Why do businesses do this to themselves?
I’ve got a very nice holiday home in Cornwall. It’s in a little village called Trevone, about a mile and a half outside of Padstow.
Right in the centre of Padstow is a restaurant called Custard.
Now, I like it a lot in Custard, I go there regularly but, I’m always frustrated at the incompetence, frankly, of the owners to market their establishment effectively. They have a great restaurant. Their food is excellent and the ambience and style they have managed to create is really quite unique. BUT, it’s upstairs above a shop and therefore has a fairly minimal presence on the street and it’s rarely full. There are a couple of reasons for this, one of which is the very poor marketing that the restaurant does. However, the other reason is because they continue to surprise me with their ability to aspire against their own success.
Let me give you an example, in August (which has to be the height of the “very short” season for all businesses in north Cornwall), we walked into Padstow one morning looking forward to a Custard breakfast (their breakfasts are really fab and I highly recommend them). We arrived at Custard at about 10.30am only to find that they were closed on Mondays.
Bonkers.
They are a restaurant in a seaside town which has a six week peak season. Why on earth would they close one day a week?
I could understand it out of season but, not during July and August.
The situation got worse later in the week. We had done a very long coastal walk which ended in Padstow. It was about 4 o’clock when we trekked up the stairs to Custard looking forward to a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake (something else that they do very well). Alas, we were turned away!
The waitress explained that they stopped serving teas and coffees at 3.00pm so they could prepare the restaurant for dinner!
What on earth is there to prepare, front of house, in a 60 seater restaurant?
I understand fully why the chef and his team may well be prepping for dinner but, all we wanted was a cup of tea and a piece of cake – not anything that would require the involvement of a chef. Instead, the front of house team had three hours to set 15 tables with some silverware and glasses. BONKERS
I fully expect, at some point, I will go into Padstow and Custard will have ceased trading. This would be so sad if it happens because the product offering is fantastic. However, they are like so many businesses in so far as they are sabotaging themselves and their own success.
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Custard has closed- The time you visited there were too few staff being asked to do too many hours.
When an employee starts a shift at 8.30am in the morning works right through the day until 12/12.30am they are unlikely to want to make you a cup of tea in the only time they’re going to get to sit down and eat themselves!
totally agree with all these comments having worked in the restuarant trade for over 10 years (I left about 6 years ago). I always felt as a waitress that managers and staff just did not value what excellent customer service is. I worked in shabby places and well-heeled places. It was my own attitude and pride in my job to provide excellent service as front of house. For some reason, it comes naturally to me. I like people, I am a caring empathetic person and I truly believed in the motto that you should give service the way you would like to recieve it. Problem is, many just dont care enough about others experience – they don’t have a vested interest and this is a main problem. I think it is a certain type of person who understands the value of CS and knows how it can make such a difference. My sis has just completed an MSc in quality management (1 of only 2 students in Scotland) and sees her future in precisely this role in the social housing sector (who get a bum deal from overpaid managers, lazy and incompetent housing officers etc) so the issues are the same, whatever industry sector I think….
You’re absolutely right Lesley. Problem is that the owner’s never around. It’s just the staff…(and I don’t want to get banned…although it may be too late for that already!)
Hey Pauline, I’m sure Carlisle isn’t any worse than other towns surely. I love going back ‘up’t north because generally people are friendlier but I think your points about the cafe and the supermarkets are well made.
I’ve just read a great book by Tony Hsieh, who is the CEO of Zappos in America (which Amazon bought for $1.2bn last year). Zappos reputation was all built on customer service and his book is called Delivering Happiness. It’s ace. I’m sure you’d enjoy reading it.
I put a comment on the NTV page about this – Custard’s are being complacent. What may have worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work today and banking on reputation to keep your business going alone will only result in failure. Yes they may still provide an excellent service (when they are open) but by not being open people will always find somewhere else to go and they will lose out in the end. Perhaps you ought to “‘ave a word” – they’ll take it from you Nigel
Now there are some businesses in the UK that have customer care as their No. 1 Value and they do well because of it, however, my experience is customer service is evaporating from UK culture. Most conversations I have with friends are around this i.e. “Hey you ought to try the new cafe in town it’s brilliant and the staff are friendly.” Shouldn’t they be friendly anyway!!
I suspect that staff/teams don’t get the training invested in them to BE fantastic towards customers, to make customers want to come back everytime and to bring friends with them.
Come to Carlisle it was 129th out of 129 cities in the UK for poor customer service – I have lived here for 5 years and can vouch for it being the worst in the UK. Go to any major chain supermarket in Carlisle and watch as the checkout ladies talk to each other about the night before, ask if you’d like cash out without any eyeball contact and look like they hate their jobs. There is one fab lady on a checkout at Morrisons who I always go to – funny she isn’t from Carlisle!!! and I queue merrily waiting to be served by her cheery smile and chat.
Enough of a rant from me. Onwards now to smile at a checkout lady as I fill up the car with petrol – knowing that she will not smile back or even say have a nice day.
I just think that, in Custards case especially, and bearing in mind the ‘challenging’ economic times, that they’re sabotaging their success.
Living in the South France I must admit I can see a lot of the Custard’s experience in action here. All restaurants are closed on Monday (even in high season), the kitchen’s close quite early (around 9 to 9.30pm) thanks to the labor law being 35hrs a week most of the places aren’t open outside lunch and dinner.
Believe it or not they all trade like this here and since they all do it, there is no competitive advantage to do otherwise as people expect it.