I wasn't really surprised when she asked "Who gets the soup?"

Disappointed, yes, but not really surprised. After all, when we walked into the joint shortly after 1 PM, there was only one occupied table but several tables had not been bussed and those that were bussed had not been cleaned.

I won't bore you with all the details but it was miles to the next eatery so we hunkered down and decided to grin and bear it though with the messy tables, the unkempt waitperson, the food-spotted menus, we had plenty of signs that it was going to be interesting.

All four of us ordered salads but Glenn and I ordered a cup of soup and sure enough, when the soup showed up a few minutes later, our waitperson asked the one dining question that bugs me the most... "Who gets the soup (or the whatever)?"

In situations like this, where the service is suspect, where people are just not paying attention, I always wonder about management...do they have a standard, do they know what is going on, do they really care about and invest in their people, do they know and care about the value of getting customers to return, have they ever "mystery shopped" their own business... the list could go on...

As you know from my previous emails, thanks to many of you, our business is very nicely improved over last year and we are adding staff once again. Equipping our promotion experts with the knowledge and tools they need to help you find the best solution to achieve your promotional goal is our number one objective. That's why our initial training cycle takes seven weeks...and not all who start make it to the end.

So, when you call us or chat with us about your promotional product needs, you are going to get professional, knowledgeable assistance by people who care and who are cared about. And if you should ever get that "Who gets the soup?" feeling from us, I hope you would take a second to let me know.

If you are looking for staff appreciation gifts or unique items to promote or reinforce aspects of your internal training, browse through our site, MarcoPromotionalProducts.com or just ask us!