I'm not massively keen on the colour scheme, the way I add links to the side of this blog and various other things about this blog. I don't know where to start on getting templates etc to improve it - so please leave comments on how and where I can improve it.
Thanks.
I am also thinking of a name I could give myself for the purposes of this blog. I am thinking possibly Percy, Dave, Eric or Bartholomew.
Monday 30 October 2006
No apologies
I once again make an apology to you, whereas the post title comes from a customer the other day.
I was round back doing some more training, when a manager asked me to the front to serve at it was a bit busy. The managers always apologise for this, normally with something like "Sorry (my name)". I don't expect apologies from them - but they are all very courteous people. I am of course too, to staff and customers. However this madam thought differently. So there I am serving, and as usual even though I'd been pulled away from doing something, I am always very jolly to customers. I always smile and shout "Hi there - are you waiting?!" or similar to people who are standing in the queue. This generally gets a good reception which normally consists of a smile and a hello. I feel that quite often I am the warmest and most helpful person serving. Whether the customer thinks so or not - I don't know, but I'd like to be served by someone like me! Right thats enough of the background.
This miserable git comes over with a child. This git didn't look much like a typical miserable git however - but she was. The child was asking questions about certain pizzas etc, and I answered in what I thought was a friendly and helpful manner. I pointed and told the git and child about the menu where they could find out exactly what was on each pizza. Git stared at it - and then asked me another question about what was on a pizza. I don't think my face had a particular look to it at this point - but she did and blarted out "DON'T GIVE THAT BLOODY VACANT LOOK - I AM ONLY ASKING QUESTIONS FOR GODS SAKE". I was shocked, so my face THEN turned vacant and miserable. I looked to my right. My deputy was there. Should I be relieved by the back up if needed or worried about the possible bollocking. I served the customer - now with plain thank yous and no offer of anything else. I made no apology or reply to her rant at me. Who is she to talk to me like that? I could possibly understand a complaint about the company - but not a personal attack on me.
The customer went off in a mood - the deputy was still there. I will not repeat the deputys words, but they were rather derogatory and not towards me. Phew! At least if the git complains, I have the back up of the deputy, support manager and another team member. I was asked if I was alright. I was fine! I found it quite funny really, I've had my first truely crap customer and complaint. I don't much of what people say to heart, so this git was no different.
There are a few other events recently.
One is the customer who took ages to choose her meals, then paid in 10p and 20p coins. I could see notes in her purse! Argh. I'm getting used to the shrapnel now though. My favourite money amount is pound coins and £5 notes - please spend these where possible.
I ripped two pairs of trousers, in the same place, in two days. I have not identified the cause yet.
I have been shown how to do an intense floor clean. It comprises of a wet mop, scrub and then a dry mop. The floor looks lovely after, but it is a hell of a lot of effort.
I learnt how to change Pepsi, Tango etc syrups. I was worried it was going to be complicated, but it was so easy - which is nice change. In the centre we are located, we don't have masses of customers and queues compared to others (ie. McDonalds), but we have the most stock and are the most well organised. I caught a glimpse of the McDonalds store room the other day - very messy place - ours - lovely - clean and tidy.
Had a customer complain of 'mould' on the dough of a pizza. There are so many reasons why it couldn't possibly be mould. One being the dough is frozen, the second being the dough is stored for any longer than a week in the freezer and it has a very long BBE date - months after we actually use it. Another is that any mould (not that there ever is any) would be noticed when the topping is applied. What was this mysterious green 'mould'? It is food safe pen we use to mark food boxes - which is black but sometimes seaps through the card and goes green. It is safe to eat, but we always swap the pizza if a customer returns it. It isn't worth the hassle of a complaint through head office, and it ensures that the customer is satisfied and may well return to us or another Pizza Hut.
To give you an idea of how clean I think the place is - I eat food from there everytime I work. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was clean - I am very fussy.
Oh and finally (I think) there was the woman who wanted two cups but "Would only fill half each". Sorry love, once you have the cup you can do what you want with it - so you either pay for it, or don't get one. She made a song and dance about this and replied "I can't be bothered with this - I'll just have one cup then" then muttered a possibly obscenity. I watched where she sat down. There was presumably her husband. He came bumbling up to the counter. Guess what he wanted. To buy a drink. The woman wouldn't be seen backing down, so sent her husband to buy one anyway. She wasted her and her husbands time and made her look even more stupid than before.
I was round back doing some more training, when a manager asked me to the front to serve at it was a bit busy. The managers always apologise for this, normally with something like "Sorry (my name)". I don't expect apologies from them - but they are all very courteous people. I am of course too, to staff and customers. However this madam thought differently. So there I am serving, and as usual even though I'd been pulled away from doing something, I am always very jolly to customers. I always smile and shout "Hi there - are you waiting?!" or similar to people who are standing in the queue. This generally gets a good reception which normally consists of a smile and a hello. I feel that quite often I am the warmest and most helpful person serving. Whether the customer thinks so or not - I don't know, but I'd like to be served by someone like me! Right thats enough of the background.
This miserable git comes over with a child. This git didn't look much like a typical miserable git however - but she was. The child was asking questions about certain pizzas etc, and I answered in what I thought was a friendly and helpful manner. I pointed and told the git and child about the menu where they could find out exactly what was on each pizza. Git stared at it - and then asked me another question about what was on a pizza. I don't think my face had a particular look to it at this point - but she did and blarted out "DON'T GIVE THAT BLOODY VACANT LOOK - I AM ONLY ASKING QUESTIONS FOR GODS SAKE". I was shocked, so my face THEN turned vacant and miserable. I looked to my right. My deputy was there. Should I be relieved by the back up if needed or worried about the possible bollocking. I served the customer - now with plain thank yous and no offer of anything else. I made no apology or reply to her rant at me. Who is she to talk to me like that? I could possibly understand a complaint about the company - but not a personal attack on me.
The customer went off in a mood - the deputy was still there. I will not repeat the deputys words, but they were rather derogatory and not towards me. Phew! At least if the git complains, I have the back up of the deputy, support manager and another team member. I was asked if I was alright. I was fine! I found it quite funny really, I've had my first truely crap customer and complaint. I don't much of what people say to heart, so this git was no different.
There are a few other events recently.
