Sunday, December 23, 2012

Negotiation of the Day

We negotiate everyday. With families, friends, sellers, buyers, animals and even with ourself. Negotiation of the day will be about getting your right as what you deserve for it.

I am sure most of you often have meals outside and sometimes went out to high class restaurants or at a five star hotels. Of course, it is not cheap!

If you care to pay attention to the details in the bills, there will be an item called 'Service Charge'. The charge can be in the range from 5% to as high as 15%!. If your meals cost RM200.00, means you will need to pay RM20.00 (i.e. 10%) for Service Charge. Making your total RM220.00! Service Charge is a standard cost normally practiced by high/medium class restaurant and hotels. It is charged to customers, maybe to avoid the practices of giving tips to any individual staff.

You maybe don't mind to paying the service charge if the restaurant staff welcome or greet you with smile, escort you to the table, take the order efficiently, even suggest the best foods and drinks, attend to your request without pulling the face, talk to you in a polite manner, time for the food to be served is fast and marvelous foods as well as delighting surroundings. Even for me, I would be glad to give tips to staff who give quality services beyond from what is the minimum standard.

However, the sweet experience may not be always the case. The services turns out lousy, inefficient and inexperience waiters/waitress, unfriendly staff, foods are terrible and so forth. And you are a given an expensive bill. At the second last of the bottom, you notice the Service Charge is a whopping 15%!

Would you happy with it? What would you do? Either just pay and leave without a word of Thank You?, argue with the cashier that the bill is wrong? Or Negotiate with the restaurant manager?

A person with a conscious mind will for sure negotiate for that! As a general rule you should aim for 'Not to pay for the Service Charge'. Your bargain chips are written in the paragraphs above.

Happy Negotiating!

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