The Sweet Service Award goes to Woolworths Hout Bay and its Assistant Manager Eric. I had gone to the W Café in the store on Easter Monday, for a quick cappuccino and a scone. The waitress accepted my coffee order, but told me that they were out of scones and hot cross buns. I suggested that she get some from the Woolworths store, but she told me that they were not allowed to, despite a manager having previously done so. The W Café manager had gone home already. The waitress went to see Eric, who offered to pay for the scone. I contacted the Operations Manager Marcel to tell him about Eric’s kind offer. The scones were however sold out in the store, so they offered hot cross buns instead, and only charged me for the cappuccino, an amazing service recovery driven by Woolworths rather than W Café.
The Sour Service Award goes to Exclusive Books Café at the V&A Waterfront, a new coffee shop run by Exclusive Books itself, which appeared better run than the former Fego restaurant on a previous visit. However, a recent visit to the book store was a bad experience, with no manager present. I had ordered a toasted cheese, and was given the choice of a salad or chips, and chose the former, which arrived full of onions and balsamic vinegar, which I had not requested nor been told about. The rye bread requested appeared to be wholewheat, but I was assured that it was rye. I asked for the salad to be replaced, and had to chase it after it not being returned after 15 minutes. Vuyo identified herself as the manager of the Café, had taken the salad to the kitchen, and told me it took that long to make it again! I was then told that she was not actually the manager, and that manager Gugu was in fact at their Canal Walk branch. The book store staff told me that Joseph de Vries is actually the manager for all Exclusive Books Cafés in our region, and I called him, being surprised that none of the staff had told me about him. He was very defensive, telling me over and over again that they receive nothing but compliments for the branch! He was not interested in my complaint about how badly the managerless Café was being operated! In April I had a similar poor experience, and managed to get through to Exclusive Books CEO Benjamin Trisk on 28 April, after problems to get the Operations Manager Rob Short to return my calls in-between public holidays. He told me that he would be in the Cape for the Franschhoek Literary Festival, and suggested that we meet for coffee at the Waterfront branch on Wednesday 11 May. I am still waiting for him to contact me!
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at whalecot@iafrica.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whalecottage.com/blog Tel 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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