When Will Jamie's Italian Learn That Bullying Customers Is Bad For Business?

What are your thoughts on tipping in restaurants?

Do you feel socially obligated to leave a tip following a decent meal which is accompanied by decent service?  Or, do you feel that you reserve the right to decide for yourself as to whether you would like to leave a few spare quid to the waiter or waitress?

Perhaps you and I are in the same boat here.  Personally, I prefer to leave a tip if a financial reward, in addition to the cost of the meal and refreshments has been earned by good food and at least 'good' service to match.  By 'good' I mean friendly, attentive and responsive service, and not 'Well it wasn't as bad as the last time' standard.

Now here's the thing for you and your organisation.  Do you really understand the impact your customer facing colleagues have on your trusting customers and/or end users?   And do you understand what impact, positive and negative, they are having on your organisation?  If you don't, it's a very precarious position to find yourself in, as you never know who will be so disappointed or frustrated by your quality of service that they never return to purchase your product or service.  And this (once again) is the challenge I experience on visits to Jamie's Italian, Leeds.

Bear in mind that Jamie Oliver is not just a chef, and a rather fantastic one at that, he is an entrepreneur.  An entrepreneur with stakeholders such as financial investors, employees and perhaps even his family.  But ultimately, Jamie Oliver is a national and international brand.  And as we've witnessed in recent years with the likes of some of the UK's biggest financial institutions and high street retailers, when a brand is damaged, sometimes it just never recovers.

Here's the challenge, the gripe, the complaint and feedback for Jamie and Jamie's Italian managers in Leeds.  

'Stop bullying diners in to leaving a tip.'

If you take a look at my previous blog post about this outlet, you will see just how abhorrent I feel the practice of underlining the wording on the bill which states that tips are not included in the price of your food and drink.  Not only is wording underlined, but some staff (who I expect have chosen to work at this outlet and not on a bare minimum wage), choose to *asterisk* the wording so as to draw the customers attention to their plight.  Their plight being extremely self-serving, unethical as well as downright unprofessional.

But as you'll notice from my previous blog post, the very same practice has been implemented by more than one member of the waiting staff.  What suspicion does this raise for you?  Is it one or two rogue waiting staff looking out for themselves, or, is this practice more of an organisational or management practice which the waiting staff are instructed to undertake?  Well, as you can see from the photo below, and the photo in the earlier post, there is a standard in place here.


The strange thing in all of this?  Even though I understand in quite some detail how (ethical) influencing works in a business and personal context, this disgraceful behaviour demonstrated by two of Jamie's Italian staff resulted in me feeling rather uncomfortable.  So uncomfortable in fact that on the first occasion I took the opportunity to express my concern and discomfort to a member of the management team in Leeds.  The strange thing about the incident this past weekend was, the lady serving us was absolutely first class.  So brilliant in fact, I mentioned her brilliance to the manager on duty.  So why does a hospitality 'professional' feel the need to get involved with trying to rip off diners?

Let's work out the maths on this activity.  You're a waiter and in one hour you look after seven tables of diners.  There are two diners on each table and each table of guests 'tips' you £2 each.  That's £14 straight in your pocket and I do wonder whether this income is declared to HMRC.  And over a seven hour shift at £14 per hour tips and excluding the hourly wage, that's a whopping £98 per shift.

If I lacked even a small amount of decency I'd pack up my running my own business and become a waiter at this outlet.  Well, just look at the income.  Wouldn't I be a fool not to?

What Can Jamie Oliver Learn About Customer Service?

I'm happy to admit...I'm A Fan!

Jamie Oliver has been extremely successful in not just building and growing a financially successful business empire which includes publishing, online products and a chain of restaurants (including one brand which does a commendable job of helping individuals who have faced, or continuing to face severe personal and emotional challenges, learn how to cook, and often, gain employment in either one of his outlets or elsewhere.

So what can Jamie Oliver learn about customer service?

The major lesson to be considered is 'Remember that it is wrong to demand tips from your customers.'

My wife, daughter and I enjoyed a fantastic lunch last week at Jamie's Italian in Leeds.  The food was easy on the eyes and light on the tummy.  I am definitely not a chef or proficient cook.  The only time I invest in the kitchen at home is either when I've been 'encouraged' to do the washing up, or boiling the kettle for a cuppa, so I have no idea how fresh the ingredients were that served to produce a wonderfully array of enjoyable meals for the three of us.  But, the one thing I am proficient at, being a typical Yorkshireman, is spotting and appreciating when 'good' or 'excellent' service has been provided by the waiting staff allocated to us.