One is the customer who took ages to choose her meals, then paid in 10p and 20p coins. I could see notes in her purse! Argh. I'm getting used to the shrapnel now though. My favourite money amount is pound coins and £5 notes - please spend these where possible.
I ripped two pairs of trousers, in the same place, in two days. I have not identified the cause yet.
I have been shown how to do an intense floor clean. It comprises of a wet mop, scrub and then a dry mop. The floor looks lovely after, but it is a hell of a lot of effort.
I learnt how to change Pepsi, Tango etc syrups. I was worried it was going to be complicated, but it was so easy - which is nice change. In the centre we are located, we don't have masses of customers and queues compared to others (ie. McDonalds), but we have the most stock and are the most well organised. I caught a glimpse of the McDonalds store room the other day - very messy place - ours - lovely - clean and tidy.
Had a customer complain of 'mould' on the dough of a pizza. There are so many reasons why it couldn't possibly be mould. One being the dough is frozen, the second being the dough is stored for any longer than a week in the freezer and it has a very long BBE date - months after we actually use it. Another is that any mould (not that there ever is any) would be noticed when the topping is applied. What was this mysterious green 'mould'? It is food safe pen we use to mark food boxes - which is black but sometimes seaps through the card and goes green. It is safe to eat, but we always swap the pizza if a customer returns it. It isn't worth the hassle of a complaint through head office, and it ensures that the customer is satisfied and may well return to us or another Pizza Hut.
To give you an idea of how clean I think the place is - I eat food from there everytime I work. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was clean - I am very fussy.
Oh and finally (I think) there was the woman who wanted two cups but "Would only fill half each". Sorry love, once you have the cup you can do what you want with it - so you either pay for it, or don't get one. She made a song and dance about this and replied "I can't be bothered with this - I'll just have one cup then" then muttered a possibly obscenity. I watched where she sat down. There was presumably her husband. He came bumbling up to the counter. Guess what he wanted. To buy a drink. The woman wouldn't be seen backing down, so sent her husband to buy one anyway. She wasted her and her husbands time and made her look even more stupid than before.
Thursday 26 October 2006
Not much to say
I've been learning some new things today, so my dealing with customers has been limited, and infact I doubt my till even took £50.
However I have noticed a new breed of people. The ones with children - who reach the front of line - and just stand there, telling off their child/ren. This one cretin held up the line so long for doing this I had to call for someone else to serve, and 3 people serving at that time is not normal.
Then there are the groups/families who like to stand in such a way it looks like they are all seperate customers. Sometimes it looks like there is a queue of about 9 or 10 people, but infact there are 2.
I am developing asbestos hands already - the manager said "You'll probably need the gloves for them" - the hot pans I was carrying with my bare hands. They weren't too hot though. I have noticed cuts on my hands and fingers - which I just can't remember when I did them.
It was dead today - so there wasn't a massive amount to do - front or back. So I was shown a few new things, such as how the pizzas are stored and put in the oven, which is more complicated than it sounds - honest.
Buh bye for tonight.
However I have noticed a new breed of people. The ones with children - who reach the front of line - and just stand there, telling off their child/ren. This one cretin held up the line so long for doing this I had to call for someone else to serve, and 3 people serving at that time is not normal.
Then there are the groups/families who like to stand in such a way it looks like they are all seperate customers. Sometimes it looks like there is a queue of about 9 or 10 people, but infact there are 2.
I am developing asbestos hands already - the manager said "You'll probably need the gloves for them" - the hot pans I was carrying with my bare hands. They weren't too hot though. I have noticed cuts on my hands and fingers - which I just can't remember when I did them.
It was dead today - so there wasn't a massive amount to do - front or back. So I was shown a few new things, such as how the pizzas are stored and put in the oven, which is more complicated than it sounds - honest.
Buh bye for tonight.
Wednesday 25 October 2006
Reply to comments
A few comments from the bad breath post. I think it is best to reply here rather than on the comments box - as it is unlikely they'll be read again. I like replying to comments.
Tesco petrol station - you should start your own blog detailing day to day activities there... Bad breath could be the first, but that is so common it is almost only worth detailing once.
Am I getting extra money for getting up at 4am? I get my usual rate but nope, sorry no difference in pay. But it will be a good experience and I find it pretty nice being selected to do it, considering the other staff who have been there many months or years longer than me. Maybe I'm the only idiot they knew would do it - I dunno?
Pizza Hut Team Member - hello! Do you work in a full serve restaurant? You should start a blog too...would be very interesting to read.
End of reply to comments.
Tesco petrol station - you should start your own blog detailing day to day activities there... Bad breath could be the first, but that is so common it is almost only worth detailing once.
Am I getting extra money for getting up at 4am? I get my usual rate but nope, sorry no difference in pay. But it will be a good experience and I find it pretty nice being selected to do it, considering the other staff who have been there many months or years longer than me. Maybe I'm the only idiot they knew would do it - I dunno?
Pizza Hut Team Member - hello! Do you work in a full serve restaurant? You should start a blog too...would be very interesting to read.
End of reply to comments.
I WANT PIZZA
Apologies for not posting earlier in the week. My shifts so far have been around 9 hours each so I am severely knackered when I get back - but I like this, it makes me look forward to going home even more - as much as I like Pizza Hut, it is lovely to get back and just fall asleep!
This week as I'm off college, I've doing day time shifts. This is good as I get to see how it is during the day, which I don't normally get - plus meet some new people. I've so far come to the conclusion there are no bad eggs in the branch. No spit/urine/other fluids have been placed in anyones food, the place is amazingly clean from what I can see (all of it) and we are professional to each and every customer.
On the subject of cleaning, if you ever go to a fast food restaurant and think "Look at how messy/dirty it is here - I dread to think what it is like round the back" or similar then I think you are most likely wrong. Customers are filthy. I stock up and tidy the lids holder - 30 minutes later, there are fries, Pepsi, all sorts in there, with the lids all over the place. But come round the back - the place is clean and tidy - because it needs to be otherwise we'd be a hell of a lot less efficient. We do clean the front, and in the event of spillages on the floor these are immediately cleaned up - these taking priority over serving customers incase somebody decides to run along and crack open their skull on the wet tiles. Full drink spillages happened around 4 times in one hour, and this is odd as spillages are actually less common than you might think.
Customers now...
