An employee who works well but is unfriendly to customers, a cafe owner's dilemma

A business owner running a local cafe has found himself troubled by a part-time employee who does excellent work but displays a lack of friendliness towards customers.

According to the story of cafe owner A, introduced on JTBC's "Incident Headquarters" on the 18th, the recently hired male part-time employee has outstanding job skills but shows serious problems in customer interaction.

A praised the employee, saying, "He is really smart. He manages the coffee-making, store organization, and inventory without needing guidance."

However, the major issue is that this employee does not even show a friendly tone or a smile to customers. He does not show a friendly demeanor or even a smile to the customers.

A also witnessed a specific incident. When a regular customer greeted him with, "Hello. It's really cold today, isn't it?" the employee only glanced at him and replied, "Yes, what would you like?"

Ultimately, the regular customer left feeling awkward and later expressed his disappointment to A.

Ignoring customer discomfort leading to loss of regular customers

In another instance, when a customer mentioned that the coffee cup lid was not closed properly, the employee responded with a tired expression, "Oh, you can just drink it like that."

A stepped in to replace the lid and advised the employee, but the employee instead claimed, "The lid is fine. The customer seems to be sensitive."

A expressed regret, saying, "Similar incidents kept happening, to the point where regulars stopped coming." He lamented, "If only he were not unfriendly, he works really well and is polite, but I don't know what to do."

Reactions from netizens regarding this situation were mixed.

Some said, "If he works well, let him just handle manufacturing or other tasks, excluding order-taking. I’d prefer a friendly but incompetent employee rather than a competent yet unfriendly one," and, "This is an unreasonable complaint. He probably hasn't dealt with truly problematic employees."

On the other hand, others argued, "That alone is poor performance," and "No matter how good the coffee tastes, such an attitude will eventually decrease sales. It might be necessary to let him go," emphasizing the importance of customer service in the service industry.

Image source: AI-generated image for the article's understanding / Bing Image Creator