I just came across this article by British beer legend, Pete Brown (incidentally, if you don’t already, you should probably follow Pete’s blog). Feel free to take a few moments to read it, but let me summarize: Pete, who knows enough about beer to make the call, returned a pint as it was laced with diacetyl. The bartender served him another pint, but charged him for both, and continued serving the questionable beer. Pete then talks about the suitability of this outcome. I went to comment on his blog, but it’s an older post, and I realized quickly I was basically writing a blog post anyways, one that was wandering into wider fields. So here it is:
First off, just to clarify: I have been writing about beer for over a year, but have been involved in working at bars/restaurants/service for most of my working life.
So, what to do when a customer identifies a service problem, and specifically, what do you do when a beer is returned because the patron feels it is bad?
Well, the first thing, and the first real problem in Pete’s story, is *any* establishment should take a returned pint off the bill. Regardless of why the customer returned it, if they didn’t like it or couldn’t drink it, there is no way they should pay for it. This even goes for the cases when a person is trying something new, and they simply don’t like it. If the customer seems to be trying something new or is at all apprehensive, offer them a few mouthfuls in a rock glass. Don’t turn your bar into Baskin-Robins, but save yourself the heart-ache. When a frat-boy doofus tries to order a pint of Imperial IPA after his Miller Chill (seriously, why are you serving Miller Chill?) give him a taste of it. A big part of this is good training of staff, and providing a culture of empowerment for them.
Pete then notes that the bartender continued serving the beer that he had returned. And here we hit a much greyer area. Based on the story, the barman didn’t appear to be all that knowledgeable. And it’s fair to imagine he probably wasn’t empowered to make big decisions. So, thinking of being in his shoes, I would probably do the same. You have no idea who this guy is telling you your beer has a problem that you have never heard of. If the next two pints you serve also get returned, it’s probably time to call the boss, but in the meantime, if people are paying for it and enjoying it, why not?
Pete of course, notes that the why not is the number of people who might be put off drinking decent quality beer because of it. Because, sadly, a lot of people are quick to judge, and thorough in their judgements. They remember ordering a pint of brown ale from some brewery, and not liking it. So they stop ordering brown ales. Even ales that aren’t called brown, but appear to be, once poured.
I feel, though, that this comes back to not having passionate staff, which points to a top-down problem. A passionate staff member would want the customer to have a positive experience. They want customers to fall in love with the beers they love. If ownership doesn’t have this passion, though, neither will most of the staff. The few who arrive by accident with that drive will soon have it drained by disinterest from the management and their peers. They will tire of having to apologize for poor beer to people who came in with an earnest desire to find something new. In short, they will become just like everybody else, or they will leave, and find a place that shares their passion.
I wish every bar that served decent beer actually cared about furthering beer culture. But this simply is not the case. And this is why I feel it’s important to support those bars who do genuinely care. Bars where the owners love beer, and want everybody else to love beer too. These are the kinds of places I like to drink.
So what do you do when you find yourself in Pete’s shoes? Well, he did well: reported the problem, explained it, and didn’t break out the “Do you know who I am?”. I would question why he didn’t ask to have the cost of the pint taken off the bill, though. If you act like Pete and find yourself in the same position, you have a few options, but really only two that I would condone. First off, consider the bartender’s tip. For sure, don’t tip on the value of both pints. Maybe don’t tip at all, especially if you asked to have the bad pint taken off. Tips are for good service, you have not received good service. Just because somebody expects it, doesn’t mean they deserve it. Be strong. Secondly, think hard about going back. There are a lot of great pubs that fail; support the good guys, spend your money on their beer. If you care enough about beer to be reading this, you probably care enough to be very selective about where you drink. Stop buying beer from people who don’t care about it.
