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For years there was a restaurant space with a lease sign hanging in the window next to my apartment building. Two months ago the sign came down and in its place went up advertising for a brand spankin' new Thai restaurant.
The building was transformed into a magical plastic palace of oriental chain restaurant bliss. Everyone was excited to try it out. Everyone, except the East Side Diner.
East Side sits one block from the new Thai place. It's shabby, the exterior needs paint, the dining area is cramped and the outside seating area features a wooden deck that can give you splinters the size of Rhode Island. However, prices are more than reasonable, and food is freshly prepared and bursting with flavor. A cute little Thai couple owns the establishment and they greet every guest with a smile and come around to each table to ask how your meal tastes.
Over the last few weeks I've seen fewer and fewer cars in East Side's parking lot as Mega-Thai's lot is full every evening.
One Friday night we decided to give the new place a try. The food was average and overpriced, the service was cold and inattentive and the only smile we got was from our teenage waiter when my credit card hit the table.
When you're blinded by flashy advertising and an assembly line product, it's easy to lose sight of what's really important. But being the biggest or most flamboyant is rarely synonymous with quality.
Language service is no different.
While being a big company might mean a large bottom line, it's harder to guarantee a high quality product. With many large firms, customers get a different representative every time they need a simple question answered about their account. When shopping for a translation and interpretation services firm call around, see how long it takes for them to answer the phone, and how you're treated once they do. Make sure that a single person is assigned to manage your project. This can save precious time wasted on having to re-educate each agent you call about the details, just to get a simple solution.
Whether its Thai translations or Thai food, it's better to pull back the façade a little bit and see just what's going on behind the scenes. Sometimes you'll see a warm friendly face that's genuinely concerned about your satisfaction; other times it's just a teenager that can't wait to take your credit card.
July 10 2010
A Tale of Two Thai Restaurants - Global View July 2010
For years there was a restaurant space with a lease sign hanging in the window next to my apartment building. Two months ago the sign came down and in its place went up advertising for a brand spankin' new Thai restaurant.
The building was transformed into a magical plastic palace of oriental chain restaurant bliss. Everyone was excited to try it out. Everyone, except the East Side Diner.
East Side sits one block from the new Thai place. It's shabby, the exterior needs paint, the dining area is cramped and the outside seating area features a wooden deck that can give you splinters the size of Rhode Island. However, prices are more than reasonable, and food is freshly prepared and bursting with flavor. A cute little Thai couple owns the establishment and they greet every guest with a smile and come around to each table to ask how your meal tastes.
Over the last few weeks I've seen fewer and fewer cars in East Side's parking lot as Mega-Thai's lot is full every evening.
One Friday night we decided to give the new place a try. The food was average and overpriced, the service was cold and inattentive and the only smile we got was from our teenage waiter when my credit card hit the table.
When you're blinded by flashy advertising and an assembly line product, it's easy to lose sight of what's really important. But being the biggest or most flamboyant is rarely synonymous with quality.
Language service is no different.
While being a big company might mean a large bottom line, it's harder to guarantee a high quality product. With many large firms, customers get a different representative every time they need a simple question answered about their account. When shopping for a translation and interpretation services firm call around, see how long it takes for them to answer the phone, and how you're treated once they do. Make sure that a single person is assigned to manage your project. This can save precious time wasted on having to re-educate each agent you call about the details, just to get a simple solution.
Whether its Thai translations or Thai food, it's better to pull back the façade a little bit and see just what's going on behind the scenes. Sometimes you'll see a warm friendly face that's genuinely concerned about your satisfaction; other times it's just a teenager that can't wait to take your credit card.
