It’s late - you’re tired and want to close up. It’s 2 minutes to closing time and as always, you’re last patron walks right through the door. You’re first thought - “sorry sir, we’re closed.” Why don’t you serve him? Because it’s too close to closing time.
As someone who has had this happen many times - I want to share a most interesting story with you. This happened to two different server with the same man two nights in a row. The first server turned him away because it was too close to closing time. The second, let him in, to the cook’s dismay and let him order a meal. Now before you think the moral of the story is that this man was rich and left her an awesome tip - it’s not. This man was not rich, but as it turned out, tipped in all silver quarters. He returned on the servers shift regularly at closing time for about three weeks. Why is this important? At the time, the man only left her $.50 for a $20.00 meal, but after she exchanged the silver - she received $18.00 for approximately $5.00 in tips. She more than tripled her money. Now this may not seem like a lot but anyone on a tight budget knows that $10.00 makes a huge difference. The moral of the story - you never know who will show up at your door and it might not look profitable, but we are in the customer service business.
And in case you didn’t catch it - karma or whatever you may believe, exists in the customer service industry in mass. Don’t forget to tip and don’t forget to serve.