Now what about the other side of the counter? What do you do when a customer tells you a beer is off? Well, as I’ve mentioned, regardless of the hows and whys, replace it, and take it off their bill. If you don’t work in a bar where that is an option, it’s time to polish up your resume. Next up, be knowledgable about your product. Everytime you tap a keg, you should taste some. You *must* know what it is supposed to taste like. You should also have some understanding about the more common problems that arise in beer. If you work in a bar where this is not encouraged, again, get that resume ready. Indeed, this stuff is so important, that when a potential employer asks you if you have any questions during the interview, find out. “What do you do as a bar to support beer learning, in staff and customers”, “What is your policy on customers returning drinks”, etc. For one, you should know, and for two, the manager/owner will be impressed you care.
That being said, give people credit. You don’t know who that is telling you there’s a problem with the beer. I know BJCP judges and people who have been brewing excellent beers for ages that look just like everybody else. They generally don’t wear their “Beer Savant” t-shirts out in public. If you work in a bar that serves great beer, there is a good chance the people who offer you their patronage are at least as knowledgeable as you. Maybe a lot more. If you’re unsure, assume they’re right, at least until you can verify. If you can offer a suitable alternative to the initial customer, there is no reason not to offer it to anybody else who might order a potentially bad beer. Explain that there might be a problem with the keg so in the meantime, why not try this? There is no point risking business for the sake of your own pride or whatever.
But “how much is too much?” becomes a problem. When do you tell a customer to screw off? How many beers can they claim are off before you start charging them for them? I used to work at Starbucks, and policy was that infinity was the cut off. It was better for global business to do basically whatever the customer wanted, to maintain their business. Obviously, if you work in a bar that is truly passionate about beer, you are not working for a billion-dollar company. So how do you handle the over-demanding patron? I have watched friends who are bartenders after the third returned pint, suggest to the customer that perhaps the problem isn’t the beer, and they ought to try something they know they love. I have been asked to go and sit down with a patron to discuss what they identify as the problem. In this case, the server didn’t feel they had the depth of experience to deal with the customer, but I did.
I remember once, working at a restaurant in Toronto renowned for it’s wine selection, when the manager (let’s call him Pierre) said enough is enough. A fairly loud customer had returned three $200+ bottles of wine from the cellar for three different flaws. One was corked. One was oxidized. One was infected. Because of the price on the bottles, they couldn’t be sold by the glass, so they were essentially write-offs. Pierre, who was also part-owner and a highly experienced wine dude, had tasted them all and felt there was nothing wrong with any of them. So he poured a glass of each of the “bad” wines, a glass of house red and a glass of some mid-range red that was in great condition, and took them over to the customer. Pierre offered him a wager: If the customer could identify each: all three uniquely infected, one cheap and one nice glass, then he would pick up their whole tab. If he failed to recognize the three flaws he was so convinced of minutes before, and was unable to identify the cheap vs good wine in the pack, he would pick one of the three bottles he had opened to drink, and pay for it. If he declined, he was only allowed to order wine by the glass for the rest of the night. It was house red for the rest of the (short) evening. Pierre was my hero for weeks.
Clearly, in our context, not being taken advantage of is an important reality. And dealing with it really has to happen on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes it’s just a matter of explaining that there is nothing wrong with the beer in question, and it’s time to drink up, or leave. Sometimes it’s a matter of humiliating a d-bag in front of his bros. Will he ever come back? Probably not. Do you mind? Not at all.
That being said, I think that in most cases it’s up to the service staff to make things right. Even if nothing was really wrong. This needs to be their marching orders.
Mostly, I think we need more publicans who are passionate about beer. A passion that is infectious. One the makes believers out of staff, and draws customers in. As staff we are responsible to support these bars by working for them; as patrons we must seek these bars out, and give them our business. There will always be bars more interested in serving lots of cold fizzy stuff, to people who may or may not like it, and there will always be people happy to drink there. But I bet there are a lot of people who would prefer better, they just haven’t experienced it. Yet.
Cheers to all my friends who love excellent beer, and serve it with passion and zeal. I wouldn’t be here if not for all of you.
