Faster, better…

Archive for November, 2008

What a thrill to see the Coast Guard Cutter Legare (912) sail by Plum Point, MD today. America’s life-savers! What a beautiful ship. A blog salute to Coast Guard Cutter 912!

Yucky cold damp day, blah!

This blog by Dr. Doug Powell, Associate Professor, Food Safety, at Kansas State University will amuse and bemuse you. It certainly gets you thinking about food safety.

BarfBlog covers the restaurant industry in perhaps a way no one else ever really has.

What can a restaurant do to compensate for poor service? What should the restaurant do for an unhappy customer?

Keep in mind I am writing this from the point of view of a customer, but a customer that has been in various service related businesses my entire career. The suggestions and impressions regarding service I have are ones that most restaurants could consider.

A manager (with a manager’s name tag) should immediately be made aware of a service related complaint and respond personally UNLESS wait staff have been trained to respond immediately and effectively. When the wait staff does satisfy a complaint the manager should be made aware of the complaint and the steps taken to satisfy the customer. The Manager should follow up in person with the customer at the end of the meal. When managers are managers it makes me feel like someone is in charge and the restaurant truly cares whether or not I have a pleasant meal.

There are reasonable and unreasonable customers. The customer is not always right. A belligerent customer, in my view, cannot be helped, does not want to be satisfied, but is so narcissistic and so impressed with himself and his performance that whatever the restaurant does it will never serve to resolve the complaint. Customers should always pursue reasonableness to allow a manager to deal effectively and to the customer’s satisfaction. The level of misbehavior by an unhappy customer should trigger an appropriate response from a pleasant respectful assurance to a call to 911. Businesses do not want jerks as customers nor do customers want to patronize jerks.

There are professional unhappy customers out to scam service related business every day. It is up to the customer to be truthful and sincere so that the wait staff or manager will take them at their word. I believe most good business people can tell a scam from the real thing. Managers of any business have a right to argue with and not respond to unreasonable requests when explanations have been offered in good faith.

What a restaurant can do to resolve a poor service complaint is entirely up to the owner and should be based on the severity of the perceived slight. The owner should sit down with managers and plan for such situations. That planning process does not imply you will receive lots of complaints, no on the other hand that planning keeps quality service in the minds of every employee and fewer complaints result. When the manager affirms there was a level of service not meeting management’s expectations or restaurant standards the manager should be pleasant, sincere, and truthful in his response.

The restaurant is NOT required to give away the store.

I can tell you the best places empower wait staff to resolve issues instantly by re-cooking, warming, or replacing food or table items, moving a customer to a different table. A good customer recognizes the staff that wait on him are the ones that resolve the little annoyances that to others might not even be a complaint. The best waiter or waitress is one that is an exceedingly good diplomat for the restaurant.

When a customer feels like he has to speak with a manager the customer should do so politely. The customer should give the manager time to investigate the complaint and speak to the wait staff. We are talking minutes here.

Restaurants can offer a credit toward the meal, a second drink, a replacement meal, a better table. In some cases customers simply want the manager to watch their table the rest of the night to make sure the rest of evening goes as planned and mistakes do not happen again. Reasonable customers understand that new wait staff have to be trained.

Many years ago Eileen and I went to a well known national steak place. It was just the two of us. We did not have reservations as this restaurant did not take reservations. We were issued a flashing pager commonly used by popular dinner spots. We went inside to have a good time and a pleasant meal. We waited almost an hour to be seated. During that wait we watched group after group go in ahead of us. It was obvious that the restaurant was seating groups of four or more first. Those groups didn’t have reservations either. By the time we were seated some of those groups were already well into their meal. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything because I did not want to spoil a night out with a complaint. Restaurant managers need to know that many good customers actually over look some things just to manage the quality of their own evening regardless of the service.

I ordered steak and as I recall Eileen ordered seafood. We ordered an appetizer and before dinner drinks as well. Eileen had coffee and I had wine. Again we waited and waited. The folks in larger groups got great attention but there we sat. Some time later the drinks and appetizers arrived. No apology. We still didn’t say anything about the wait. Our meal order was taken.

The meal came at about the right moment I could not wait to get my medium-cooked steak. Huh? This is cooked rare! I thought, “Excuse me. I’m paying a PREMIUM at a famous steak restaurant, I have endured long waits for this meal and I want it to be right.” By this time even my patient partner was also a little annoyed. This is where I asked the waitress for help.

I had the immediate feeling she was either not fully empowered or improperly trained to resolve a simple problem but she gave it a shot. The steak was sent back for cooking. My spouse all but finished her meal and I was still waiting on my steak some fifteen to twenty minutes later. When the steak finally came it was cooked to specification. I did comment I thought the wait was improper and that a steak restaurant should cook everything right the first time. As I recall the waitress muttered an acknowledgment and walked off. Right about this point is where I kind of expected a manager to visit the table. (Imagine the quiet sound of crickets in the field at this point.) I’m still feeling reasonable so I say nothing more and finish my meal. We waited again for the check.

