There was a scenario today which made me wonder how many others would do the same thing if the situation arose. Essentially, I went to a restaurant today for a small family gathering and in this place you would check off what you want from the menu which they would then make. Afterwards they return the list of what you ordered and then proceed to cross them out as the food is brought to your table. For one of the orders the staff seemed to have made an error as they accidentally made and charged us for something that was more expensive. Their error was apparent too since you can clearly see which dishes were marked down.

However, it was decided that we wouldn’t make a fuss about it as it will potentially get one of the workers in trouble and so we just ended up accepting the dish and the higher price tag. I was advocating though that it should have at least been brought to their attention because as a business they should want to correct their mistakes. Otherwise they will likely not even be aware that they are making these kinds of mistakes.

It does make me wonder though as I pretty much guarantee if this wasn’t a formal restaurant but rather a fast food chain that most people would have no issues in returning the item and asking for a new one. That makes me wonder, why is it that way? In both cases you could argue that asking for a new item could get the person in trouble in terms of their job evaluation.

It makes me think too about things like tipping where people say in the food industry you tip people because you know that the wage they make is very little and so they rely on those tips to survive. Again though, you could argue it’s the same for like a person that works in a fast food restaurant. So why is it so different there?

Funny enough, even for this I don’t think I have ever been told an official story on how this habit has developed. Maybe someone out there has an actual story or tale about this to shed some light.

Interesting point this was I thought where the other day I was at a restaurant and it came time to pay for the bill. The person I was with was calculating the bill along with another person on what the tip should be based on the usual 10% to 15% figure. They then both came up with different numbers as one person was calculating the total before tax and the other person was calculating it with the tax included. That then brought up a debate that yo should only be calculating the tip based on the meal price itself and not with the tax included.

That makes me wonder how many people calculate it before the tax and how many do it after and whether or not it is unintentional as it is something you don’t really think about. It definitely does add up too when you think about it. As well, do the people receiving it expect to get a tip based on the before or after tax figure? Kind of amazing though at how much debate something that is supposed to be purely based on your generosity can create when it comes to money.

This is one of those things that sure got me thinking that you can pretty much make a career or money out of anything. I was watching this show that had to do with lottery winners and how the money has impacted their lives whether it be for the good or the bad. That then led to seeing all this information where some lottery winners are actually selling products that are supposed to help you increase your odds in winning. In a nutshell, because they have won a jackpot before this enables them to dub themselves as an expert in winning the lottery.

I can’t imagine that any kind of trickery or skill can help increase your odds of winning something like the lottery where it is purely based on luck. It is kind of interesting though on how people are willing to buy anything I suppose from people who have been there and done that as the illusion is that it will magically help you too regardless if the situation.

So there was a situation I was monitoring out of curiosity where this person appeared to be growing his business at a healthy pace. As a result of his growing success a lot of people naturally asked him how he is accomplishing this and so as he is growing he shares his successes and highlights on what he does to grow. The funny thing is as a result with this he receives an extreme amount of hate where people go out of their way to try and tell him how bad he is or how his decisions are bad. This then got a lot of people wondering what it is up with all those haters as the person is obviously doing something that is working and at the same time he is essentially sharing his strategies for free.

I was trying to narrow down the type of people and the type of criticism given to see if there was anything in common. Now the first was the obvious one as it seemed like the people that were more active in just being negative were individuals that were in some ways competitors and so naturally it seems like they were just trying to downplay his success. The other point I saw was kind of interesting as a lot of people had an infant “Don’t tell me what to do” attitude where because he wasn’t as big as someone more established people used this to attack him with. In some ways it’s almost like being in high school.

Thinking at it back, I wonder if in these cases it’s better to just highlight your success to reduce any workload in having to deal with those kinds of people. Then again, it can be one of those things where if people like that are giving you so much attention then you must be doing something right.

I’ve noticed recently that a lot of companies have been creating ways to help educate customers on how to use the products that they purchase. For example, cell phone service providers placing up in-depth tutorials on how to get the most out of the devices that they sell.

I was then just thinking how other companies do this by utilizing their own customer base as opposed to relying so much on hiring an internal staff to do so. For example, a common method I have seen online is that all the company did was simply put up an online forum where customers can interact with each other. With that, you see customers talking to each other about products while in many cases the people who are very knowledgeable about various items tend to help others with tips and questions.

In many ways I guess you can say their customers are doing the work for them. Not a bad way to leverage your time while at the same time helping to establish something unique in your own business in regards to the after shopping experience.