Restaurants must also be able to assess customers

Criticism should be a two-way street.

When it comes to rating restaurant experiences, it’s a one-way street and customers have priority. There are multiple platforms where they can share their opinions on everything from the food to the service and the traffic they had to endure on the way to dinner. Some customers write reviews as seriously as Shakespeare wrote sonnets, completely forgetting that opinions are subjective.

They are also unverified, which means they can say whatever they want and no one will know if it is fact or fiction. Did it really take 20 minutes for the server to bring drinks or did it just feel that way? Maybe it’s time for restaurants to start judging customers.

Related: Before You Write That Negative Restaurant Review, Here’s What You Need to Know

Clearly, there will never be a version of Yelp where restaurant workers can log in and complain that their customers didn’t smile enough or that they asked for water and then didn’t drink any. If this website became a reality, servers around the world would rejoice, but that’s just not feasible. But there are some existing apps that could potentially venture into the world of rating customers, or at least rate them. Restaurant booking apps like Resy and Open Table are ripe for this opportunity. Listen to me.

Customers often make multiple restaurant reservations and then, as the reservation gets closer, decide where they want to go and cancel all but one. Restaurants are used to canceling reservations, which is why they overbook so often. If they don’t overbook and 20% of reservations don’t come in, the night is spent catching up. Chefs and restaurateurs are playing a dangerous game of overbooking as they try to predict how many reservations will actually show up. This is one of the reasons why cancellation fees are so common these days when booking a table.

Related: Before you complain about restaurant cancellation fees, read this

This is where the customer’s assessment comes into play. The restaurant should be able to review that customer or note that they canceled at the last minute. That could help other restaurants in the future when they look at their fully booked evening and see how many customers on the books have a history of not following through. Customers may not like being judged, but Uber drivers do it all the time. We all strive for five stars on Uber, but I only have a 4.72. Did I slam the door too hard once? Have I said thank you too many times? Who knows, except one particular Uber driver? My score isn’t enough to stop other drivers from picking me up, but it does make me aware of the possibility. Judging customers who cancel reservations at the last minute can make them think about the impact of their actions on others.

Related: The Fine Art of Writing a Yelp Review

However, let’s not stop there. There are other ways in which customers can be rated. If someone verbally abuses the staff, shouldn’t the restaurant be able to rate them accordingly so that other restaurants know what to expect? Or if they show up late for their reservation, give them a point. Take away another point if they complained about everything and another point if they have bad manners. If that were to happen, they would see their valuation drop and maybe, just maybe, they would change their ways. Restaurants could even choose to only accept reservations from those with a four-star rating or higher, just as customers do when choosing a place to eat. Imagine how nice it would be if the staff looked at their reservations and saw that it was full of 5 star diners.

Of course this will never happen. Customers will continue to judge restaurants without any responsibility and restaurants will continue to deal with last-minute cancellations and not knowing what type of customer they are going to serve. For customers it will always be one-way traffic. Restaurants can only hope to occasionally yield to oncoming traffic.

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