OMAHA, Neb. A restaurant's reputation is damaged more by rude servers than by any other customer turn-off, including bad food, according to a consumer survey conducted by Opinion Research.
The study found that a quarter of respondents regard impolite waiters and waitresses as the worst scourge of dining out.
Second on the company's list of "ouch points" was an underestimate of the wait time for a table (cited by 20 percent), followed by slow service (15 percent), poorly prepared food (12 percent) and hot food served cold (10 percent).
Overly fast service also drew scorn, with mention by 1 percent of the canvassed consumers. Three percent said they resent being hustled out of a place after paying the check.
Opinion Research is a holding of InfoUSA, a research company based here.