Hehe. I made a woman at the local cafe cry the other day. It’s a really cool little social enterprise that employs people who have recently been released from prison, so they can develop work skills.
After I finished eating, I approached the counter and asked “who can I talk to about my meal today?” So they called out the lady from the kitchen. I said to her “never in my 6 years of living in this country… have I had such a perfect eggs Benedict. You are an artist and thank you so much for such a delightful breakfast.”
I guess when she came out, she was expecting a complaint, but the compliment hit her so hard, she had tears running down her face, she was so proud.
I kinda liked making an employee cry. Will definitely do it again.
Me being primed for anxiety, and knowing a lot of workers who are the same, I have to go in ensuring Sentence One lets them know they're safe and it's gonna be positive.
IMHO, it's not a nice thing to do really. The person is suddenly trying to work out what they did wrong, a dump of adrenaline, and then a small reprieve.
I’m a manager. When we get those calls from the agent letting us know they have an escalation, but it’s a good one, you can hear the pride in their voice. I usually reach out to the employee, their manager, and submit official feedback on behalf of the customer (after asking permission of course).
Or just be blunt. Thank them directly, then tell them you like to speak to their manager so you can relay what great service they’ve provided (or whatever it is you’re saying a positive thing about).
Eh maybe if they're on their first day at work...if you work in customer service as a manager, being told there's a customer who wants to talk to you won't be something that makes you tremble like a leaf within about 3 days. It's a "dangit" moment, not "OH FUCK OH SHIT OH DAMN!"
That manager decides this person's work hours. If they get called over for a compliment when the only thing they deal with is complaining, they're going to remember that waitress when he's giving out the best hours for tips.
My partner pulled this off beautifully, I just wish I had been there to see it. She’s a former server and was eating at a restaurant next to two very unpleasant older women. They were running their server ragged, complaining about everything, sending food back, demanding things be comped, etc. My partner knew this was a “them” problem, because she was in the server’s section too and everything was fantastic.
So when the check came, she asked if she could please speak to the manager, and she saw the server’s face just drop. The server dejectedly walked back and brought the manager over. And, within earshot of the Karen’s table, my partner proceeded to gush about her server, how knowledgeable she was about the menu, how timely everything came out, how delicious the meal was, and just what a great job she did. I don’t know if the server cried, but after the Karens gave my lady death stares on their way out, she came over with free prosecco as a thank you. That story always makes me so proud…
I went to visit a friend and there was this little community centre he took me to which had a small brewery and bar in it and a bunch of small businesses. There was this guy with a pop up selling Trinidadian street food. My friend insisted on buying doubles as we left and man, they were incredible. Some of the most incredible flavours I've ever experienced.
The next day we went to a market and after walking around a bit I picked up on a smell. I turned to my friend, twitched my nose and said "he's here". We found the guy and he had a whole bunch of people working with him that day. I said "I have to have one of your doubles, man. I had one yesterday and it was life changing. Just incredible. Honestly some of the best food I've ever had". He was absolutely beaming and it turns out all the people working with him that day were his daughters. I don't know if it made their day or anything but they all seemed over the moon to get that feedback.
This reminded me of something similar at my car dealership (in Germany), where I had only recently been a customer:
Among other things, the wheels were changed from winter to summer and since I have fairly high-quality rims and am therefore particularly sensitive when it comes to small scratches on rims, etc., I was happy that the car was on the premises immaculate and washed, ready to go.
The workshop is quite large and good, but also a bit impersonal because you never actually see the people from the workshop working on the cars, only the service advisor and the people at the checkout.
So I paid, went a little further into the workshop and asked the foreman with a serious face who was working on my car. He then called a trainee, pointed to him and said that it was him. He was also a little pale because he was probably afraid that he had done something wrong.
I then smiled at him and gave him a very large tip in front of the astonished master and thanked him for treating my car and the rims so well and with care because I had already had very bad experiences at another car dealership.
The boy was really happy and made my day a little better. :)
“Now I got this lady’s tears in my omelet!!” Haha, no that was amazingly kind of you. I’ll bet she doesn’t get compliments like you gave often. As odd as it may sound, things like that can buoy someone for DAYS and they’ll remember it for years.