Our experience at this famous steak place was less than satisfactory as well as way too expensive. On the way out I saw a person with a manger tag and quietly asked to speak with him. I have never seen eyes glaze over so fast. I politely explained the level of service and quality of food we received. What I got was, “I’m sorry you had that experience. We will do better next time.” The end. That was it. He had to seat another large group. We politely left the restaurant. This happened in California way back in 1996 I think. We have never been back to a restaurant in that chain. Service like this is systemic. It is based on restaurant policy. Unless I was taken as a guest I was never going back no matter how cute the commercials were. My perception was that this chains policies probably caused the behaviors we experienced so they didn’t deserve my business.

What should have happened? The manager should have been all over my my issues with thoughtful sincerity. He should have asked for an opportunity to speak with the wait staff. When he found substabnce to my complaint he should have offered us a coupon to use during a return visit. He could have also shaved some of the cost from the night’s tab. In my case I would have been happy that he simply acknowledged the poor service without glazing over.

Customers shouldn’t make a scene in a restaurant and restaurant manager should do everything within their power to make corrections, empower employees, and assuage bad feelings that might affect return business. All too often the bigger chains just write off the customers because after all there are more of those out there. Truth be told however, I have had plenty of times since 1996 to tell my restaurant story. There are plenty of better stake places.

Please read this article on the Inside Charm City Blog entitled, “Hopkins won’t rent space to Sons of Confederate Veterans anymore.”

When I was in my early thirties I asked my father who his grandfather Smith was. I didn’t know and dad never spoke of him. He had heard his name before but his own father didn’t go into great detail. We discovered on a trip we both took together to Waco, Texas that Ephraim Calvin Smith was a Confederate. A Confederate foot stone was placed at his grave. At Christmas time in 1863 when he was age 16 in Pickens County, Georgia, E.C. married my Great Grandmother M. Bertha Pendley and then joined the Pickens Raid Repellers, Cherokee Legion, Company I, Georgia State Guard. At that time, E.C. and his brothers felt compelled to take sides. Two of his brothers perished during the war as I recall from my family history. E.C. received his parole at War’s end in 1865 and went South to Texas in 1871 with other members of his family settling near Austin.

Other than having copies of my Great Grandmother’s Texas Confederate Widow’s Pension and E.C.s war papers from the National Archives I don’t know much about why he decided to go to the war. His county was the last county in Georgia to take up arms. Jefferson Davis had to send Confederate troops to remove the stars and stripes from the Pickens County courthouse flag pole because Pickens did not want to secede with the rest of the state. I studied US history as kid just like everyone else but never appreciated what that history and my heritage actually meant to me until I was in my mid-thirties.

Interestingly enough, on my mother’s side of the family my great grandfather on her line was one Ulysses Grant Ogan, named after the famous Union General and President of the United States. In my family there is heritage from both the North and the South.

After having discovered my own heritage I became concerned when year after year I heard of government agencies, private organizations, and now a famous hospital, taking up moral objections to my personal interest in my family history. I’m neither a member of the Son’s of Confederate Veterans, a racist, a supporter of slavery, a right-wing nut, or anyone out to intentionally yank another’s chain because he or she is a different color than I am; however, there do seem to be people out there that think if I consider membership in a heritage organization they don’t like I have to be all of those things. I’m just sick of the whole debate. The American Civil War ended in 1865. Not a soul is left living from that time period. Calling out the Son’s of Confederate Veterans as racists is just not right.

There are in my view, folks bent on making sure we are only allowed to study their version of American history and celebrate only those lines of heritage of which they approve. The Civil War is not over for these folks. They are still fighting the war, still getting even, still enraged at history.

I’m not without some sensitivity to John’s Hopkins. One of their most famous employees Vivienne Thomas, L.L.D reportedly met with terrible discrimination at John’s Hopkins his entire professional life simply because of his skin color. Well now the tables have turned. The shoe is on the other foot. A new elite is in charge at the hospital. An elite that ought to know better. The tolerance desired by minorities in those previous years however is apparently not about to be shared with anyone else because after all these, these are Confederates that want to use our meeting room! We have to spite them for their heritage. We are in charge now!

In St. Mary’s County Maryland the descendants of Confederate Soldiers that perished in the North’s version of Andersonville prison at Pt. Lookout purchased land for their own memorial next to a federal Confederate Memorial because our own multicultural, diverse, and enlightened federal government refused to allow the Confederate flag to be flown at that the “official” memorial to Confederate prisoner of War Dead.

At Harper’s Ferry I heard that Confederate re-enactors are not allowed to wear Confederate Uniforms on National Park property.

