When you walk in the doors of a restaurant, hungry and ready for dinner, you hope to be greeted by a friendly host, seated promptly, be provided with the beverage of your choice and enjoy a good meal, served by a courteous, helpful and conscientious server. Right?

How would you feel if you were to arrive 45 minutes before closing time, only to find the condiments empty, no iced tea (and no more to be had until the next day), the drains on the pop machine had been removed for cleaning, and employees were sweeping the floor? Not exactly the welcome you would expect, I would imagine.

It's exactly what happened to a friend recently. He travels fairly often for work and being tired himself, he understood the employees' desire to begin packing up, wanting to be ready to leave at 9:01.  

However, from a customer service standpoint, hours of operation are just that -- the time during which a business is open and ready for business. In the case of this restaurant, it means that if people are to walk in at 8:50 pm, they should receive friendly, unhurried service, not to mention all the condiments and beverage options to choose from, just as if they had arrived two hours earlier.

Being made to feel like you are keeping employees from their personal business is uncomfortable, at best. Unfortunately, it happens all too often, in all situations, whether you are intruding on a personal conversation between co-workers, interrupting a telephone call, or preventing someone from responding to a text.  

Customer service is about providing service to customers. Often times, it's the primary focus of the job; unfortunately, it's also something that gets forgotten on a regular basis.