Loyalty cards and Micros

In July we got loyalty cards. They gave us 4000 of the things to hand out. I can give you the exact figure we have had back. It has been hard to keep track because of the sheer amount but we did manage it: 3.

Out of 4000 cards we have had 3 redemptions. Oh well, maybe head office will come up with a better promotion other than you need to spend £12 to get a 99p side free or £36 to get a £2.69 pizza, next time round.

Yesterday the new menu launched complete with Meatball Deli. All our previous paperwork told us it was called Mamas Meatballs but they changed their mind. I tried it, the meatballs are soft but a bit dry. They need some kind of sauce on top, and they are so big the cheese falls of them. We also got chicken goujons (chicken fillet in southern fried coating, new to all Pizza Hut formats) and I can conclude they are around 10 times nicer than chicken dippers - not bad for an extra 10p. We don't do dippers anymore thankfully.

We got new menu boards and they are incredibly ugly - instead of having the titles of the meals at the top, it is at the bottom. Maybe I'm being too fussy.

To accommodate the new menu the tills software has to be updated. A lovely company called Micros does this. They have altered some bits but it has mainly stayed the same. Except the final pay screen. There used to be a large CASH button in the bottom right with equally sized £50, £20, £10 and £5 buttons just below them. But in their fantastic upgrade, they'll half the size of the CASH button as well as the £10 and £5 buttons. They have kept the £50 and £20 buttons the original size. And now at the bottom of the screen there is just grey, empty space. So no longer can you tap the bottom right of the screen to go through. It is a pain and just makes the chance of change inaccuracies greater. Micros are the same great people who put a pop up saying "Have you completed the change?" button after the cash drawer has opened but before the receipt will print. The purpose of this I have no idea. If it was saying "Would the customer like a receipt?" I could understand - we could save paper on all the people who don't want one.

I think this post really requires a photograph to explain why this is such a pain. I'll have to get one soon, but I'm hoping the next time I go in they have realised their stupid mistakes.

Delivery

We don't do delivery. We have never done delivery. We don't do delivery. We used to be grouped for area management with delivery. We don't do delivery. We are listed as a restaurant in the phone books. We don't do delivery. We haven't got any delivery drivers or bikes. WE DON'T DO DELIVERY.

For god knows what reason I tend to answer the phone a lot now. Even if there is a manager there, they'll often ask me to get it. I do seem to be doing more and more manager tasks, which is ok. In particular I like being asked "Pick someone to do potwash ___". Hehe that'll teach you for being lazy! Another favourite is "Count this money for me while I go for a fag". It gets me out of the other jobs so it is good.

So two recent delivery enquiries:

"Good evening _____ Pizza Hut"
"Do you deliver to ___?"
"No sorry we don't offer delivery"
"You do"
"Nope sorry we don't"
"I have ordered from you before"
"Not us I'm afraid."
"You must be new - is there anyone else there?"
"Yes."
"Let me speak to them"
"There is no need, we don't do delivery"
"YOU'RE A LIAR"

I hung up.

"Good evening _____ Pizza Hut!"
"Right can I order a .... for delivery in ___?"
"Sorry we don't do delivery"
"Well I've just been given this number by another store and they said you do"
"Oh they must have got mixed up - because we don't do delivery"
"Fuck Pizza Hut then"

Thanks for that!

New blog - The Night Warden

I have just found through Mystery Guest Alert - The Night Warden.

It is about a night warden on a campsite in the UK. I think it fits the general type of blog I link to - staff moaning about customers, because even though they pay their wages - they are often morons.

Anyway check it out, it's well written and rather interesting.

"I don't work here"

I have a tip for anyone who wishes to impersonate a staff member of any store. All you need to do is wear a plain black shirt, black trousers and have an ID card or similar hanging from your trousers.

Today before work I thought I'd look for some new trainers and shoes. My first stop was JJB for the trainers. Literally 10 seconds after I'd walked in I had someone elses CV in my hand. I thought they were someone handing out leaflets so just took it without making eye contact. Then I realised that the woman who gave it me said "Can I just hand you my CV?". I stopped and was a bit baffled about the whole thing, and said "I don't work here". "Well you look like you do!". The shirt I had on didn't have the Pizza Hut logo on the front (has it at back instead). I looked round and saw the staff in there wear grey and maroon - nothing like my black outfit.

In a hunt for new shoes, I went into Next. I was checking them out when a bloke walked up to me and asked where the belts were. I explained I didn't work there but showed him anyway because I had bought one a few weeks ago.

In total I think I've been mistaken for a staff member in about 7 or 8 different shops. The most silly was Boots - as I was in all black, their staff wear all white.

A final funny thing I heard a colleague say to a customer, when the ICF machine slowed down because the mix inside need to freeze was "Oh you need to leave it to defrost because it is freezing up". Not the brightest.

Correction

In a previous post, I put that chocolate sauce is being replaced by lemon. I was wrong - and another Pizza Hut employee said so in a comment. I am very sorry about that.

And what did I find on todays delivery?

New ICF sauce! Chocolate and caramel ICF sauce! No lemon. But the reason chocolate wasn't orderable was that it had changed product number and the new number hadn't been released. So I reckon, the sauces will be chocolate, strawberry, lemon and caramel. Umm definitely nicer than chocolate, strawberry, bubblegum and popcorn - I think the new ones are more refined and classy!

They have also changed the bottles from white, to see through. That's a good thing - you can see at a glance if they need changing. Plus the chocolate sauce is a nicer now, it is less sweet and has more cocoa.

Quite an amusing customer I dealt with today. I thought they were a bit of div from the start. She paid and I gave her a receipt. About 20 minutes later, after she'd eaten and was about to leave - brings me her tray and asks where she should put it. I tell her. She then asks "Have I paid?" Her receipt was on the tray she had been eating off and looking at for 20 minutes.