Still on spillages, a lady came up to me as I wasn't on the till and said exactly this "I've spilt a little bit of drink over there - ok?". "No problem - don't worry". She walked off. I went round with a cloth, and discovered a puddle of Pepsi - she'd obviously dropped the whole thing. I needed the 2 mops, bucket and yellow sign to deal with it.
Then from the post title - the idiots you get every hour - saying "I want a pizza" trying to push money into your hand. What the ????? What type of pizza? Do you want a meal? Do you want any... etc etc? You simply can't go to Pizza Hut and say you want 'pizza' and that is it.
Ketchup weirdos - one person wanted more ketchup after I'd given then 6 sachets. Maybe I should start saying "Do you want fries with your ketchup?" to these people.
Then the man who comes in every day (well presumably because he comes in every day I am there) orders exactly the same thing every day and also has the same work uniform on. I liked this man, thoughted he was a decent, friendly, sane type of person until today. He came in as usual, but with a absolutely ridiculous baseball cap on. He wore it wrong, it didn't suit him - and he looked a fool.
Oh and finally - many many customers do this. Go off, then come back about 10 minutes later with a half eaten pizza in their hands going "This is stone cold!". We change it first time, no quibble because it just isn't worth arguing, them writing to head office, and us getting fined. It is either £50 or about 40p. Easy choice.
I then moved from FOH* to BOH** for a change. I learnt a few new things, so stayed there until my shift ended.
I'm not sure if I'd said this before - but because sales are sky high over target (over 50%) there are extra staff on all shifts, which is nice.
*Front of House (counter)
**Back of House (kitchen)
Please continue to comment - I get very excited when I see comments in my inbox! :-)
This week as I'm off college, I've doing day time shifts. This is good as I get to see how it is during the day, which I don't normally get - plus meet some new people. I've so far come to the conclusion there are no bad eggs in the branch. No spit/urine/other fluids have been placed in anyones food, the place is amazingly clean from what I can see (all of it) and we are professional to each and every customer.
On the subject of cleaning, if you ever go to a fast food restaurant and think "Look at how messy/dirty it is here - I dread to think what it is like round the back" or similar then I think you are most likely wrong. Customers are filthy. I stock up and tidy the lids holder - 30 minutes later, there are fries, Pepsi, all sorts in there, with the lids all over the place. But come round the back - the place is clean and tidy - because it needs to be otherwise we'd be a hell of a lot less efficient. We do clean the front, and in the event of spillages on the floor these are immediately cleaned up - these taking priority over serving customers incase somebody decides to run along and crack open their skull on the wet tiles. Full drink spillages happened around 4 times in one hour, and this is odd as spillages are actually less common than you might think.
Customers now...
Still on spillages, a lady came up to me as I wasn't on the till and said exactly this "I've spilt a little bit of drink over there - ok?". "No problem - don't worry". She walked off. I went round with a cloth, and discovered a puddle of Pepsi - she'd obviously dropped the whole thing. I needed the 2 mops, bucket and yellow sign to deal with it.
Then from the post title - the idiots you get every hour - saying "I want a pizza" trying to push money into your hand. What the ????? What type of pizza? Do you want a meal? Do you want any... etc etc? You simply can't go to Pizza Hut and say you want 'pizza' and that is it.
Ketchup weirdos - one person wanted more ketchup after I'd given then 6 sachets. Maybe I should start saying "Do you want fries with your ketchup?" to these people.
Then the man who comes in every day (well presumably because he comes in every day I am there) orders exactly the same thing every day and also has the same work uniform on. I liked this man, thoughted he was a decent, friendly, sane type of person until today. He came in as usual, but with a absolutely ridiculous baseball cap on. He wore it wrong, it didn't suit him - and he looked a fool.
Oh and finally - many many customers do this. Go off, then come back about 10 minutes later with a half eaten pizza in their hands going "This is stone cold!". We change it first time, no quibble because it just isn't worth arguing, them writing to head office, and us getting fined. It is either £50 or about 40p. Easy choice.
I then moved from FOH* to BOH** for a change. I learnt a few new things, so stayed there until my shift ended.
I'm not sure if I'd said this before - but because sales are sky high over target (over 50%) there are extra staff on all shifts, which is nice.
*Front of House (counter)
**Back of House (kitchen)
Please continue to comment - I get very excited when I see comments in my inbox! :-)
Sunday 22 October 2006
Bad breath
Sorry for not posting earlier - sometimes I think that there aren't enough interesting customers or events in one day.
Anyway...
I've noticed many people have terrible breath. There are standing about 2-3 feet away but I can still smell it - ugh.
A girl skipped the queue and shouted at me "CAN I HAVE SOME KETCHUP NOW?". I ignored her, very rude of her to push in. I've seen her before and she has done this before - she is only around 10 so I can get away with it.
I was a bit grumpy with some people today, especially 15 minutes before close and they having a terrible attitude when we haven't got the full range.
But my days were pretty good as I've been selected to do something which I can't really say as it very branch specific. It involves Christmas and getting up at 4am - guesses are welcome as to what it is.
Right - I am going to do some longer and more detailed posts next week - honest!
Anyway...
I've noticed many people have terrible breath. There are standing about 2-3 feet away but I can still smell it - ugh.
A girl skipped the queue and shouted at me "CAN I HAVE SOME KETCHUP NOW?". I ignored her, very rude of her to push in. I've seen her before and she has done this before - she is only around 10 so I can get away with it.
I was a bit grumpy with some people today, especially 15 minutes before close and they having a terrible attitude when we haven't got the full range.
But my days were pretty good as I've been selected to do something which I can't really say as it very branch specific. It involves Christmas and getting up at 4am - guesses are welcome as to what it is.
Right - I am going to do some longer and more detailed posts next week - honest!
Friday 20 October 2006
Scrubbers
This post is from a few days ago, so there may be another one along later…
We decided to scrub the floor today. It is now very bright – it is quite amazing, I never knew it was that colour! It comes up lovely. I will now scrub it each time I mop it now – because it looks so good. Anyway, presumably by till was right as I wasn’t told it was down.
