Re: Tigers Catering Feedback.

[Bill W (2)]

Might I suggest:

[email protected]

Sorely tempted!

]

Give in to temptation.

And KEEP THE FAITH!

Not least because he most likely negotiated the contract for the franchise without putting in any conditions - one must assume - on minimum acceptable service levels. This is basic area to cover on any outsourcing agreement as without it you can end up with very poor quality of service. Wait a minute where are we?[/quote]

Have you given Mr. Cohen the benefit of your advice Jeremy?

[Jeremy Anderson]

Bill.
As a consultant I only advice people who will listen!

[longlivethecrumbie]

Is the Guinness substitute going to be a permanent fixture? If you're paying £3.90 a pint then you'd expect a premium brand product .

[Bill W (2)]

Is the Guinness substitute going to be a permanent fixture? If you're paying £3.90 a pint then you'd expect a premium brand product .

Good question. You can pay £3.90 (+ £1 for the "glass") for an imitation of the black stuff inside the ground or less than that for the real stuff outside the ground. Your choice. Tigers are clearly "nudging" you towards the latter!

[ourla]

Report from stand side of the Final Whistle. There is now a McDonalds style set of trays with pre-poured pints of all the combinations of drinks. There seemed to be a few supervisory staff proactively keeping an eye on proceedings and talking to the staff. I got a pint just before kick off and at half time without any queueing. I like the new pots idea and the pots themselves. I also bought some food which I didn't have to queue for and was nice. The only negative is the bar staff had to be told take the £1 off when you took a beer cup back. But encouraging signs for me.

[LE18]

There was a suited supervisor in the ABC yesterday, he answering questions and took a bit of flack but we asked about more chairs and he instantly arranged more to be brought out. Good sign.

I think they have a lot of work to do with the very young and inexperience bar staff though, very slow on the till and seemed to lack an understanding of what we ordered. Better days to come? They also had a seperate bar for Guiness only next to the food. Didnt go in after or during Half Time so don't know how they managed with more customers to deal with.

[TigerTanks]

I think they have a lot of work to do with the very young and inexperience bar staff though, very slow on the till and seemed to lack an understanding of what we ordered.

Agreed - last time I went to the bar I asked for Fosters and a Diet Coke. Nearly 10 minutes later (!) I received a Fosters and Diet Coke.... MIXED TOGETHER!

Fortunately I'm the kind of guy who had a polite word with the bar manchild and asked if he wanted another go at getting the order right....

I know they're young...but come on.

[Iain]

Agreed - last time I went to the bar I asked for Fosters and a Diet Coke. Nearly 10 minutes later (!) I received a Fosters and Diet Coke.... MIXED TOGETHER

Jesus Christ. That's a new peak for our bar staff. Please tell me you made that up!

[LE18]

Could that mixture be what students drink these days?

[Tyzot]

ABC bar today before the game was just unbeleivable.

I may well have been the first customer. They gave me a prepoured strongbow that was totally flat. I returned it and they gave me another slightly less flat one and on returning that they gave me a third and asked me to let them know when they poured one that was OK!!!!!!

The Guinness substitiute was watery (perhaps water in the pipes). Again returned it and they gave me one that tatsted a bit less watery, still very poor but at least not watered down and this one actually had a head on it.

I think that will be my last visit to the ABC. Watered down beer, flat cider at nearly £4 a pint. Fake Guinness. No cask beer.

[Iain]

I'd be surprised if it's watered down - almost impossible to do with a pressurised keg. Water in the pipes through sloppy line cleaning is very possible.

[Tyzot]

It was watered down therefore IMHO - just not deliberately.

Either way - poor show and I was just amazed that they couldn't tell when a cider is flat just by looking at it.

To be honest when I walked in to the ABC bar there were about three staff per square metre they didn't seem to have clue and looked terrified at the prospect of a customer asking for a pint! Quite a surreal sight.

[TigerTanks]

Agreed - last time I went to the bar I asked for Fosters and a Diet Coke. Nearly 10 minutes later (!) I received a Fosters and Diet Coke.... MIXED TOGETHER

Jesus Christ. That's a new peak for our bar staff. Please tell me you made that up!

Sadly not!

I should point out that it was rectified quickly and friendly and the whole thing was laughed off by all involved.

[Iain]

Well it's nice that it was dealt with in good spirit.

But doesn't that one incident just speak volumes of the utter ineptitude shown by our bar staff? They were even hopeless in the Final Whistle before the Argentina game, despite only having about ten people at time at the bar.

If it helps, the staff at the Crisp Bowl were equally useless, but this isn't a race to the bottom.

[BirstallBrian]

Oh happy days - kept my powder dry on this one. But it's time to air: Marcos's testimonial - service was abject at best, the staff looked petrified but that's not their fault - if they don't get training they won't cope. Asked for a Guinness, the pump was broken; asked for a cider and black, she didn't know what that was, Supervisor says they don't serve cider..... Asked for Orange & lemonade for the driver among us, don't serve orange and lemonade. I was offered a glass of orange and told that was an exception and not to expect it anywhere else on the ground. No pre-pouring, clueless.
I emailed Simon Cohen for a meeting, plus a young chappie Aaron from the caterers and Laura from Customer Services. Said I thought Tigers would never achieve their stated aim of being the best club in the world (remember the plaque on the Clubhouse wall...?) unless customer service improved. That must have pricked a nerve. Half way through explaining my experience at the game I was told in no uncertain terms that they'd heard it all before. (Well, that was some consolation, I wasn't the first, or the only one). But the resigned and rather tired tone of voice suggested it was all a bit much.
Explanations were offered: the steps they'd taken to train the staff for the subsequent Newcastle game (Why did it take a disaster like Marcos's match to get around to that...?).
Agency staff aren't reliable and there's lack of continuity (So employ them yourself and make it worth their while...?).
Difficult to get good staff for only 16 home games a season (Millennium stadium staff seem to know what they were doing - are there 16 home games there every year, come on...!).
Difficult to work with outdated equipment, tills, pumps etc in the ABC bar (So update them..? It's not rocket science).
Can't get the staff, and all the other clubs can't either (Disbelief at that one, I was at Cardiff for 2 world cup games along with 60,000 others and had no problem getting a pint).
All said and done the responses I got were feeble and my conclusion is that this just isn't important enough for the club to get right, it's just too much hassle. Yes, "we have mystery customers, we have supervisors who see to the staff, we consult the fans on a regular basis". But this has gone on for too long and the whole meeting had a very tired and weary air to it. Anywhere else and this side of the business would have gone to the wall by now.
Having a good pre and post match experience is all part of the day out, but I feel like I'm being taken for a mug. Prospects for improvement? 2/10 and that's being generous and optimistic.
The Counting House here I come.