Bad LSM: Attention to the Small Details

Today, we’re sharing a bad example from a restaurant we visited. It’s a small detail but demonstrates every detail does matter and everyone should be trained to that attention.

Here’s the photo:

It’s a pepper shaker that is filled with pepper flakes that are too big to fit through the holes in the top of the shaker. And while it’s not a life or death situation, it’s an annoyance for customers to have to take off the top of the shaker to pour a little pepper into their hand.

Here are our questions:

• Why didn’t anyone test the shakers before putting them out?
• Why didn’t the waitstaff or other employees take note of all the customers unscrewing pepper shakers?
• Why didn’t whoever is in charge of ordering think about the product and if it would work with their equipment?
• Why isn’t someone checking on the status/working condition of all items on the table?
• Why didn’t the employee that filled the pepper shakers say something?

Again, the functionality of a pepper shaker is a small detail, and likely won’t make or break your meal at this restaurant. BUT we think this lack of attention to detail could be telling of other things to the customer. It sure left us wondering.

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