July 26, 2010 – I ordered a pizza recently and decided to try a new place. I
went in to pick up my order and was disappointed by the many simple ways the
two staffers really messed up. Here’s hoping your staff don’t provide the
following performance for any of your customers.
The chef was smoking directly outside the front door, a
cloud I had to walk through to get inside. His cigarettes were sitting on the
counter by the cash register. Many people still smoke but as a society we’ve
become particular about not wanting to visualize it near our food. Keep the
smoking out of sight of your customers. It’s only becoming increasingly offensive.
The second employee was washing dishes, and took an inordinate amount of time
to notice my presence while I created a bit of a polite racket before calling
hello for attention. This can be really uncomfortable for customers, so having
a loud bell on your door to let employees know when someone has walked is
always a great idea.
The restaurant was impeccably clean but the atmosphere just
felt apathetic. I would have been happier in a dingier hole in the wall that
provided a few smiles rather than feel like an unwelcome order. For additional insult,
I found my pizza to be a soggy messy that had clearly been sitting in the box
too long when the employee on the phone said it would be at least a half hour for
pickup.
Needless to say, I won’t be ordering from there again. There
are too many choices to need to go back to a place that managed to create such
an unwelcome environment with their poor service. An incident such as this
always makes a good case for video cameras in your pizzerias. And an excellent
case for being wary of who you hire. We’ll be running a feature story in the
September/October edition on how to conduct better interviews with your
potential hires to help you spot these bad hires that turn into big mistakes.
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