I used to live in McLean, VA and the difference between the service there and here is ridiculous. There, for example, the McDonald's employees are outside taking drive-thru orders, walking up to cars with pleasant smiles asking "How may I help you?"
In stark contrast, I recently stopped at a Wendy's restaurant in southwest DC and not only was the restroom filthy but the person behind the counter just stared blankly at me for several minutes.
I of course stared back hoping she'd get the picture. She didn't so I broke this stalemate and said "I'd like to order."
"I'm not working the counter" she told me.
"Um, excuse me?" I said thinking surely someone from the group of people standing around chattering would hear me and take my order - they didn't.
Finally the non-counter worker summoned someone over and I placed my order. But isn't Wendy's the restaurant where you can have your sandwich the way you like it?
I got the sandwich, it wasn't the way I liked it and this experience is just a small scale version of a very big customer service/hospitality problem facing Washington, DC.
Perhaps the city should take a hint from neighboring Prince Georges County.
The county realized that they had a sucky reputation with regard to customer service so a new program (a hospitality class) has been organized at Prince Georges Community College to train future employees of the 2 billion dollar National Harbor project.
