I'm a regular at a restaurant.

I have a regular table, I expect to be served by one of two regular wait-staff. They know what I like, how I like my coffee served, and how to make my cocktail extra (spicy, wet, dirty, etc.).

We're familiar with each others pacing, little eccentricities, flaws, and solid points.

I get the occasional free espresso, or a complimentary dessert, or an extra appetizer (the chef wants to know what you think of *this*). The bartender pours my drinks heavy when I want that.

I get better service than average non-regular clients.

I leave solid tips. I pay my bill with a smile and a thank you.

I give good word-of-mouth on this restaurant, and make sure I have an updated yearly review on 3 websites on this restaurant. When I invite guests out to eat, I try to make sure this restaurant is high on the list of places to take them, especially if they've never been there before. The owner *notices* when I bring in people who have never been there before, and he comes by the table and spends 5-10 minutes entertaining us.

I'm over a half century old, and I have a settled life, a fabulous wife, an awesome house, a career, and plenty of disposable income.

At my age and in my position, you do things in a way that I appreciate or I'm taking my business somewhere else. People who can accommodate folks like me tend to have booming businesses. People who can't tend to not. And I say people, because businesses *ARE* people, individual people who make decisions. And when those people don't make appropriate decisions, business suffers.

Netflix must hate this guy. They give me free months all the time for being a "valued customer".

Winnower wrote: »

I'm a regular at a restaurant.

I have a regular table, I expect to be served by one of two regular wait-staff. They know what I like, how I like my coffee served, and how to make my cocktail extra (spicy, wet, dirty, etc.).

We're familiar with each others pacing, little eccentricities, flaws, and solid points.

I get the occasional free espresso, or a complimentary dessert, or an extra appetizer (the chef wants to know what you think of *this*). The bartender pours my drinks heavy when I want that.

I get better service than average non-regular clients.

I leave solid tips. I pay my bill with a smile and a thank you.

I give good word-of-mouth on this restaurant, and make sure I have an updated yearly review on 3 websites on this restaurant. When I invite guests out to eat, I try to make sure this restaurant is high on the list of places to take them, especially if they've never been there before. The owner *notices* when I bring in people who have never been there before, and he comes by the table and spends 5-10 minutes entertaining us.

I'm over a half century old, and I have a settled life, a fabulous wife, an awesome house, a career, and plenty of disposable income.

At my age and in my position, you do things in a way that I appreciate or I'm taking my business somewhere else. People who can accommodate folks like me tend to have booming businesses. People who can't tend to not. And I say people, because businesses *ARE* people, individual people who make decisions. And when those people don't make appropriate decisions, business suffers.

I can agree that in most business situations which require face to face contact (especially in restaurants), customer service very important and unfortunately is quite the lost concept these days.

I myself will be 50 in a few months, also have plenty of the finer things in life at my disposal, and am far from worried about my income.

What matters to me most however is the quality of the product I buy, not the customer service I receive, since at the end of the day it is the product I will retain - not the weasel in the store that sold it to me who said something or did something I didn't like which I can forget about in less than a minute flat.

As you have already pointed out, businesses are people. And just like you or I, business owners are not perfect, omnipotent and able to be involved in every single aspect of their business at any given moment. They can make mistakes sometimes big ones, so I tend to cut them slack.

If a place with bad service has what I deem an excellent product for my needs I will likely go back there to buy anyway. Perhaps I may make my gripes known about their service issues, if I even have them, and then go about my business. Sometimes issues can be resolved if people speak up.

I get that you see the removal of the "rewards program" here as some sort of "customer service failure." Many others do too. You are speaking up. Good for you.

But I would encourage you and others posting about THIS particular failure to have some perspective - there are far more important things being changed in this game that are far more impacting its quality and your ability to experience it than the removal of vanity pets in the mail every few months.