I think John’s Hopkin’s actions fly in the face of the tolerance and love Vivienne Thomas and Dr. Alfred Blalock had for each other, their work, and the thousands of children they saved then and have been saved since through their courageous friendship. These men looked past the color of their hands and their heritage to set an example for the racists around them then. But what about now? Who is here for us now?

Calvert County has experienced graffiti vandalism this year. How about St. Mary’s and Charles Counties? Perhaps you have seen graffiti in your neighborhoods? What are you doing to report the graffiti and how are you being received by law enforcement and county government? Is the graffiti being removed in a timely fashion?

It is very important to report new occurrences of graffiti vandalism and that you insist the vandalism be abated. If your county does not have a graffiti ordinance that requires private property owners to abate graffiti vandalism on their property ask your elected representatives to write and enact one.

Encourage your local law enforcement agency to join the NoGraf Network at NoGraffiti.com.

There have been many Internet searches associated with yesterday’s Network Solutions database problem. At about 1730 yesterday 11/18/08 users of the UBB bulletin board at PopularWireless.com were greeted with an SQL error. A database cache table was read only. Yikes! Here at dougweb I could see that some functions in WordPress were not working properly including posting.

I put a call in to Network Solutions and luckily for me the contractors in the Philippines were not answering the help desk telephone. Now I’m a Gold VIP customer. All that has meant so far is that I am offered more and more ways to spend my money EVEN when reporting down time. None of the promises like periodic updates of help desk requests ever came true. It was interesting that they were prepping customers to receive calls from a company surveying customers on service issues. A recording said I might get a call.

In four to five hours the service came back but remains a little sluggish today. How is your blog? How did the down time affect your website?

Email spam is still around despite some states prosecuting the spammers they can actually catch. But spammers are not the brightest bulbs in the lamp as it were.

I live in Maryland. The two-letter abbreviation for Maryland is MD. Some dim bulb email harvester made the MD association and assumed it meant I was an MD or medical doctor. As a result I’m now getting email newsletters and email sales pitches obviously intended for doctors and no, I’m not a doctor.

The incompetence is simply staggering. Dim and dimmer I’d say.

A new page was added to DougWeb today, the Watch stander’s Reference. This is a helpful list of maritime related links with an emphasis on Southern Maryland. Should you want to suggest a “missing link” send it to doug@dougweb.com.

(Press Release St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety Nov 2008) – St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety in coordination with the National Weather Service will be hosting a SKYWARN class on November 19th, 2008 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the Chesapeake Building, 41770 Baldridge St., Leonardtown to train citizens to become SKYWARN storm spotters.

SKYWARN storm spotters are part of the ranks of citizens who form the Nation’s first line of defense against severe weather. There can be no finer reward than to know that their efforts have given communities the precious gift of time–seconds and minutes that can help save lives.

National Weather Service and the St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety encourage anyone with an interest in public service to join the SKYWARN program. SKYWARN Storm Spotters include police and fire personnel, dispatchers, EMS workers, public utility workers and other concerned private citizens. Individuals affiliated with hospitals, schools, churches, nursing homes or those with a responsibility for protecting others are also encouraged to become a spotter.

This free class will last approximately two hours and will include the following curriculum:

• Basics of thunderstorm development
• Fundamentals of storm structure
• Identifying potential severe weather features
• Information to report
• How to report information
• Basic severe weather safety

For more information please call the Department of Public Safety, Emergency Management Division at 301 475 4200 x 2125

This great spot was written about in May at SOMD.COM in an article entitled “Café offers coffee, treats in Prince Frederick.” We stopped in for coffee this morning and hope to be back for a breakfast croissant or a lunch wrap. What a great spot!

Located on Main Street within walking distance of every county and state building the Main Street Cafe is a superb location for friends to meet or to just sit and watch the world go by. The coffee is excellent and the folks running this spot do it with conviction and excellent taste. The customer service is tops and the coffee is even better. Next time you are in Prince Frederick and thinking coffee think Main Street Cafe, 132 Main Street. Definitely a four on our scale. (Not open on weekends.)

Calvert County CERT has a new blog at Blogspot.com. Bill Hackett notified all volunteers on November 7 that the blog will be used to keep everyone up to date. Calvert County CERT members should take advantage of the new blog.

Calvert Citizens Emergency Response Teams are trained civilians who have volunteered to perform simple search and rescue in their communities after a disaster. CERT is a function of the FEMA Citizens Corps.

When graffiti got to be a problem for Mark Schachner. a dell owner in Brooklyn, N.Y., his solution was not to report it, Out to encourage it. He painted his boarded fence white and then posted signs inviting local graffiti artists to come and paint one panel each.

