{"id":3264,"date":"2009-08-21T00:07:12","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T22:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=3264"},"modified":"2009-08-23T14:42:57","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T12:42:57","slug":"willougby-co-sweet-and-planet-fitness-sour-service-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/willougby-co-sweet-and-planet-fitness-sour-service-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Willoughby & Co Sweet and Planet Fitness Sour Service Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Sweet Service Award <\/strong>\u00a0goes to Mark, the Manager at Willoughby & Co in the V & A Waterfront, for reversing a potential Sour Award into a Sweet Award.\u00a0\u00a0 A customer went to Willoughby’s just after 22h00, after seeing a movie, wanting a quick calamari meal.\u00a0 Initially she was completely ignored.\u00a0 A waiter then asked how she could be assisted, and when she said what she wanted to eat, he apologised, saying that the restaurant was closed, even though all the doors were wide open.\u00a0\u00a0 He was adamant that\u00a0the kitchen had been cleaned up already.\u00a0 According to him, the kitchen closes promptly at 22h00.\u00a0\u00a0 The customer asked whether it was possible to have sushi instead, and the sushi chef agreed immediately and made\u00a0a hand roll most promptly.\u00a0\u00a0 Just at that point Mark arrived at the restaurant, and had heard that there was a problem, and came to the customer.\u00a0 He expressed surprise that the closing time had been\u00a0communicated as\u00a022h00, as it is 22h30.\u00a0 He immediately offered to have the calamari dish prepared.\u00a0 It was delicious.\u00a0 The “crowning glory” was that Mark refused to accept payment for the meal, a most generous make-good, and a sure way to build brand loyalty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Sour Service Award<\/strong>\u00a0 goes to Daniel of Planet Fitness in Durbanville, for calling a guest house in Camps Bay at 15h00 on a Sunday afternoon, to check if\u00a0it had\u00a0received\u00a0undefined vouchers.\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel made it sound\u00a0as if he was a long-lost friend, and as if the recipient of the call would know who he is.\u00a0\u00a0 He was told that direct marketing calls on a Sunday afternoon for business purposes were not professional.\u00a0\u00a0 His boss Heinrich agreed and apologised.\u00a0 However, a day later, another person from Planet Fitness in Durbanville called, with the same question.\u00a0\u00a0 The recipient of the call had to explain to the caller that it was extremely unlikely that a Camps Bay resident or guest house guest would drive all the way to Durbanville, a journey of 30 – 45 minutes, depending on traffic, to use the gym!<\/p>\n

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards<\/strong>\u00a0are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.\u00a0 Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at <\/span>info@whalecottage.com<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales <\/span><\/strong>newsletters on the <\/span>www.whalecottage.com<\/span><\/a> website.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sweet Service Award \u00a0goes to Mark, the Manager at Willoughby & Co in the V & A Waterfront, for reversing a potential Sour Award into a Sweet Award.\u00a0\u00a0 A customer went to Willoughby’s just after 22h00, after seeing a movie, wanting a quick calamari meal.\u00a0 Initially she was completely ignored.\u00a0 A waiter then asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,20,248,21],"tags":[1897,32370,32378,1899,1898,1896,862,283,32373,10,1895],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t