I think I may have been CHAMPS checked today. I’ll bore you with what CHAMPS means another time, but basically it is our standards, brand quality etc. It happened when a German man decided he would come up to the counter and start shouting ‘CHICKEN’. “I have already given you your chicken”. “CHICKEN” “I gave it to you with the rest of your order” “I WANT CHICKEN” “You would like to buy some chicken?” “Yes!” “I’ll just serve this gentleman and I will then get you some” Now the German man begins to mutter. So I was distracted from my CHAMPS checker. At this point I wasn’t aware it was one though. It was the final line of “Can I have a receipt?” Which sends a shiver down all Yum! Employee’s backs. Oh well – it was probably not a check, just a businessperson needing the receipt. We give receipts with every order, just incase you were wondering.
I escaped a little over the usual time, but it was worth it due to the scrubbing and the place looked in tip-top condition.
More later…(probably).
Oh and the salad – I don’t think “It’s as fresh as it’s going to get” would go down to well with many customers. Either one, because they won’t get it, or two, they will get it and will be grumpy over it.
We decided to scrub the floor today. It is now very bright – it is quite amazing, I never knew it was that colour! It comes up lovely. I will now scrub it each time I mop it now – because it looks so good. Anyway, presumably by till was right as I wasn’t told it was down.
I think I may have been CHAMPS checked today. I’ll bore you with what CHAMPS means another time, but basically it is our standards, brand quality etc. It happened when a German man decided he would come up to the counter and start shouting ‘CHICKEN’. “I have already given you your chicken”. “CHICKEN” “I gave it to you with the rest of your order” “I WANT CHICKEN” “You would like to buy some chicken?” “Yes!” “I’ll just serve this gentleman and I will then get you some” Now the German man begins to mutter. So I was distracted from my CHAMPS checker. At this point I wasn’t aware it was one though. It was the final line of “Can I have a receipt?” Which sends a shiver down all Yum! Employee’s backs. Oh well – it was probably not a check, just a businessperson needing the receipt. We give receipts with every order, just incase you were wondering.
I escaped a little over the usual time, but it was worth it due to the scrubbing and the place looked in tip-top condition.
More later…(probably).
Oh and the salad – I don’t think “It’s as fresh as it’s going to get” would go down to well with many customers. Either one, because they won’t get it, or two, they will get it and will be grumpy over it.
Tuesday 17 October 2006
Is it fresh?
Hmm I did a bit of shopping (well browsing) and the amount of children which are fascinated by Pizza Hut is strange. My top says Pizza Hut on it, so this one little fellow was like "MUM MUM - HE WORKS AT PIZZA HUT!!" "Wow - keep your voice down Terrence" (can't remember name). Then it was "Mum I want to go to Pizza Hut!"
My till was right again - ha! There is a list printed with all the shortfalls on, and my name is £0.00. Cool. Anyway, I got in. YES - we have muffins AND salad, a real novelty.
Had to refuse serve some morons who have in the past made a terrible mess with the coffee machine. They weren't too happy - but sorry this is not a public service, we decide if you get served or not. If you just make a mess by accident, no problem, but they delibrately did it. Friends of theirs apparently before I started working their, poured Pepsi onto all the lids near the machine - there are some odd people around.
We ran out of some soft drinks today (well nobody changed them), and some friends of mine popped in and were saying to me "Do you water the Pepsi down?" I thought they were joking. 3 customers later, I realised they weren't - and the Pepsi was infact water with brown colouring. Everybody was very happy to swap though - no kicking up a huge stink which has happened before.
A customer today wanted a pizza without tomato puree on the base. I've has this before, but today I thought after I saw what it looked like, ugh that looks horrid. Each to their own.
Another shrapnel customer - this time a businessman in a smart suit, well spoken. These are the normally the people who give you £20 notes for a 99p sale. And today was a good day for £5 notes. Nearly every customer was giving me them - I love £5 note customers. The reason being, the normally the most common payment is a £10 note for £3.99. To give the smallest possible change for this, you need £5 notes.
Then there was the customer who wanted a BURGER. "We don't do burgers I'm afraid" "OH
MCDONALDS DO". "We are Pizza Hut, we don't do burgers, sorry" "Fine". Weird person.
My upsells have slowed down a bit now, but I nearly always get the coffee and muffin upsell - it is a favourite of mine. Got out nice and early, and did everything to the normal standard. I discovered some filthy animals have been putting chewing gum on the underside of the counter (on the customer side of course) - so I intend to take in some form of tool tomorrow to chisel it off. I'm not quite sure what to take yet - but I will find something. I have thought of a shotgun just to shoot anyone who I catch doing it, but I feel that may result in disciplinary action.
Oh and I nearly forgot about the customer in the title. I was asked by her "Are the salads fresh?" What the hell can I answer to that? I can't say exactly say "What do you mean by fresh?" or "No they aren't fresh" They are fresh in the way that the bags of them are stored for about 3 days and the ones served are prepared from these bags in the morning of sale. I just replied with a simple "Yes" - but just thought, what kind of question is that - I am only going to say yes!
My till was right again - ha! There is a list printed with all the shortfalls on, and my name is £0.00. Cool. Anyway, I got in. YES - we have muffins AND salad, a real novelty.
Had to refuse serve some morons who have in the past made a terrible mess with the coffee machine. They weren't too happy - but sorry this is not a public service, we decide if you get served or not. If you just make a mess by accident, no problem, but they delibrately did it. Friends of theirs apparently before I started working their, poured Pepsi onto all the lids near the machine - there are some odd people around.
We ran out of some soft drinks today (well nobody changed them), and some friends of mine popped in and were saying to me "Do you water the Pepsi down?" I thought they were joking. 3 customers later, I realised they weren't - and the Pepsi was infact water with brown colouring. Everybody was very happy to swap though - no kicking up a huge stink which has happened before.
A customer today wanted a pizza without tomato puree on the base. I've has this before, but today I thought after I saw what it looked like, ugh that looks horrid. Each to their own.
Another shrapnel customer - this time a businessman in a smart suit, well spoken. These are the normally the people who give you £20 notes for a 99p sale. And today was a good day for £5 notes. Nearly every customer was giving me them - I love £5 note customers. The reason being, the normally the most common payment is a £10 note for £3.99. To give the smallest possible change for this, you need £5 notes.
Then there was the customer who wanted a BURGER. "We don't do burgers I'm afraid" "OH
MCDONALDS DO". "We are Pizza Hut, we don't do burgers, sorry" "Fine". Weird person.
