course you're too drunk or high after watching NFL, which would explain a lot "  😂

But of course, I never say that and you could never tell it from my tone, I'm always kind to people.

I'm not saying I'm perfect - once, I forgot somebody's drink and they texted me - I felt so bad that I apologized profusely -  it was TOTALLY my fault.

I apologized and asked them to please let DoorDash know so they can issue them a refund for that item, and they can also lower my tip, because it WAS my fault, not Door Dash's.

They were SO kind - they said they'd ask for a refund for the item, but they weren't going to take away the tip OR leave a bad review, because I responded to their text at all, then took responsibility and apologized, rather than blame someone else, so it's all good - they actually ended up leaving me 5 stars anyway!  😍

However, THIS situation on Sunday really was not my fault at all and the customers knew that - the restaurant was 40 minutes behind and I did give them a choice to wait or cancel.

Grrrrrr.

So I spoke to DoorDash about what will happen as a result, and if they feel if there's anything I could've done differently.

They said there's an automatic review which takes about a week on 1-star ratings, and if it's found I did hit "order not ready" in the app and communicated with the customer, they will remove that review in about a week as being beyond my control -  so there's that.

Oh well, it's just one 1-star, no big deal - but this still bothers me. I know, I have a perfectionist issue  -  but more than that - not only did I lose money for having to wait 40 minutes, now this!

AND they just left the rating with no feedback, so I have no idea  what I could've done differently. 

Mark says "See? F good customer service - from  now on, just hit "cancel" after 10 minutes of waiting on the food, don't even give them that choice, but if you're going to give them that choice, definitely cancel if the customer doesn't reply within 2 minutes. You have to learn to care less!"

Good idea on the reasonable wait time, but I'm not throwing out the good customer service baby with the bathwater!  😂

But as the DoorDash rep said, sometimes you can do everything according to textbook good customer service - and a few people will still not be happy.

Because some people want a target to blame, and you're the person in front of them, and you can't control how they behave with something you do or don't do.

Not having worked in the food industry for several years now, I forgot that - that sometimes people shoot the messenger - OR - they take out their life frustrations on a total stranger serving them, just because they can. 

But as people that know me well know, I'm conditioned to blame myself first, only getting mad about it later in realization that maybe it's not on me or at least all on me?

I also keep forgetting that some of the last words my therapist said to me before I paused therapy due to finances. They were: 

"So stop it. It's good to always examine yourself first, but  you scour yourself for any little wrongdoing TOO much. Sometimes things really aren't your fault or aren't ALL your fault - and you're not that powerful to control how other people choose to behave with your own words or behavior, people do what they do." 

"Just because someone doesn't like bad news OR what you said, it doesn't mean you were wrong or handled it poorly."

So ... I have self-examined to see if there's anything I could have done differently or better in this situation, and I really can't find anything.

So I guess I'll just keep on doing what I think is right - maybe with Mark's suggestion on time limit for waits - unless somebody gives me specific feedback otherwise?

All right, worked through this in my head on writing it out here, all good now!  😂