OK Service...With An Unwelcome Twist!

If you have ever visited Harvey Nichols cafe in Leeds, you may (or may not) have noticed that when your bill arrives, it already INCLUDES a service charge of 10% of the total bill.  Rather cheeky, as this 'service charge' isn't reserved for the usual group of six or more diner.  Even if you visit on your own, you get smacked with the supposed 'service charge'.  Why does Harvey Nichols do it?  Well, there could be a number of reasons, and they may (or may not) include:

1. It's Harvey Nichols...and you don't expect it to be cheap or reasonable do you?  You pay to 'enjoy' Harvey Nichols' brand.
2. The cafe hopes that you, the trusting customer, will be too embarrassed to ask for the 'service charge' to be removed from the bill, so they take their chances...and a liberty too!
3. The cafe is being blatantly greedy, subversive and eager to scrape in every last penny it can...perhaps because of their hard working, completely professional and oh so responsive staff.

There may be other reasons of course, and the above are just my humle opinions rather than a statement of fact or truth.  But why is it that this brand (as you'll see, just like at least one member of staff at Jamie Oliver's Leeds outlet) feel that it is fair, reasonable or even right, to actively impose such charges on customers, who are ultimately paying their employee's wages, whether or not during a time of austerity?

Back To Jamie's Italian, Leeds

So, we've enjoyed a lovely meal, lots of laughs and the bill arrives.  The waitress who has been 'OK', nothing spectacular, presents me with the bill by placing it down in front of me, wrapped in a promotional leaflet for the restaurant.  Yes, the bill is correct and that is absolutely fine.  Now it comes to the discussion with our nine year old daughter about what, if any, tip to leave for the waitress.  And this is where the trouble begins!

Not content with waiting to be pleasantly surprised with a reasonable tip, for OK (aka 'Average') service, the waitress decided to rather visually draw to our attention the fact that 'Service Charge is not included' by underlining the sentence and asterisking the line too.  Why?  Of course, to draw our attention to the fact that she either, felt she was worth, or indeed expected, us to tip her.  Why?  Not because she is perhaps worthy of a tip. After all, the food was fantastic, but the service was nowhere near that standard.  She wanted to inform us of her desire to obtain additional income from us, simply because she wanted to!

The final line in this comedy of customer dis-service can be seen on the receipt below.  How overbearingly patronising is it to focus attention on a self-serving action, to then write 'Thank you' at the bottom of the receipt?

Mr Oliver.  Please understand, your customers are not always right.  But on this occasion, someone your organisation chose to employ, entrusted with your brand, and pays to be 'professional', got it very badly wrong.  Is this just one example of the darker side of the hospitality industry?  And more importantly, is this a behaviour that your leadership and management teams actively encourage and endorse?

Assertiveness Skills - Giving Feedback Proactively

Many people in business worry about not just how to give feedback to a colleague or customer, but the consequences and implications for them personally having given it.  This is especially true when the recipient of the feedback is your line manager, or a long-standing and profitable customer.

But assertive communication isn't about being aggressive and/or forcing your opinion, view or position on to another human being.  Indeed it's anything but.  So how can you provide feedback to another person, without them feeling they are being attacked, but whilst maintaining rapport and a win-win outcome?

It's pretty straightforward and easy to do, with a little practice and an element of self-awareness too.  And, in the short video, Dirk Bansch, Director of Learning and Development at Summit Training shares with you two easy to use methods of giving feedback and inviting agreement on how you will communicate together in future.

Give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Scott

What's So Different Between A Croissant And An Apple?

A strange question?  At first sight, maybe it's a little confusing, but when we explore the differences is more detail, it's quite easy to establish that an Apple a day is so much more nourishing, enjoyable and healthy than a croissant.  Here's the story...

This morning I visited Manchester to obtain guidance on how to run my Mac computer more effectively and easily. As I was travelling from Halifax which is 25 miles from Manchester and the rush-hour traffic can be rather unpredictable, I set off on my journey rather early.


Arriving at my destination an hour before my appointment with a 'Genius' (we'll come to that in a while) at the Apple Store, I decided to grab a coffee and croissant at a branch of a high-street chain of French cafes.  And here's where the challenge began.