My upsells have slowed down a bit now, but I nearly always get the coffee and muffin upsell - it is a favourite of mine. Got out nice and early, and did everything to the normal standard. I discovered some filthy animals have been putting chewing gum on the underside of the counter (on the customer side of course) - so I intend to take in some form of tool tomorrow to chisel it off. I'm not quite sure what to take yet - but I will find something. I have thought of a shotgun just to shoot anyone who I catch doing it, but I feel that may result in disciplinary action.
Oh and I nearly forgot about the customer in the title. I was asked by her "Are the salads fresh?" What the hell can I answer to that? I can't say exactly say "What do you mean by fresh?" or "No they aren't fresh" They are fresh in the way that the bags of them are stored for about 3 days and the ones served are prepared from these bags in the morning of sale. I just replied with a simple "Yes" - but just thought, what kind of question is that - I am only going to say yes!
Friday 13 October 2006
Ice cream mess x 3
Returned with a medium to good attitude today. I was on close again, meaning I have to clean up the entire days front of house mess - while also serving customers in the evening, our second peak time just slightly behind lunchtime - but there are double the amount of staff on then. This is it self is really no problem, it means I'm always busy. But when the manager decides to remind you of every single thing that you've not done yet (for good reasons) - because after all I already know the front of house job better than he does it, then it becomes more of a problem. Anyway got out at about normal time today - just at points it seemed to drag, but then there seemed like there wasn't enough time.
We had a crazy amount of salads prepared today - so I felt good we could offer the full range, and I could offer fries or salad. A grand total of 3 people today wanted salad. It is always on the days when we don't have any salads, or just a few that every other customer wants them.
Argh then there was the ice cream mess. I arrived and there is already a puddle of ice cream on the machine, counter and floor. It was all totally melted so it had been there long before I arrived. No one bothered to clean it so I dealt with it. Mess on the floor means getting the mop and yellow sign out. And if another store has nicked our sign - go and find it, but wait, you've got to serve! No sign = no mop. Luckily today we had a new sign (I was told not to lose it!) so that was plonked out and I mop and cleaned up. In the mean time a group had arrived at the counter (a group which were together but appeared seperate) so out pops the manager. He serves them, seeing I'm busy. He didn't say anything, but I could tell you was wondering why I hadn't served them.
Then about an hour later - the same mess had occured. Dealt with it, this time no customers popping along. Then on close the ice cream tray thing, which collects the drips was FULL. I didn't realise this, as it is white, and guess what ice cream is white. So off goes the ice cream all over the floor again when I move it. I had more ice cream go on the floor that night than in all my other shifts put together.
The usual possy of "It is 5 minutes until close so we'll order some specials, some large meals, something they'll have to cook or prepare specially". This members of this possy are the ones who if at 1 minute past closing time will kick up such a stink and mutter phrases such as "Well I ain't bloody coming here again" and "A Pizza Hut without any Pizza!". Now I was a remember of this possy before when it came to KFC and McDonalds. But now I realise, it is simply a waste of food to cook a full range before close. And on close we need to shut everything off in order for it to cool and allow us to clean.
But, I do love customers, they are what make my job interesting. If I was just pressing buttons on a touch screen, putting food through a hatch and cleaning, there is not a chance I would do this job. People are interesting, you get a good idea of what people in the real world is like. Most people are great, but you just get odd customers who aren't - but I suppose they make the most interesting stories.
A nice story for a change. A gentleman aged approximately 60-70 bought a meal with an upsell (always a good start) and an ice cream. This was at around 20 minutes to close. I informed him of what we had ready or if he would like to wait around 8 minutes for another choice. He made my life easy by having what was available (a reasonable selection actually). This gentleman was very polite, gave me some pound coins (which is always a very good thing!) to pay for his meal, and went off an ate it. He was considerate to the centre staff by sitting on a table near the outlets, so that they could clean the other areas.
He sat there, eating, presumably enjoying it. He got his ice cream without making mess (yes adults make a hell of a lot mess too), and went back to eat that. He had finished by around 15 minutes passed close. We keep our shutter up slightly later than others to allow refills of drinks etc, and to mop the floor. I was mopping the floor when he was walking past and said "Thank you very much, I really enjoyed that - it was lovely. Cheerio!". Now that is a really satisfying considering we are a fast food restaurant (not a full serve Pizza Hut) I didn't make the pizza he he so much enjoyed, neither did anyone else at our branch, the Pizza Hut recipe did - but to get a comment like that, makes the whole night worth everything else. He had a clean ice cream machine to use, a clean drinks machine, a pizza he liked and a service which I feel beats any of our competitors in the centre we are located. I know that customer WILL be back. He made me happy, he will make the company happy - and we made him happy.
Thank you for reading my online sermon!! Possibly upto 4 posts next week - aren't you in for a treat?!
We had a crazy amount of salads prepared today - so I felt good we could offer the full range, and I could offer fries or salad. A grand total of 3 people today wanted salad. It is always on the days when we don't have any salads, or just a few that every other customer wants them.
Argh then there was the ice cream mess. I arrived and there is already a puddle of ice cream on the machine, counter and floor. It was all totally melted so it had been there long before I arrived. No one bothered to clean it so I dealt with it. Mess on the floor means getting the mop and yellow sign out. And if another store has nicked our sign - go and find it, but wait, you've got to serve! No sign = no mop. Luckily today we had a new sign (I was told not to lose it!) so that was plonked out and I mop and cleaned up. In the mean time a group had arrived at the counter (a group which were together but appeared seperate) so out pops the manager. He serves them, seeing I'm busy. He didn't say anything, but I could tell you was wondering why I hadn't served them.
Then about an hour later - the same mess had occured. Dealt with it, this time no customers popping along. Then on close the ice cream tray thing, which collects the drips was FULL. I didn't realise this, as it is white, and guess what ice cream is white. So off goes the ice cream all over the floor again when I move it. I had more ice cream go on the floor that night than in all my other shifts put together.
The usual possy of "It is 5 minutes until close so we'll order some specials, some large meals, something they'll have to cook or prepare specially". This members of this possy are the ones who if at 1 minute past closing time will kick up such a stink and mutter phrases such as "Well I ain't bloody coming here again" and "A Pizza Hut without any Pizza!". Now I was a remember of this possy before when it came to KFC and McDonalds. But now I realise, it is simply a waste of food to cook a full range before close. And on close we need to shut everything off in order for it to cool and allow us to clean.
