By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness Magazine
"Marketing Maestro" Archive.
First published November 2007
There is a café in Leigh, nr Warkworth, that is very pleased with itself. Or at least the staff are. This is a not uncommon characteristic in businesses that have had some success and/or have attracted some positive attention (for example, as in this case, a positive café review or two). But it can be a death knell if the management are unaware of it and do not address the issue promptly (unless, of course, they are part of the problem). At this café, it manifested itself during a family visit this weekend for Brunch.
We arrived at the busy café and headed through the building to the garden tables where, after beginning to settle at a table, we were approached by a young thing who asked, with ill concealed irritation, if we had been brought to this table.
“No” we replied.
“Well’ you’re supposed to wait to be seated”.
Feeling a little scalded, we were told that there was a sign. When told where the sign was, our error became understandable - a staff member had been standing in front of it when we arrived, ignoring us. Might be nice if he had noticed the arrival of four customers, welcomed us and shown us to a table. (especially as we are not used to being asked to wait by a sign to be seated in a café – in a restaurant, yes, but this was little more than a barn with food).
Anyway, we were allowed to stay where we were. However, the sun was hot and there was not a single umbrella at any of the garden tables (guess the melanoma message hasn’t reached Leigh). So we decided that we should seek the cover of the roof and I headed inside to ask if we might move (there were numerous available inside tables, albeit most of them bore the food & beverage debris of previous customers).
I tried to attract the attention of the young thing who had greeted us so warmly but she was dancing (!) with another staff member, a bloke with a ponytail.
I said “Excuse me” (that’s apparently what you say when you want to break in on a dancing couple) “ I wonder if………..” but I was ignored.
“Excuse me” I said again, with a little more assertiveness “….customer speaking”.
That had an effect – their very own private episode of “Dancing with the Stars” came to an abrupt halt, the bloke with the ponytail disappeared (probably in search of the judges’ scores) and the young thing scowled at me.
“The sun is very hot so we would like to move inside please”.
“Oh. Right” she said.
I headed back outside to tell the family we could move and returned to find the young thing telling the bar staff of my rude attempt to spoil her fun. Her back was to me as I approached and she turned, a little shaken, as I asked if everyone who needed to know of our encounter did now know.
“I was just ordering some drinks” she spluttered indignantly.
“No you weren’t” I told her – “I heard exactly what you were saying”
She continued to argue the point, clearly put out that she was being held to account by, of all things, a customer!
At this point, the bloke with the ponytail returned, took her in his arms, asked her if she was alright before turning to me and saying “She is very busy you know so if there is anything else?”
Frankly, I am not sure how I didn’t plant one on him. But of course I didn’t. Rather, I suggested he look forward to reading this column, quietly hinted that perhaps this was not the way to treat customers before apologising to my family and telling them we were leaving.
So here it is and I trust the young thing and the pony tail enjoy and learn from it.
We found somewhere else nearby for lunch - quite delightful, delicious food and warm, friendly, kiwi service and hospitality.
One café we will return to. The other, well, the term “when hell freezes over” comes to mind.
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