My request for a chocolate croissant appeared to silently trouble the waitress who was taking my order.  A pursing of her lips and slight frown with her eyes gave me a hint that something wasn't quite right with my request.  I carried on reading my newspaper, the coffee arrived, but the croissant didn't.  A full ten minutes later I politely asked the waitress if my croissant would be arriving.  Her hesitance to any answer my straightforward question again gave a hint that something was awry.  She proceeded to nervously advise me that 'We're just warming it up for you now.'  My response of 'It's ok, I prefer my croissant cold please', was met with her reluctance to provide me (the customer...paying customer remember) with a cold croissant.

Long story short.  The croissant arrived, the tough pastry and hard chocolate on the inside clearly demonstrating that this was 'old stock' and not at all fresh.  As the waitress didn't return to my table to ask if everything was ok - because clearly it wasn't I left the croissant with only one bite out of it.  As the waitress passed I asked 'May I check with you, is this croissant actually fresh?'  She responded 'I'll take it off your bill sir'. I politely thanked her for her offer to remove the cost of the croissant from the bill and asked again, 'May I check, is this croissant fresh?' At which point the somewhat embarrassed waitress responded, 'Well...it was fresh YESTERDAY MORNING'. 

So what happened here?  The manager or person responsible for ordering 'Fresh' items over ordered? Perhaps the footfall wasn't as high as expected or predicted?  Maybe in an effort to cut costs in a tough marketplace, it's company policy to sell pastries that are more than 24 hours old?  Who knows?  Well, the manager should know.  But isn't it a poor reflection on the brand when they'll do everything they can (i.e. warm old stock up) to avoid detection?

This is a clear case of putting profits for the organisation way ahead of serving the trusting customer a decent product at a fair price. And, with the internet now being used as a feedback mechanism for such outlets - Tripadvisor.com being the most popular, what would drive a manager to mislead customers in such a way?  But that's why an Apple can save the day!

Having left the cafe a little disappointed, and a lot hungry, I entered the Apple Store in Manchester's Arndale Centre to meet a Genius.  'The Genius Bar' is the name given to the resident experts who supposedly, can resolve any issue a user may have with one of their products. However difficult or unusual your problem, they commit to resolving it for you, right there and then in most cases.

As I waited for my very own Genius to appear, an elderly gentleman who was booked in for a personal coaching session on his new Ipad struck up conversation with me.  He mentioned that at the tender age of 78 years young, he had decided to start learning again.  Retirement had become somewhat boring and he wanted to keep his brain busy.  But here's the stunning thing!

Just 10 days previous he had purchased his first ever Apple product, an Ipad 2.  He spoke about how excited he was to be presented with an eye catching white box that he'd expected the Apple store rep to open and show him all he wanted to know, but he was surprised that he was invited to open the box himself, take out the Ipad and switch it on.  He called this the 'Getting to know you' experience.

Realising that he was a little hesitant in getting to know his Ipad, apparently the Apple store rep asked him what he'd like to know about first.  How cool is this? Involving the customer and entering their world rather than simply doling out information and babble whilst expecting the customer to enter Apple's world. As he grew steadily confident with his new machine, he began asking more questions to the in store expert. But, the happy, excited gentleman's Apple world was about to take a dramatic turn.  He told me 'I was just learning over the table to get a pen to make some notes and then it happened...in a flash.'

CRASH.  The Ipad fell off the table, hit the floor and landed face down.  Yikes! This isn't sounding too promising.  When he picked up his Ipad off the floor, the facia was smashed. His question to the Apple store rep of whether the Ipad could be repaired was met with 'No, it can't be repaired as it's all one single unit...BUT, it was an accident so let me get you another one and we'll take this one off your hands'.

And that's the story.  How ridiculously good customer service is this?  The store/brand treated him fairly and what does he do? He becomes an ambassador for Apple. He tells me, I tell you and Apple become even more trusted as a fair, socially responsible organisation.  And of course, they will probably sell a few more products if this elderly gentleman has anything to do with it.

Isn't it a shame that whilst Apple replace a £439 item at no cost, and little inconvenience to their customer, a chain of cafes can't serve a fresh £2.50 croissant or at the very least, let the customer know that other, fresher choices are available?

Customer (Dis)Service is becoming more and more accepted in the UK.  But if you the customer says nothing, you're just teaching these organisations how to treat you. And it's definitely not win-win.


http://www.SummitTraining.co.uk/

http://www.CustomerServiceTrainingCourses.co.uk/