I know a lot of cafes think having a young blonde babe on the counter is good for business but honesty someone with good customer service skills would be more beneficial to the business...…..was out this morning and honesty the girl behind the counter treated me if I was a nuisance...…..No eye contact and not even a pleasant smile...…….. I asked where about the cutlery was for the scone I had ordered...…..On the table...…...waited 15 mins for a coffee...…needless to say I wont go back...prefer a café that I feel welcome in...

petal1955 - 2020-02-08 15:00:00

Me too Petal, had dinner at a place we’d enjoyed several times, change of ownership & staff now quite a bit younger. The last time we went the young woman wait staff was surly didn’t know the daily specials and we felt she was doing us a favour just turning up for work.....like you we won’t be back. Lots more eateries around where you’re not made to feel a bother. No eye contact and definitely no smile.

Edited by strowan1 at 4:23 pm, Sat 8 Feb

strowan1 - 2020-02-08 16:21:00

Have either of you told the owners of your experiences? If they don’t know they can’t fix it ...

sarahb5 - 2020-02-08 17:37:00

I posted on their website

Edited by petal1955 at 6:08 pm, Sat 8 Feb

petal1955 - 2020-02-08 18:07:00

petal1955 wrote:

I posted on their website

So you didn’t approach them directly and give them the opportunity to explain or fix it before you went public?

sarahb5 - 2020-02-08 18:12:00

I have no intention of explaining further details to you. Kindly go and heckle or harangue elsewhere.

strowan1 - 2020-02-08 18:47:00

strowan1 wrote:

I have no intention of explaining further details to you. Kindly go and heckle or harangue elsewhere.

I’m not heckling or haranguing you (I was actually replying to the OPs comment, not yours) but I recently had a similarly disappointing experience at a local restaurant and posted my experience on their Facebook page. I subsequently got a phone call from a very upset restaurant owner who explained that there was a staff shortage, the young lady who was under-performing had been called in to help with no experience at short notice and that restaurants live or die by their reviews. He provided me with a credit note for our meal and I took down my review. In future if I had a bad hospitality experience then I would call the restaurant before posting a bad review on a public website if Facebook page.

Edited by sarahb5 at 6:55 pm, Sat 8 Feb

sarahb5 - 2020-02-08 18:54:00

sarahb5 wrote:

I’m not heckling or haranguing you (I was actually replying to the OPs comment, not yours) but I recently had a similarly disappointing experience at a local restaurant and posted my experience on their Facebook page. I subsequently got a phone call from a very upset restaurant owner who explained that there was a staff shortage, the young lady who was under-performing had been called in to help with no experience at short notice and that restaurants live or die by their reviews. He provided me with a credit note for our meal and I took down my review. In future if I had a bad hospitality experience then I would call the restaurant before posting a bad review on a public website if Facebook page.

Agree. This type of feedback is passive aggressive and in my opinion, cowardly. Any good business owner wants to hear what is going well, and what is going wrong. If they are not told, they can't fix it. Posting critical feedback about someone or something without having the courage to talk to someone face to face/via the phone tells me more about the person than it does about the bad experience they had. Feedback is gold, when it comes from a place of good ntent. Too many people use social media to 'have a go'. I find it abhorrent.

awoftam - 2020-02-08 20:23:00

awoftam wrote:

Agree. This type of feedback is passive aggressive and in my opinion, cowardly. Any good business owner wants to hear what is going well, and what is going wrong. If they are not told, they can't fix it. Posting critical feedback about someone or something without having the courage to talk to someone face to face/via the phone tells me more about the person than it does about the bad experience they had. Feedback is gold, when it comes from a place of good ntent. Too many people use social media to 'have a go'. I find it abhorrent.

Yes - my experience has certainly made me think twice about any future reviews I might consider posting

sarahb5 - 2020-02-08 20:41:00

We went to a cafe a few years back that we will never go to again. We ate the meal (can't remember if it was good or not, I think it was okay), then waited for the coffees. After another 10 minutes or so, I got fed up and went and asked for our money back as we had waited long enough (I think it was up to about 45 minutes at this stage).

The person gave me a bunch of coins, and made out I was being impatient as we were about 5th or so in the queue to get our coffees. (My husband wasn't going to bother getting the money back, he just wanted to keep on trucking to where we were going to, as we still had about four hours drive ahead of us).

She would have known I was not impressed, but probably didn't care as I think it may be a destination cafe but is also used heavily by travellers who may or may not be back. We regularly go past it, but like hell we will ever go back. I think we had been once or twice before, but not really sure.

