We Pay a Lot of Money for Poor Service!

We willingly pay a lot of money for poor service. I worked in the insurance industry for nearly 30 years as a sales agent.  Commissions were the lifeblood of my business. I would have starved if not for the monthly commissions as I was paid no wage or salary. This type of pay arrangement forced me to provide good service to my clients.  No service, no commissions, no food on the table. Commission only is typical for agents working in the insurance industry. This is why you frequently get those correspondences and telephone calls from your agent or other sales people. They want to service your account or offer you a new product. They generally call you, you rarely call them. They generally provide good service because they want to make a sale and in turn satisfy you as a customer.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the waiter at your favorite restaurant was paid commission and no wage or salary? Imagine having the power to fill out a survey to critique your waiter and that critique would determine how much commission (wage) that waiter would earn for serving you. Then of course you’d determine whether the service warranted a tip. How bout that!

Like many of you, my wife and I go to a restaurant for breakfast, lunch, or dinner at least once a week, and we have done this for many years.  We have noticed the service at restaurants have gotten progressively worst over the years. There is this steakhouse in Memphis, Tenn., where we would frequently go to have dinner. We loved the food and service, as the food was deliciously prepared and the service was very good for this caliber of restaurant. We began to notice over a span of time that the food preparation and quality began to deteriorate. My wife is a quasi- expert when it comes to ribeye steaks. So when the waiter brought out this piece of steak that looked like a sirloin, my wife knew right away something was wrong. So, she told the waiter that he had made a mistake and brought out the wrong steak. The waiter became offended and swore up and down that the steak was in fact a ribeye. It was apparent that the restaurant had lower the quality of the steaks and at the same time raised the price.  Needless to say we have taken that restaurant off our list of favorite places to eat.