Huddle House review: Customer relations

Incident: Employee Communication
Date: 4 October 2020
Time: Approximately 8:45 am

My wife and I have been loyal customers of the Huddle House in Guntersville, AL for 11 years. We have a small business and we make customer referrals and we have family breakfasts there when our family is visiting from out of town.

When we arrived this morning we were doing everything we had been asked to do based on door signs and other knowledge of pandemic safety. We were approached by a young lady, I did not get her name, and told that there would be a wait and we were to be placed on a waiting list. I excused myself because I wanted to wash my hands before our Meal.

When I completed this task, I returned to the dining area and did not see my wife. I was approached by a waitress, Dee - who we usually ask for and enjoy - and I asked if she had seen my wife. She stated that she had not and that she would find out where she was at. She also told me to sit down at a near by table during the wait... as I had just had a major surgery the week before and my mother had passed. It had been a horrible week and Dee was trying to help.

When the young lady heard Dee helping me she came over and informed her that we were on a waiting list. I asked if she knew where my wife was and I got what we called in the Service 'a smack down remark' of 'No!'

Her tone was as rude and condescending as I have ever heard. Dee and I stood there like what now but the tone had gotten me angry and I was responding in a angry tone 'where did you seat my wife' assuming she had been seated. At that point one of the other waitresses came over - one who we have also known for a long time - and she tried to get me calmed down as people were noticing the altercation.

Every reply from the person became more pointed and condescending. She asked for my name so she could check her seating wait list. I told her 'Miller' assuming that is what my wife had listed us under. Then I got the worst tone when she said 'we do not have a Miller on the list". So I told her to try"Nelson"my first name... and she found the name. In a rude tone she said you are still waiting and I again asked 'where did my wife go". Again I got another very pointed and rude replay..."I do not know'... at that point the second waitress said let's go find her. At that point, and as it turned out, all of the people on the list had been asked to wait outside.

The very person who was sending people who were waiting for a table outside did not know that that might be where my wife was escapes me. She was rude and condescending from the start, even when we first saw her. Instead of answering my question with a statement like 'we are putting everyone outside who are on the wait list... she is probably there' would have avoided the problem.

After 32 years in the Army and 10 with Darden Restaurants as a employee development officer, I know when someone is out of line. I do not believe that I said anything, or acted in a way that prompter this person to act the way she did. She was acting this way from the time we first encountered her at the door.