Edited by unknowndisorder at 9:37 pm, Sat 8 Feb

unknowndisorder - 2020-02-08 21:34:00

By the same token I would also tell the owner (if available) if I had a particularly pleasant experience - we went to a bar on Thursday night and had a fabulous time includIng drinking with the owner and her husband

Edited by sarahb5 at 9:41 am, Sun 9 Feb

sarahb5 - 2020-02-09 09:41:00

Once i asked very nicely if my coffee could be reheated in the microwave, i like my coffee hot, the woman (hotel owner or manager) snatched it off me, tossed cup, saucer and all into the sink with a mighty crash, ungratefully made me another which was just as cold as the first. I never said a word, but will never stay in that wellington joint again. Why couldn't you just reheat it you silly old cow.

rainrain1 - 2020-02-09 10:41:00

Agree with sarahb5 and woftam. We can't fix your displeasure so give the owners the opportunity to do so. If you don't get a positive response, then would be the time to try elsewhere and to post on-line.

amasser - 2020-02-09 11:31:00

Local cafe/restaurant pisses money away by simply not giving a fork once the customer has their food/beverage.

These places make their money on drinks, so why are the staff not coming over offering a second drink once you have finished your meal or drink? Poor training, poor management. Then the owner is in the paper saying how hard it is to pay the wages.

sw20 - 2020-02-09 15:24:00

Went to one a few weeks back, Two young girls, no smiles, their manner was quite rude. Made us feel we were intruding. The hilarious part was on the table was a tip jar!! We left them a tip - wrote down they should improve their attitude to customers. Edited to add that we found out later that they were the owners!!

Edited by jan2242 at 10:27 am, Mon 10 Feb

jan2242 - 2020-02-10 10:27:00

So lucky here in Greerton, Tauranga with a great cafe, with great coffee, right in the centre of the village, and open to the small square, with trees - Zest.

The staff is so good at remembering your name, your coffee preferences, and everyone has a smile and wave or a chat with others - the regulars feel like being part of a family.

Great food, great coffee, great service, great ambiance - everything a great cafe should be!

autumnwinds - 2020-02-10 13:12:00

My major gripe with cafes is that they serve coffee in wide-brimmed thick china cups - the coffee is cold by the time you go to drink it. And that's not how I like it. Consequently I ask for coffee-to-go.

kaiser2 - 2020-02-10 23:06:00

kaiser2 wrote:

My major gripe with cafes is that they serve coffee in wide-brimmed thick china cups - the coffee is cold by the time you go to drink it. And that's not how I like it. Consequently I ask for coffee-to-go.

It shouldn’t be cold if they warm the cups properly - I only have mine as takeaway if I’ve got a reusable cup with me or if they have a “mug library”

sarahb5 - 2020-02-11 07:21:00

kaiser2 wrote:

My major gripe with cafes is that they serve coffee in wide-brimmed thick china cups - the coffee is cold by the time you go to drink it. And that's not how I like it. Consequently I ask for coffee-to-go.

Well my major gripe is people who get takeaway coffees when they’re drinking in (well any time really ... it’s not hard to bring a keep cup)! I think cafes should stop using them.

blands70 - 2020-02-11 17:04:00

blands70 wrote:

Well my major gripe is people who get takeaway coffees when they’re drinking in (well any time really ... it’s not hard to bring a keep cup)! I think cafes should stop using them.

Why do you care how other people have their coffee? Are you paying?

sw20 - 2020-02-11 17:28:00

blands70 wrote:

Well my major gripe is people who get takeaway coffees when they’re drinking in (well any time really ... it’s not hard to bring a keep cup)! I think cafes should stop using them.

I agree but mug libraries are a great alternative

Edited by sarahb5 at 5:30 pm, Tue 11 Feb

sarahb5 - 2020-02-11 17:30:00

sw20 wrote:

Why do you care how other people have their coffee? Are you paying?

No but the planet is

sarahb5 - 2020-02-11 17:30:00

sarahb5 wrote:

No but the planet is

Exactly.

blands70 - 2020-02-11 17:34:00

awoftam wrote:

Agree. This type of feedback is passive aggressive and in my opinion, cowardly. Any good business owner wants to hear what is going well, and what is going wrong. If they are not told, they can't fix it. Posting critical feedback about someone or something without having the courage to talk to someone face to face/via the phone tells me more about the person than it does about the bad experience they had. Feedback is gold, when it comes from a place of good ntent. Too many people use social media to 'have a go'. I find it abhorrent.

I have to agree with this - on an entirely different subject, a non profit community Trust (with no paid staff), I am involved with recently got really bad feedback on our FB page. The trouble was the person had their facts completely wrong which I pointed out to them in my reply and they acknowledged they got it wrong - but they haven't removed their feedback. As we don't have a lot of ratings/feedback that one has made a big difference to our rating.

Edited by foodiemag at 8:55 am, Thu 13 Feb

foodiemag - 2020-02-13 08:54:00