Customer Service Reivew: Fran’s Restaurant (200 Victoria St., Toronto)
Our experiences at the 200 Victoria St Fran’s Restuarant location (right by the Toronto Eaton Centre) are what inspired this blog in the first place. It’s even where we solidified our policies on tipping - it’s here that we left the $10 tips on $15 bills and $0 tips for bad service. So settle in for a long one!
We live literally a couple minutes’ walk from this location, so it was an obvious choice for us to go to whenever we didn’t feel like cooking (which is often). Matt and I used to go about once a week, and once his sister moved into our building we started going even more, around 2-3 times a week. The food was good and didn’t break the bank, and the service was, for the most part, okay.
There were some servers that sucked. And these servers didn’t get tipped - after all, we were regular customers and regularly tipped 20-30% and more for decent service. But as time went on, the good servers tended to go on to bigger and better things. It seemed that only the disgruntled servers were left, with a few exceptions. Because of this, we quickly learned the names of these “exceptions,” as it came to a point that we had to ask to be served by them in order to get our food within a reasonable amount of time from being seated and with anything resembling a smile.
We got on really well with the two best servers in the place. Then one of them left - we now had to try to figure out when the only good one left was working so we could request him. That’s not to say that everyone else was the worst ever, and some of them were even pretty good, but they weren’t our favourites that we had got into the habit of asking for.
This one server that was left was great - he’d chat with us, he’d give us our drinks for free (and we’d up his tip accordingly), he’d apologize if our food was taking a while or didn’t come out the way we ordered - and he’d make it right. We became friends with our server! Then he left to go to Italy for eight months.
So now we were left with “the rest”. And yes, I’m sure we didn’t make it easier on ourselves - first because a lot of the servers probably didn’t like us specifically requesting their co-workers over them, but also because we now had really high expectations. But we still ate at other restaurants from time to time, so we were still able to keep our expectations in check, and there were other servers that we still liked. So we continued to go, despite the fact that every time we went, the quality of the food got worse and the portions got smaller for the same cost. But this isn’t a food review blog so we’ll leave that to the experts (although the presentation and value do tie in with customer service so that’s taken into account).
We found that although we still had half-decent service sometimes, others were horrid. And these were new people that wouldn’t have known that we had asked for specific servers in the past, so it wasn’t that they held that against us. One of the last times we went, we were seated at a table for close to 10 minutes before our server even came over to bring us water and take our drink orders. In the past, our food would have been on the table in that amount of time. And it wasn’t that it was busy. We were just getting up and putting our coats on to go somewhere else before the server finally acknowledged we were sitting there - and we continued leaving.
The very last time we went to Fran’s, we had a lady who was not happy to be there. She seemed very stressed and made no attempts to hide how unhappy she was. I ordered chocolate chip pancakes. She brought out our food and left. My pancakes were not cooked properly - at least 1/3 to 1/2 of each pancake was raw batter. But our server never came by to ask how everything was for me to be able to send them back (we later saw she had been standing just out of sight reading a magazine the entire time). I didn’t make a fuss, I just ate around the raw bits.
Finally when everyone else was finished eating and I had a plate of the uncooked remains of my pancakes, another server came to clear our plates. She noticed that my plate was full of batter, but at first thought I had just picked my pancakes apart. When I told her they were raw, she took the plate away and went to show it to someone. She came back and apologized.
After all this, our own server finally came back to give us our bill. I thought that they would have taken the pancakes off, since they were severely undercooked. But they were on there. So, again not making a fuss, we paid (no tip) and left.
When we got home, Matt wrote an email to Fran’s telling them that we were regular customers and what we had just experienced. And their response? Nothing. We never heard back from them. And we haven’t been back since.
Overall customer service rating at Fran’s Restaurant (200 Victoria St., Toronto): 0/10
Which is sad to say, because at one point I’d have given them a perfect score.
Customer Service Review: Loblaws (Queens Quay Market, Toronto)
The other day we went to Loblaws to get some much needed groceries - at that point we couldn’t even remember the last time we went out to buy more than just the staples (milk, bread, pop etc), so we ended up buying A LOT of groceries!
We like the planet, so we brought our own bags with us to the store. For some reason, doing this seems to insult the cashiers at grocery stores, which I’ve written about on my other blog before. I guess this is what set our cashier off. Or she was having a bad night. Who knows.
What I do know is that that night I had the WORST experience grocery shopping ever. And until I went to the cash there were no problems.
We put our groceries on the belt at cash #10, which was being worked by a lady that I thought looked friendly, who was probably in her early to mid-40’s. She looked like the mom-type. Maybe this raised my expectation, but really I don’t think it was that.
Matt told her we had our own bags, and went to the end to bag our stuff. She didn’t respond. She didn’t say hi to me when I walked up to the cash area to wait for her to finish ringing everything through. She threw our groceries down to the bagging area. When she was finished ringing everything through, she just stood there. She didn’t tell me how much it came to like a normal cashier would do to prompt payment. She just stared at me with a stony expression. So I took my debit card out slowly to hand it to her, still waiting for her to tell me how much it is - I mean, some people decide how they’re going to pay based on the amount! Once the payment went through, she just handed me my card and the receipt. No thank you, no have a nice night. Nothing. Stone faced.
If I ever see her at a cash again, I’ll head straight for the self-checkout - at least that will tell me my total and thank me once the transaction is completed. Then that lady can wonder why she was so easily replaced by a machine.