But, I do love customers, they are what make my job interesting. If I was just pressing buttons on a touch screen, putting food through a hatch and cleaning, there is not a chance I would do this job. People are interesting, you get a good idea of what people in the real world is like. Most people are great, but you just get odd customers who aren't - but I suppose they make the most interesting stories.
A nice story for a change. A gentleman aged approximately 60-70 bought a meal with an upsell (always a good start) and an ice cream. This was at around 20 minutes to close. I informed him of what we had ready or if he would like to wait around 8 minutes for another choice. He made my life easy by having what was available (a reasonable selection actually). This gentleman was very polite, gave me some pound coins (which is always a very good thing!) to pay for his meal, and went off an ate it. He was considerate to the centre staff by sitting on a table near the outlets, so that they could clean the other areas.
He sat there, eating, presumably enjoying it. He got his ice cream without making mess (yes adults make a hell of a lot mess too), and went back to eat that. He had finished by around 15 minutes passed close. We keep our shutter up slightly later than others to allow refills of drinks etc, and to mop the floor. I was mopping the floor when he was walking past and said "Thank you very much, I really enjoyed that - it was lovely. Cheerio!". Now that is a really satisfying considering we are a fast food restaurant (not a full serve Pizza Hut) I didn't make the pizza he he so much enjoyed, neither did anyone else at our branch, the Pizza Hut recipe did - but to get a comment like that, makes the whole night worth everything else. He had a clean ice cream machine to use, a clean drinks machine, a pizza he liked and a service which I feel beats any of our competitors in the centre we are located. I know that customer WILL be back. He made me happy, he will make the company happy - and we made him happy.
Thank you for reading my online sermon!! Possibly upto 4 posts next week - aren't you in for a treat?!
Wednesday 11 October 2006
Extra work
Today was pretty much an average busy level, but it seemed like I was always doing something - which is good! We had one muffin left at the end (well we actually had about 50 but we don't want customers looking at them - as they make them turn bad) in the cabinet - so I couldn't clean that until close. I tend to use the muffin cabinet as a marker point, as it is generally the point at which I begin to do the things I can't do when customers are hanging round.
Had to do a few feast meals today (4 pizzas and some other stuff). Why do two seperate customers when asked "Are you eating in or taking out?" Both say eating in, so I load it onto trays - then just as I call over the next customer shout "Actually, I'll have that to take out". This might not seem like too much of a problem, but it takes about 1 minute to swap the packaging etc. 1 minute doesn't sound like much either - but when you are standing in a queue 1 minute can easily feel like 5 minutes can't it?
Then there was the gentleman, who because of this own arrogance insisted that he wanted all seperate meals, spent around £7 more than he had to, even though I made suggestions to him on how he could get the exact same product but cheaper. Oh well - some people just have money to burn. Sure, I'll try to get you to buy an extra side - but I will also try to save you money. WE ARE HERE TO HELP!
Then ice cream factory again. I cleaned it around 15 minutes to close. Then some lovely children decided they would get ice cream everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was on the machine, on the counter, on the wall, on the floor, on the coffee machine. They were laughing at the amount of mess they had made - I gave 'the look', and they laughed more. I am pretty light hearted when it comes down to mess really, just I had it 110% clean and they came along and messed it all up - accidently of course.
Some new things happened today as well. Two pieces of lost property, within an hour of each other. A coat and a bag of shopping. Surely you'd notice if you were both missing? We handed both to security - I know the coat was recovered but I'm not sure about the bag. Also twice, customers were willing to pay for sauces. We don't charge. I gave one customer around 5 ketchups. He exclaimed "Well I am not paying for all those!". We don't charge. I prefer to give out lots of sauce, as I always find it annoying when you ask for some sauce or salt, and they give you one sachet.
I did some 'extra work' today. Basically I did stuff BOH should do - like mop their area, empty bins etc. No bother - I'll be paid for it, and it leaves you satisfied you did a good job!
Thanks for the comments on the last post...I have enthusiasm now Al - but maybe I won't in a few months down the line?? I hope I do though...and I should get a pay rise soon (ok its the annual one, but it is a pay rise all the same!).
I'm doing my first Saturday next week - which apparently will be very busy, but there are 2-3 staff on front. Will be interesting. One more post this week, providing I don't do O/T and then 4 next week. Please continue to comment...even it is just to said "I am reading you blog"!
Had to do a few feast meals today (4 pizzas and some other stuff). Why do two seperate customers when asked "Are you eating in or taking out?" Both say eating in, so I load it onto trays - then just as I call over the next customer shout "Actually, I'll have that to take out". This might not seem like too much of a problem, but it takes about 1 minute to swap the packaging etc. 1 minute doesn't sound like much either - but when you are standing in a queue 1 minute can easily feel like 5 minutes can't it?
Then there was the gentleman, who because of this own arrogance insisted that he wanted all seperate meals, spent around £7 more than he had to, even though I made suggestions to him on how he could get the exact same product but cheaper. Oh well - some people just have money to burn. Sure, I'll try to get you to buy an extra side - but I will also try to save you money. WE ARE HERE TO HELP!
Then ice cream factory again. I cleaned it around 15 minutes to close. Then some lovely children decided they would get ice cream everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was on the machine, on the counter, on the wall, on the floor, on the coffee machine. They were laughing at the amount of mess they had made - I gave 'the look', and they laughed more. I am pretty light hearted when it comes down to mess really, just I had it 110% clean and they came along and messed it all up - accidently of course.
Some new things happened today as well. Two pieces of lost property, within an hour of each other. A coat and a bag of shopping. Surely you'd notice if you were both missing? We handed both to security - I know the coat was recovered but I'm not sure about the bag. Also twice, customers were willing to pay for sauces. We don't charge. I gave one customer around 5 ketchups. He exclaimed "Well I am not paying for all those!". We don't charge. I prefer to give out lots of sauce, as I always find it annoying when you ask for some sauce or salt, and they give you one sachet.
I did some 'extra work' today. Basically I did stuff BOH should do - like mop their area, empty bins etc. No bother - I'll be paid for it, and it leaves you satisfied you did a good job!