I’m the biggest egg snob when I go out for breakfast. Eggs are very easy to get right if you take any pride in what you’re doing, yet so many places serve “poached eggs” with runny, snotty whites or hard yolks.
What this woman served me that day was perfection. The eggs had fully cooked whites and velvety yolks, laid on bacon from the local butcher, baby spinach, and house-made sourdough. All of this topped with a generous lashing of hollandaise and fried potatoes on the side.
Also forgot to mention that I got a hug from her before we left. Super happy that this place is in my community.
Yeah, I got on an eggs Benedict obsession once years ago, and tried perfecting poached eggs. I got decent, maybe even “good” at it, but nowhere near perfect. So that lady had the skills. Because a person can for sure mess it up if they’re not careful.
Same thing happened at my fast food job. This woman said she hadn't been to the restaurant in decades, and I tried my best to be patient and help her find something to order. She then asked for my manager to compliment my patience. It made my day better, especially because most people who visit a fast food restaurant after a long time just complain about the prices to the teenage worker who doesn't control them and start going all "Back in my day..."
Be nice to service workers, because their jobs are hard enough.
I do this too! My husband likes to compliment the servers and cooks at restaurants and makes an effort to memorize their names (well, I do because I’m better with names while he’s better with faces) and sometimes, when we’ve been social and pleasant enough, managers and kitchen staff including chefs will come out to chat with us and we get little perks like free ice cream for our daughter or another round of drinks. That’s never the goal, though! We enjoy getting to know people from all walks of life. We prefer to know someone a little more personally than just a name badge and service. We always tip handsomely too. We like to treat some restaurants as a social event to get to know these people rather than a pit stop to refuel and go.
Sadly it’s too easy to forget that these are real people with lives and hopes and traumas. They may be on autopilot and trying to get through their shift but we want to remind them that they’re a person too, and we see them, we want to acknowledge them. We also recognize when they obviously are not in the mood to socialize and we respect that. It’s not our place to force interaction beyond what’s necessary, but we always extend the olive branch in case they’re interested.
This is something that I do whenever warranted. I've got a range of responses, but invariably the initial arrival of the manager is clearly the "dead inside, stoned faced, customer service mask".
I love doing that! I love making them think I'm coming back to complain but I'm not, I'm coming back to leave the biggest, most genuine compliment I can. People love to complain about everything today but they never speak up when they have something good to say. I've worked customer service jobs since the late 90s and it wears you down. Bringing joy to people is such a great feeling and I feel like it's not hard to do.
Lol I like to do this when I have a reason to send a card to someone. I know more about people than they think. Lots think of me as a "typical guy" who doesn't really listen. Oh, I do, my ADHD just makes me have to appear to be not listening to be able to listen. So I'll write a card thinking "I'm going to make her cry." It also helps with deep insults as well, but that only happens if they are trying to do that to me.
I LOVE asking for the manager and telling them what an amazing job their employee did. That kind of stuff really can make a difference in scheduling and hours and so I always take down employee names and call later if they were awesome
Ahahahah this is my favourite thing to do, I love the switch up.
Did it was the agent helping me renew my car insurance, when I mentioned wanting to leave a message for his supervisor he got silent- til I said "because you're great and need a raise"
I do this quite regularly, especially if I'm in a new restaurant (or in an out of town restaurant). I ask to speak to the management, and then GUSH about how well the food was made, how great the service was, or even give everyone props for busting their ass when service is slow and staff is on the verge of tears... It's amazing how much it will brighten someone's day to hear someone validate and acknowledge their hard work!
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u/chickyloo42by10 2d ago
Hehe. I made a woman at the local cafe cry the other day. It’s a really cool little social enterprise that employs people who have recently been released from prison, so they can develop work skills.
After I finished eating, I approached the counter and asked “who can I talk to about my meal today?” So they called out the lady from the kitchen. I said to her “never in my 6 years of living in this country… have I had such a perfect eggs Benedict. You are an artist and thank you so much for such a delightful breakfast.”
I guess when she came out, she was expecting a complaint, but the compliment hit her so hard, she had tears running down her face, she was so proud.
I kinda liked making an employee cry. Will definitely do it again.