Overall customer service rating at Loblaws (Queens Quay Market, Toronto): 2/10
Customer Service Review: David’s Tea (Queen St., Toronto)
We recently discovered a new shop on Queen Street, David’s Tea. It’s a cute little shop (inexplicably attached to Le Château) at 336 Queen West that specializes in loose leaf teas. According to their website, they have over 100 different teas (side note: we’re determined to try them all - we’re at nine so far).
I first saw it driving by, and decided to visit the next time I went by that stretch. A little while later on a journey across Queen we stopped in.
My first experience there was a good one. We were there just before Christmas and the store was packed. But despite the large amount of people in the small amount of space, the staff were always right there making sure we had help if it was needed. That visit was a “just looking” one, and when we told them that, they left us alone - none of that hovering that can tend to deter me from wanting to continue to look around, not to mention ever returning. We poked around at the various items while sipping our sample of the tea of the day, and then went on with our day.
We went back on Boxing Day, as Kristen had decided she wanted to pick up a pot and a starter kit. Unfortunately, they were sold out of the starter kits. The person helping us was very eager to help, but almost in an annoying way. He ended up making us a custom kit, but only with a lot of him asking us questions and us repeatedly answering “whatever it was in the starter kit - that’s what we came here to get”. Since we were disappointed that they didn’t have what we came for, I decided this soured our experience and I decided not to “count” this visit.
We finally went back again this past Friday night and I got the experience I was expecting based on our first time in the shop, which is where this review really starts!
We went to the shop to buy a birthday gift of a pot and a few teas (as well as our own pot and some new teas to add to our list). The girl that ended up helping us was extremely knowledgeable. She could answer any questions we had without missing a beat - from tea pots to kettles to teas. We had her bring down about five different teas for us to “sample” (aka smell) and could tell us what was in every one of them. And it’s not like we were asking for your run of the mill teas - we wanted ones with this or that specific ingredient, and we also wanted to see specific teas off the shelf. She got a tin down for the “I want something with black current” as easily as the “can I smell the Apple Turnover one?” I find it amazing that someone can name off all of the ingredients of five different teas picked out randomly from a selection of over 100!
Overall customer service rating at David’s Tea (Queen St., Toronto): 10/10
I could not ever ask for a better experience - knowledgeable and attentive sales staff are an extreme rarity these days! Couple that with being just the right amount friendly (read “not fake”) and a “cool” environment, and you get a perfect score!
Customer Service Reivew: Apple Store (Toronto Eaton Centre)
We went to the Apple Store in the Toronto Eaton Centre with our friend Steve, who wanted to buy iLife. After only being able to find the “Family pack” (which is the exact same as the regular one, except that it allows you to use it on more than one computer and costs more), we had to find someone to help us. After standing around for a while trying to get some help, we finally tracked someone down. She told us that they didn’t have any of the regular ones left, and went on with whatever she was doing.
We then decided to look into some other software. We tracked down another person to help us. In asking about other software, it turned out that they did have the regular version of iLife. Sweet! So we asked him what the discount was (since both Matt and I have corporate discounts from our jobs). He looked it up, told us, then left. We thought maybe he was coming back, so we waited. Nothing. We tried to catch the eye of someone else. Nothing. We went to what we thought was the cash desk, but then realized it was the Genius Bar. Eventually after 5-10 minutes of standing around (while they closed the store - turns out Christmas hours are only till 9:30pm, not 10pm), I went up to one of the two guys at the front who was telling people the store was closed. He had one of the hand-held POS dealies that they use at the Apple Store on his belt, so I figured he could help. He told us to go to the “cash” at the back (aka the Genius Bar.. which apparently doubles as a cash despite the fact that there is no indication of this), or to find someone on the floor to help us. Except for him.
We then went to the Genius Bar/cash, and stood there for another few minutes while the only person there helped someone select the colour of iPod shuffle that they wanted to buy. Clearly not a cash out spot. So we left and went to Future Shop where we found someone to help us within two minutes of getting in there. Sure, we didn’t get to give Steve a discount, but at least he was able to buy the software at all!
Overall customer service rating at the Apple Store (Toronto Eaton Centre): 3/10
(This rating is kind of arbitrary since it’s my first review.. I may come back and change it later if I ever establish a proper scale)
Tipping
One thing I should touch on before I write any reviews is tipping. Mostly because I eat out a lot so a lot of reviews will probably be of restaurants’ service, which is directly related to tipping.
Now a lot of people feel like since serving staff get paid a lower minimum wage, they HAVE to tip, since this is part of their income. Not true. The entire point of this system is supposed to be that they get paid a lower minimum wage in order to encourage good service, which then results in tips to bring their income up. They shouldn’t just be tipped just for throwing a plate of half cooked food on the table. Tipping that kind of service is encouraging it. And it’s unfortunate that people are so scared of being thought of as “rude” that they encourage their servers to be rude to them instead.
If I have awful service, I don’t tip. Plain and simple. But it’s a two-way street; if I have excellent service, I tip really well. I’ve even tipped $10 on a $15 bill. This is an extreme case, and unfortunately a rare one (or fortunately for my bank account.. haha). But I think that it’s only fair. I don’t not tip because I’m cheap. If I don’t tip it’s because I expect a certain level of service that wasn’t even close to what was provided. I’m not asking for the world. I’m only asking for a smile and timely service, and when the food is brought to the table that it be what I asked for.
If everyone could remember that tipping isn’t a requirement regardless of service, everyone would benefit - once the correlation between level of service and amount of tip came back into play, I’m sure everyone would notice the difference. Consumers would notice they are treated like human beings again, and serving staff would notice not only a thicker wallet, but also maybe even a little pride in their work.