Thanks for the comments on the last post...I have enthusiasm now Al - but maybe I won't in a few months down the line?? I hope I do though...and I should get a pay rise soon (ok its the annual one, but it is a pay rise all the same!).
I'm doing my first Saturday next week - which apparently will be very busy, but there are 2-3 staff on front. Will be interesting. One more post this week, providing I don't do O/T and then 4 next week. Please continue to comment...even it is just to said "I am reading you blog"!
Tuesday 10 October 2006
Star
Wooo! I've been given an star of recognition this month for being a being customer focussed and efficiency on a close. I'm pretty pleased considering its my first month, and I only work P/T. That has cheered up my week. Till was right (I'm getting good at that?).
An entire chav family came in today. It was a hell of a struggle to process their order, but we got there in the end - 4 tills opens with them, but when they had finally finished their order, one of them wanted to change some pound coins into a £10, after I had just given her the pound coins. Not too much of a problem, but because now someone has lost all the till keys I have to process an entire order and then cancel it...ugh. I should have just said no.
Then there was a lady who had never been to Pizza Hut Express before, and didn't understand the concept that we only do one size pizza. "So do you do large pizzas with the meal?" "We do one size pizza - it is a 6" personal pizza". "Right I'll just have it as a 12" without the meal then" "Sorry we only do 6" "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I SEE" "So can you not do 12" pizzas?" "No" "OHHHHHHHHHH HOW AM I MEANT TO FEED 4 THEN?!?!?!?!" "You should probably go for the Feast Meal where you get 4 pizzas and 4 sides". "Right can I have that then...".
Today we sold out of muffins quite early, so that meant I could get the case cleaned up nice and early. Infact I did loads of little jobs, which no one will notice in particular but they were jobs that I didn't have to do - but did! And I got out early today, and got my pay adjusted (for the better), and had a right laugh , and got some free food. All in all a good evening.
I wonder what one day this week will go like - it is me and the RGM alone...scary. So many things could happen, he might notice bad habits.
Why isn't this posted on Wednesday? Tonight was so good I needed to post NOW!
An entire chav family came in today. It was a hell of a struggle to process their order, but we got there in the end - 4 tills opens with them, but when they had finally finished their order, one of them wanted to change some pound coins into a £10, after I had just given her the pound coins. Not too much of a problem, but because now someone has lost all the till keys I have to process an entire order and then cancel it...ugh. I should have just said no.
Then there was a lady who had never been to Pizza Hut Express before, and didn't understand the concept that we only do one size pizza. "So do you do large pizzas with the meal?" "We do one size pizza - it is a 6" personal pizza". "Right I'll just have it as a 12" without the meal then" "Sorry we only do 6" "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I SEE" "So can you not do 12" pizzas?" "No" "OHHHHHHHHHH HOW AM I MEANT TO FEED 4 THEN?!?!?!?!" "You should probably go for the Feast Meal where you get 4 pizzas and 4 sides". "Right can I have that then...".
Today we sold out of muffins quite early, so that meant I could get the case cleaned up nice and early. Infact I did loads of little jobs, which no one will notice in particular but they were jobs that I didn't have to do - but did! And I got out early today, and got my pay adjusted (for the better), and had a right laugh , and got some free food. All in all a good evening.
I wonder what one day this week will go like - it is me and the RGM alone...scary. So many things could happen, he might notice bad habits.
Why isn't this posted on Wednesday? Tonight was so good I needed to post NOW!
Friday 6 October 2006
Loads of customers but no money
Phew. Today was quite tiring, but I managed to get everything done, bang on time - and that is always nice. I rewarded myself with a muffin - strawberry and white chocolate, yum. To top it off my till was right.
Another customer into, who appeared to bring their piggy bank money in - around 30 coins - argh. I'm sure there are rules against this. Also, I had a really strange amount of £20 notes today. I normally finish with around 3 or 4 in my tray - but had about 15 in there today. Bit odd.
There was a filthy mess of an entire pack of McDonalds fries left outside our store today. But that isn't our responsibility - and we can't do it - so it took 2 hours for the centre janitors to deal with it. Normally they are really quick, but I think they must have been short staff today. Backfires on them in the end, as the fries when they cleaned them up were well and truly flattened onto the tiling.
And it was another crazy day for Ice Cream. I have never seen a queue for the machine - but today, the queue was around 7 to 8 people! Crazy. The machine is a proper commercial thing, but it can't cope with constant work, it needs time to freeze! At one stage we had to close it, because the mess the innocent children was making was terrible. Quick mop and clean, and reopen - it was death trap before with ice cream everywhere.
More youths were refused sale of the kids meal - ha, got £1.50 more from each of them. #
OH and then there were the Swedish tourists. Not a single one of them spoke English. They ordered eventually, then cancelled it all, then reordered - then wanted billing seperately!! Argh, luckily with have a split bill option for morons like these. Then there were the Chinese ones - they were worse. One would say one thing, the other would say something totally different. It took five attempts at saying 'Is that one meal or two?' in various volumes, formats, and with hand signals before they finally revealed they wanted THREE meals! People in the queue behind were laughing making eye contact with me - they could see the struggle I was having.
So that was that, I grabbed a pizza, muffin and 7UP and went home. Next post will be Wednesday, I'm off on a mini holiday!
And the title comes from the fact that we had an extremely high guest count per hour, but only slightly above average money at the end of night.
Another customer into, who appeared to bring their piggy bank money in - around 30 coins - argh. I'm sure there are rules against this. Also, I had a really strange amount of £20 notes today. I normally finish with around 3 or 4 in my tray - but had about 15 in there today. Bit odd.
There was a filthy mess of an entire pack of McDonalds fries left outside our store today. But that isn't our responsibility - and we can't do it - so it took 2 hours for the centre janitors to deal with it. Normally they are really quick, but I think they must have been short staff today. Backfires on them in the end, as the fries when they cleaned them up were well and truly flattened onto the tiling.
And it was another crazy day for Ice Cream. I have never seen a queue for the machine - but today, the queue was around 7 to 8 people! Crazy. The machine is a proper commercial thing, but it can't cope with constant work, it needs time to freeze! At one stage we had to close it, because the mess the innocent children was making was terrible. Quick mop and clean, and reopen - it was death trap before with ice cream everywhere.
