I believe the majority of conflict could be avoided with better communication. We should all come with our own digital signage. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Have you ever been in a situation when you were so irritated by someone one minute but then given a little more information your feelings of frustration are replaced by patience and understanding?

Take eating out for instance. You pay a good price for it, you are likely there because you need a break, so receiving poor service is not acceptable. Is it? I was at a restaurant up north with my family and we waited a very long time for someone to take our order. When the order came it was wrong. Then it was wrong again. We are pretty patient and didn’t complain but we were upset, even though we chose to keep it among ourselves. It wasn’t long before a man came out from the kitchen to ask how my eggs were. Truthfully they were worse than the first ones I had sent back.

Let me just say here that I NEVER send food back or complain about much of anything so this tells you how bad this breakfast experience was.

So anyway, the man asked how were the eggs. He was so nice and genuinely concerned all I could say is, “much better.” He then went on to explain how all of his staff had called in either sick or snowed in so his 15 year old daughter was waiting tables AND cooking for him. I looked around and it all started to settle in that I hadn’t seen any other waitresses. That one little girl was hustling to take care of all these customers who were complaining about the slow, bad service they were receiving.

Only now, armed with the full story, I suddenly was happy with my service and impressed what a good job the Daughter Daddy duo was doing under the circumstances. Everyone at my table started laughing and chatting and enjoying their meal that they were only minutes ago disappointed with.

Isn’t that crazy? Just a little information totally changed our attitudes. Imagine how much more understanding and kind that people would be if they had a better understanding of the various situations they find themselves in. I bet road rage would go down too! If only we could all have our own digital signage.

What would your sign say?