'Problem' Customers

‘Problem’ Customers

A smile crept over Leigh’s face as she
crossed the final name off the list.

As usual, it had been a long day. The dinner
rush hadn’t managed to put everyone in the
weeds as it did most Friday nights. As the
last table got up to leave, one of the drivers
took a seat at the end of the bar to check out.
“How’d you do tonight, Travis?” Melissa
asked as she added up his delivery slips.
“Pretty good,” he said. “Have you heard about
from the Jones’ lately?”
“No, I thought they just gave up on us. Why,
did they order tonight?”
“Nope. Last week they got the wrong pizza
and called up and really chewed Leigh out.
They said they were going to write an editorial
about how much we suck.” The Jones’
ordered religiously every Friday night. No
matter how fast the kitchen was, their pizza
arrived late, cold, or both. At first it was simply
a matter of the drivers getting lost. Their
house was on a dirt road without any street
lights. Finally, Lisa went with a driver and
drew a map to their place.
Travis counted out the money he owed and
stuffed his tips in his hip pocket. “Eighty-two
dollars, not bad for working a double today.”
Lisa walked out of the kitchen and poured
herself a glass of wine. “Glad that’s over. I
thought the orders would never stop.”
“Yeah, but everything ran smooth,” Leigh
said as she ran an X report. “Two thousand
eighty-three, and two more drivers to check
out! I think it’s gonna be a record night.”
Belle held up a visa slip. “I don’t believe it-
they tipped twenty percent! I never get over ten
when that couple comes in. The wife bitches
and complains about everything. But tonight
there wasn’t a single problem for them to
whine about. What’s getting into everybody?”
Leigh started matching Travis’s delivery slips
to the door sheets. “I guess people are
starting to get the idea. Even that lady over on
Central Avenue called tonight and was
pleasant on the phone.”
“Hey, I’ve noticed Cathy hasn’t been in lately,”
Lisa said. “Have you heard anything? I don’t
think they’ve done any work on the bakery for a
few weeks.”
Cathy came into a small fortune when her
rich aunt died. Having nothing better to do
she decided to open a bakery right across the
street from the pizza shop. Normally this
wouldn’t be a problem, but Lisa had started
opening up for coffee eight months prior.
Cathy announced plans to sell coffee and
doughnuts too. A town that small couldn’t
support two coffee joints in direct competition.
“Cathy changed her mind.” Leigh said. “We
don’t need to worry about her anymore.”
“What do you mean, ‘changed her mind’,”
Lisa asked as she looked across the street at
the empty building.
“I mean, she changed her mind about the
bakery. She won’t be opening across the
street. She realized it would be a mistake.”
Leigh smiled at Lisa with a knowing look in
her eyes as she turned to go into the office.
“It’s funny,” whispered Melissa. “We haven’t
had a single complaint in a least two weeks.
The ticket times are getting faster everyday,
and the drivers haven’t been getting lost as
much, but still-it’s getting sort of freaky.”
Lisa went to talk to Leigh in the office. While
she was glad the business was doing so
well, something just wasn’t right. Not to
mention Leigh had been acting a little weird
on top of it all. Outside the office door she
noticed a crumpled piece of notebook paper.
Lisa picked it up and was about to throw it
away when she noticed what was written on it.
In what was unmistakably Leigh’s handwriting
were the names and addresses of ‘problem’
customers. She started push the door to the
office open but heard Leigh on the phone.
“Mike, it’s me.” Leigh said as she looked over
the delivery orders from that night. “Yep,
another perfect night. Not a single complaint.
I told you they’d see things my way. All you
gotta do is make them an offer they can’t
refuse.”