More youths were refused sale of the kids meal - ha, got £1.50 more from each of them. #
OH and then there were the Swedish tourists. Not a single one of them spoke English. They ordered eventually, then cancelled it all, then reordered - then wanted billing seperately!! Argh, luckily with have a split bill option for morons like these. Then there were the Chinese ones - they were worse. One would say one thing, the other would say something totally different. It took five attempts at saying 'Is that one meal or two?' in various volumes, formats, and with hand signals before they finally revealed they wanted THREE meals! People in the queue behind were laughing making eye contact with me - they could see the struggle I was having.
So that was that, I grabbed a pizza, muffin and 7UP and went home. Next post will be Wednesday, I'm off on a mini holiday!
And the title comes from the fact that we had an extremely high guest count per hour, but only slightly above average money at the end of night.
Thursday 5 October 2006
Well over target today
Today we were well over our daily sale target - over 30% - which is excellent. My till wanted a cash pull, but there was no time for that, so all today was a good day for the company! My till was right as well, which is always nice.
A few events today -
A woman decided she would empty the shrapnel from the bottom of her purse today, and I could see pound coins, but no, she gave me £3.99 in nothing above 50p - and there was only 3 of those. The money was bang on, but I have to count it, then sort it into into the tray. If she had just given me those pound coins, the day would have been better. She is another "I want pizza and a drink" but under no circumstance wants salad or fries for an extra 11p. There are other people who want "Pizza and fries". I always say "If you don't want a drink now, for an extra 11p you could take an orange juice, Fruitshoot or water to take home". Still says no. 11p for Tropicana OJ - bargain!
Oh and regarding the water - another person asked for tap water today - sorry we don't do it. By the way, I checked it out - it is sourced and bottled in Scotland, I can't remember the brand of it though.
I had to refuse to serve a youth today - as they wanted a kids meal and they just can't have it. Lucky though as the pizza they would have got - went to a full paying customer. No bad kids today, all lovely and sweet wanting ICF, and I kept the huge bag of chocolate buttons on the counter just to tease them! I was offered 20p for the whole bag - generous hey.
Then there were the quiet people - who looked like they were talking to each other, but were infact talking to me! When I asked them to repeat politely, they sighed and spoke in exactly the same volume.
Finally today, I was mopping up - and what the heck had happened - the BLUE tiles were BLACK! Filthy customers.
A few events today -
A woman decided she would empty the shrapnel from the bottom of her purse today, and I could see pound coins, but no, she gave me £3.99 in nothing above 50p - and there was only 3 of those. The money was bang on, but I have to count it, then sort it into into the tray. If she had just given me those pound coins, the day would have been better. She is another "I want pizza and a drink" but under no circumstance wants salad or fries for an extra 11p. There are other people who want "Pizza and fries". I always say "If you don't want a drink now, for an extra 11p you could take an orange juice, Fruitshoot or water to take home". Still says no. 11p for Tropicana OJ - bargain!
Oh and regarding the water - another person asked for tap water today - sorry we don't do it. By the way, I checked it out - it is sourced and bottled in Scotland, I can't remember the brand of it though.
I had to refuse to serve a youth today - as they wanted a kids meal and they just can't have it. Lucky though as the pizza they would have got - went to a full paying customer. No bad kids today, all lovely and sweet wanting ICF, and I kept the huge bag of chocolate buttons on the counter just to tease them! I was offered 20p for the whole bag - generous hey.
Then there were the quiet people - who looked like they were talking to each other, but were infact talking to me! When I asked them to repeat politely, they sighed and spoke in exactly the same volume.
Finally today, I was mopping up - and what the heck had happened - the BLUE tiles were BLACK! Filthy customers.
Tuesday 3 October 2006
Profile picture
Just posting this picture so I can then use it for my profile...not got anything else more interesting at the minute! Any ideas of what I could photograph or use?
Monday 2 October 2006
Sugar
Almost forgot about the sugar bit - as I we were so busy, I decided to stock up the sugar supplies for customer use. Well I dropped a few in the cupboard where the syrup for the drinks machine is kept- this is sticky, so I now had sugar sachets stuck in syrup. Nice. I'll post a picture of the sugar box (for you to drool over??)
Quiet = sugar mess
Just returned from my shift. Wow it was busy, in one hour we had 3 customers. I'm not sure how exactly we coped with the large numbers, but we pulled it off. In my shift (3 hours on FOH, 30mins elsewhere, I'm P/T incase you hadn't noticed yet...) I served no more than 15 customers. My till at the end of the night was also a miserable sight, I doubt there was even £200 in it, and I started with £100.
Only had one git in tonight - and even they weren't that miserable. Just had a face like a smack arse and with no please and thank you. I am extremely polite. We had full range of products today - with the exception of side salads. I managed to achieve 5 upsells, and 4 muffin sales.
There was an exceptionally friendly couple (bordering on elderly) who returned some mayo today as they didn't require it. Not had that happen before, people normally just chuck it. I love nice old people, but hate not nice ones. I don't mind other not nice people - but not nice old people are the worst.
Oh and there was the moron youth who thought he could fill his McFlurry up with the ICF - what planet are these people on?
Pretty much it for tonight, one last note that I had to take an entire cage full of rubbish out - and this is not easy having to go through 3 security doors, and the cage piled upto the ceiling so bits dropping off everywhere. Then to top it off a bag decided to split and go all over the car park. And the problem is I can't leave it as security have nothing better to do than report other staff. Please be sympathetic - I had 15 customers and a cage!
Only had one git in tonight - and even they weren't that miserable. Just had a face like a smack arse and with no please and thank you. I am extremely polite. We had full range of products today - with the exception of side salads. I managed to achieve 5 upsells, and 4 muffin sales.
There was an exceptionally friendly couple (bordering on elderly) who returned some mayo today as they didn't require it. Not had that happen before, people normally just chuck it. I love nice old people, but hate not nice ones. I don't mind other not nice people - but not nice old people are the worst.
Oh and there was the moron youth who thought he could fill his McFlurry up with the ICF - what planet are these people on?
Pretty much it for tonight, one last note that I had to take an entire cage full of rubbish out - and this is not easy having to go through 3 security doors, and the cage piled upto the ceiling so bits dropping off everywhere. Then to top it off a bag decided to split and go all over the car park. And the problem is I can't leave it as security have nothing better to do than report other staff. Please be sympathetic - I had 15 customers and a cage!
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