[Editor: A recent example of a business owner's attempt to "get along" with the graffiti vandals in his neighborhood. His free wall didn't work.]

read more | digg story

The Southern Maryland Celtic Society held it’s annual Medieval Feast on 1 November 2008 at the St. James Church Great Hall in Lothian, MD. A good time was had by all. Guests attended wearing period clothing and several guests played sang or played musical instruments.

The seven course meal was absolutely wonderful.

My spouse and I are recent members of the Society. The group puts on the annual Celtic Festival held in Calvert County. The groups activities are great fun. I encourage you to visit the society’s website and to participle in their activities.You will be glad you did.

The Calvert County sample ballot for the 2008 election does not specify the political party affiliation for each candidate running for Calvert School Board. That seemed odd. I became more than a little concerned when I saw a Calvert County Education Association television commercial for three prospective Board Members running as a group – supporting one another. This kind if campaigning makes me nervous because I get the sense the group wants to maintain a power base rather than manage the school system with some sense of fiduciary responsibility to tax payers. In my opinion we have a tax and spend school board that anticipates annual increased spending. They anticipate spending property tax increases even before they have the money. The money was spent the year before heating oil prices skyrocketed and the local newspaper, in a front page story, wrote about the Boar’s lamentations that there wasn’t enough money to heat the schools.

We don’t need more of the same. Tax payers have their limits especially in poor economic times.

Despite the HUGE property tax increases in Calvert County parents are asked to spend more and more on their kids education. When I managed a retail store here in Calvert I visited with many parents and students looking to local business to support fund raising efforts to obtain what I considered support for legitimate school programs. All of this fund raising just seems odd to me.

Where is all of our tax money going? Where would slot revenue go and would it reduce my property taxes? Who is watching the Calvert County School Board. A Democrat candidate said, “as the federal and state budget deficits trickle down to the local level, the board needs to get creative in finding more revenue sources.” This translates to higher property taxes and more begging by parents and students. A Republican says, “”The thing that upsets me the most is that parents have to spend about an average of $50 dollars to supply their child, and others, and the classroom, and on top of that we’ve got schools which are trying to fund raise to build playgrounds at each school, which puts more pressure on the students and parents to provide more money.” (See NEWS8.NET.)

The two Republicans and one Independent running for Calvert County School Board are getting my vote.

Patrick E. Flaherty

Tracy H. McGuire

Matt Swanson

The document linked below at the Calvert County Republicans Website lists NEW MARYLAND TAXES pushed through the Democrat controlled legislature in Annapolis 2007-2008. Before you vote this year look at this list of new taxes. It is a spectacular eye opener. It is painfully obvious that the Federal tax debates are obfuscations. The Democrats started income redistribution well ahead of the Presidential elections.

The document is a PDF file.

TAXES, TAXES, and more TAXES

Whatever your political leanings or persuasion – please vote!

I am very fond of breakfast buffet’s. Perhaps it’s because I can have seconds of scrambled eggs or maybe it’s just the seconds. The Captain’s Table has a superb breakfast buffet. My spouse described it as typical but I think it is more “American breakfast” southern style with biscuits and gravy, pancakes, candied fruit, fresh fruit, bacon, corn beef hash, scrambled eggs, multiple types of potatoes and on and on. Yum. The coffee is excellent.

This morning we dropped in before church at 8:30 AM. Captain’s Table opens at 7:00 AM. Now that’s breakfast. The waitresses are excellent. Attentive, polite, experts. We were shown to our table and walked directly to the buffet. We were able to eat and get our bill paid within thirty minutes.

The ambiance is “local marina.” After you have successfully found the Captains Table you are offered views of the marina, marine paintings by a well known local painter sold right off the walls of the restaurant. The restaurant is behind the Solomon’s Comfort Inn. Allow extra time to find the place your first and second time. Finding the restaurant is worth the effort.

We have been to the Captain’s Table twice for breakfast. We have ordered from the menu and used the breakfast bar. The restaurant is open until 9:00 PM and I am told it is a resoundingly successful night spot for evening meals. The Captain’s Table is on my list of older, quaint, and colloquially local restaurants. The building and the crew have character. The step down into the harbor water-front view table area always gets you a polite, “Watch your step!” You can tell from the bar patrons and customers that almost everybody has been there before. It’s a place where you just get that warm and fuzzy home-cooked feeling and one where everyone is welcome. Very few restaurants actually achieve giving the patrons the feeling they are taking a meal and entertainment in the owner’s water-front rec room or home. This restaurant does. We were properly greeted and even thanked for coming by more than one employee. The Captain’s Table is a great place to start your day. We heartily recommend it as a four on our scale of regularly visited eating establishments. It’s one awesome local spot you might otherwise miss if you were not looking for it. The local folks all know where it is.

The Captain’s Table is located at 275 Love Rd., Solomon’s Island, Maryland. 410-326-2772.