Holiday Dinner

We had our company holiday dinner tonight.  I was in charge of hiring the caterer and organizing it.  I was a little nervous about it because the first three companies I called didn’t inspire confidence in the whole catering business.  The first caterer I called had their phone disconnected.  The second one I called sounded really good but she didn’t get back to me until after my deadline to hire someone had passed.  The third one chastised me, in a nice way, about never visiting his restaurant.  He then went on to explain how wonderful his food was and how great the event would be if we hired him.

The next day, after talking to the third guy, a co-worker and I went to his restaurant for lunch to check out the food.  The caterer had assured me that he was open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch.  Without fail.  I thought this was odd since every time I had driven by his place, it had been closed.  But Art (my co-worker) and I headed over there for lunch anyway and, guess what….he was closed!!  That pretty much guaranteed we wouldn’t hire him to cater our party.

The fourth place I talked to sent me a proposal within hours, came by to see our place in a timely manner and then got me a contract right away.  I hired him and it turned out great!  The people arrived on-time.  The food was absolutely wonderful and they cleaned the place up and left it in a great condition. All in all, a great experience!

What I really don’t understand is how can people stay in business with such poor business practices? I have been working since I was a teenager, sometimes for great companies, sometimes for really bad companies. But I have learned that in order to succeed, you have to do your best, you have to communicate (even if it’s bad news) and you have to live up to your promises. The first three companies didn’t do any of that. The one guy, the guy with the restaurant, said he had been sick all week and that is why his place was closed and he didn’t call me back. I think that, unless you are in a coma, you can pick up the phone and make a quick call. Or, if you are in a body cast, tell someone to make your phone calls. Don’t just ignore your customers and hope that they will hire you anyway. Because not only won’t they hire you this time but never again in the future. Think of all the business that this guy, and the other two, have lost.

We are probably going to do this holiday dinner again next year. It turned out well and everyone had a great time. And the great thing is, we already have a caterer!