I have always threatened to start a blog on Customer Service.  I would like to think it will mostly be about brilliant, outstanding customer service; however I fear it will often be prompted by poor service.  My first one below unfortunately is about the latter.  

So here is blog number 1 in what I imagine will be an interesting journey.

Yesterday Neil and I went to a café in Mt Eliza for a coffee.   Pop’s café.  The service is never great and yesterday instead of reading the paper I just sat and observed.    Firstly we queued up to order – asked for takeaways and sat at a table to wait.  The first thing I noticed was the young girl who had been behind us in the queue got her coffee after a couple of minutes.    We were still waiting. 

Next there was a huge crash and a lady sitting near the front window had knocked over her iced coffee.   A large glass full of  creamy iced coffee.  It was all over the floor, splashed on her shoes and legs – I felt sorry for her.

On a busy Sunday morning they had lots of staff working.  Did one of them hear this enormous crash and offer to help?   Not one.  And what had been a constant stream of staff taking coffees outside etc suddenly just stopped.    The poor woman grabbed a little serviette and tried in vain to mop up some of the mess.  After a couple of minutes her friend went to the counter to ask for assistance.  When the young girl finally turned up with a tiny cloth she said nothing to reassure the woman who was clearly embarrassed and somewhat distressed.    The cloth was quite quickly replaced with a mop and bucket and the young girl did an ordinary job of cleaning the mess.   She left the floor wet and the woman was left to clean her legs and shoes with another tiny serviette which she had to find herself. 

During this clean up there was no conversation – no reassurance from the staff, no comforting words, nothing!   The woman finally went back to her scrambled eggs and bacon, now cold – with her wet legs and shoes.   So I sat there wondering about her coffee.  Would they replace it?  I know it wasn’t their fault but I was interested to see what they might do.   Finally about 10 minutes later they brought her another iced coffee.  Did she ask for it?  Did they charge her for it?  I don’t know.  I hope they did the right thing.

In the meantime we are still waiting for 2 takeaway coffees.  It had been at least 20 minutes and Neil went to the counter to ask.  Yes our coffees were there – apparently they had been made for quite some time but they couldn’t find us.  Really?   I had sat watching waitresses go by with takeaway coffees a number of times – each time calling out a name and ours was not amongst them.

Was I annoyed?  Yes of course I was.  However the experience has led me to start my blog.  And thankfully they do make good coffee.  And it was Sunday morning and thankfully we weren’t in a rush. 

I have always threatened to start a blog on Customer Service.  I would like to think it will mostly be about brilliant, outstanding customer service; however I fear it will often be prompted by poor service.  My first one below unfortunately is about the latter.  

So here is blog number 1 in what I imagine will be an interesting journey.

Yesterday Neil and I went to a café in Mt Eliza for a coffee.   Pop’s café.  The service is never great and yesterday instead of reading the paper I just sat and observed.    Firstly we queued up to order – asked for takeaways and sat at a table to wait.  The first thing I noticed was the young girl who had been behind us in the queue got her coffee after a couple of minutes.    We were still waiting. 

Next there was a huge crash and a lady sitting near the front window had knocked over her iced coffee.   A large glass full of  creamy iced coffee.  It was all over the floor, splashed on her shoes and legs – I felt sorry for her.

On a busy Sunday morning they had lots of staff working.  Did one of them hear this enormous crash and offer to help?   Not one.  And what had been a constant stream of staff taking coffees outside etc suddenly just stopped.    The poor woman grabbed a little serviette and tried in vain to mop up some of the mess.  After a couple of minutes her friend went to the counter to ask for assistance.  When the young girl finally turned up with a tiny cloth she said nothing to reassure the woman who was clearly embarrassed and somewhat distressed.    The cloth was quite quickly replaced with a mop and bucket and the young girl did an ordinary job of cleaning the mess.   She left the floor wet and the woman was left to clean her legs and shoes with another tiny serviette which she had to find herself. 

During this clean up there was no conversation – no reassurance from the staff, no comforting words, nothing!   The woman finally went back to her scrambled eggs and bacon, now cold – with her wet legs and shoes.   So I sat there wondering about her coffee.  Would they replace it?  I know it wasn’t their fault but I was interested to see what they might do.   Finally about 10 minutes later they brought her another iced coffee.  Did she ask for it?  Did they charge her for it?  I don’t know.  I hope they did the right thing.

In the meantime we are still waiting for 2 takeaway coffees.  It had been at least 20 minutes and Neil went to the counter to ask.  Yes our coffees were there – apparently they had been made for quite some time but they couldn’t find us.  Really?   I had sat watching waitresses go by with takeaway coffees a number of times – each time calling out a name and ours was not amongst them.

Was I annoyed?  Yes of course I was.  However the experience has led me to start my blog.  And thankfully they do make good coffee.  And it was Sunday morning and thankfully we weren’t in a rush. 

Sydney Security Alarm