Customer Service Critic

The semester is over in eight days. Where did the time go?

I hope you all have a great Christmas vacation and get home and back to school safely!

I looked into applying as a ”Guest Services Coordinator” at the Holiday Inn Express. I found the job posted on the internet twice on two different occassions so I thought they really needed someone soon.

I emailed the person I was told to email and inquired about the job - several times. All I got back was a description of the job position the first time, and when I told them I was interested, and that I’d like to send my resume in I got NO response back.

I’d call, but the job post said not to call. Hmmmm . . .

I’ll try again, but I already see bad customer service “internally” with prospective employees. I’ve got to be careful not to judge so quickly though.

Sheesh . . . who knew that getting into a government job was so difficult? I SHOULD have known there would be some red tape.

My goal is to get a job at the Public Affairs office at Fort Drum, NY. I’m beginning to think that it will take a while, and in the mean time I’ll have to look for a temporary job.

Ok, so I’ve been searching for jobs in New York for the past few days. I’m finally feeling the pressure to get a job. 
My main goal is to secure a job that has something to do with public relations and customer service. This could be a wide range of jobs. Even Interior Design is included in this category.

I thought that working for a hotel would be a great way to start. I checked out the Holiday Inn Express because they posted a job online and are looking for a Guest Services Representative and Front Desk Agent. This is right up my ally. I found it interesting what their hotel mission and department mission have to say.

Hotel Mission: 100% Customer Satisfaction

Department Mission: To be the friendliest, best informed/trained representatives

in the InterContinental Hotel Chain.  It is our goal to offer a level of unrivaled service in the industry.

The rest of the job description and responsibilities goes as follows:

* Provides outstanding customer service to all guests of a 115 room hotel.
* Answer and direct all inbound telephone calls.
* Check guests in, out, schedule wake up calls, accommodate guest requests, give directions to local attractions.
* Process all payments for services rendered, including taking in cash, processing credit cards.
* Resolves guest dissatisfactions by planning and directing the receipt; investigation, evaluation, and settling of complaints; following-up with guests; personally resolving situations. If the situation cannot be resolved, transfer to a supervisor or manager in a professional manner.
* Periodic bucket checks.

* Ensure guests accounting up to date and correct.

* Balance cash drawers/shift work.

* Make reservations for future stays with us and other hotel including cancellations, modifications. Work with central reservations or other hotels to accommodate guest.

* Priority Club Sign-ups and answer questions with your knowledge.

* Make and provide guest key cards with guest security in mind.

* Sell the hotel and it’s features.
* Provide outstanding Customer Service to our guests.
* Follow all proper protocol, policies and procedures.

* Assisting guests and fellow employees in the event of an emergency or fire alarm.

* Issue safe deposit boxes as needed.

* Complete opening and closing shift duties, and communicate any outstanding guest requests or issues to management that may require additional monitoring or follow-up.
* Respond appropriately to guest complaints. Make appropriate service recovery gestures in accordance with established guidelines.

* Up-sell guest rooms to maximize revenue.

* Resolves minor guest complaints to the satisfaction of the customer; inform supervisor of problems, complaints, disturbances or unhappy guests.
* Promote and sell special hotel programs, special rate packages, and up grades when appropriate.

* Communicate with all departments.

* Other duties as assigned.

Do you think I can do it? Am I knowledgeable enough? Can I apply this? These thoughts keep running through my head . . . I’ve inquired about the job. Now I’ve got to pray about it. 

. . . will be difficult. I’m leaving classes early so that I can go see my husband! Hooray! So, needless to say, blogging is the last of my worries. I’ve got 4 tests to take in two days. Thankfully, two of my teachers graciously allowed me to take their tests after I got back from Thanksgiving break. Bless them.

Bless also the teachers who allowed me to take the tests early

Impression

I was certainly not impressed with the customer service. I can’t say that the server was just having a bad night because I didn’t get good customer service from the hostesses as well as the guy who brought out our food. No one we came into contact with was “friendly” or acted like they were glad to have you at P.F. Chang’s.

A friend at the table said, “What this restaurant is surviving on is how good their food is.” She’s right.

Only the atmosphere and food will keep me coming back for more. I enjoyed every last bite.

*Out of the women who joined me for dinner, two are currently servers and have been servers for a long time for other restaurants. One lived in China for the summer and plans to go back permanently after her graduation. All but one friend and I have been to P.F. Chang’s before (in other states). I had a diverse group of girls who knew their stuff help me critique the service, atmosphere and food.

The Food

Now, the moment we’ve all be waiting for – the food. Like I said earlier, each of us at the table ordered something different so that when we got the food, we passed our plates around and got to taste each of them.

I have to say that we all (I think I can speak for the rest of my table) enjoyed everything we ate. The food was delicious. I must say that my favorite out of all of them was the Shrimp with Candied Walnuts. I’ve never tasted a better shrimp dish in my life. Not a single dish was flavorless or bland. Most that we ordered were spicy (that’s typical for even the un-Americanized Chinese food).

I do wish some items on the menu went into greater detail about what the dish had in them or the flavor of the sauces. Attached is the menu with stars next to each item we tried. They all tasted spectacular.

The Atmosphere

Exciting. I walk into P.F. Chang’s and notice the high contemporary, wiry iron backdrop behind the hostess bar. The lights are very dim, and the building is painted in purples and reds with gold accents. The waiting room separates the bar and main dining room. I appreciate this because a joining bar and dining room creates a club-like atmosphere that I don’t care for.

Instead, I felt as if I were in a big city and enjoying a night out on the town. Our booth was a semi-circle shape and comfortably fit all five of us women along with all of our coats and purses. Each table in the room had a candle setting the mood. On one wall, a massive Chinese painting hung, and two huge lanterns hung from the beamed ceiling. The décor showed great attention to detail.

I look around and see that the room is packed. Everyone seems to be having a great time. The music could be described as soft rock – I remember Rob Thomas was singing over the speakers. Voice levels of the people were high since the music was at a medium volume.

The bathrooms were clean for the most part, but the feminine boxes were overflowing.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 the worst and 10 the best) I give the atmosphere of P.F. Chang’s a 9. They did a great job with the place.

Greenville – My short experience as a food critic enlightened me to a whole new world of fun. Dare I say critiquing food, atmosphere and service for the rest of my life would make me a happy woman? Let me tell you about my experience.

I heard P.F. Chang’s served amazing Chinese food, and I’ve been dying to go there since the beginning of the four years I’ve lived in Greenville, SC. When I was assigned a “food critic” column, I knew this was my chance to spend the extra money and not feel guilty about it. After all, I was doing it to further my education, right?

I called P.F. Chang’s Sunday around 1 p.m. (which is never a good time to call on Sundays) to make reservations for 7:15 that night for five people. Not surprisingly, because of the Sunday rush, the phone rang six times before a woman answered. She was quick to take my information down and quick to get off the phone.

The Service

One of my friends and I arrived first and right on time at the restaurant. I immediately walked up to the two hostesses to tell them my reservations. They were slow to look up at me, and they acted pretty “bleh” (if I can say that). The women really weren’t friendly or excited to see me, and they didn’t even welcome me. I did, however, ask them for a booth instead of a table and they made arrangements for that.

My friend and I were seated only three minutes after I “checked in,” and we were still waiting for three other friends to arrive. Our server came up to the table about five minutes after we were seated. The place was packed so I can see why he might have taken longer to get to us. Anyway, our server came up to our table and said, “Hey how are you doing. Can I start you off with some drinks?” I saw a red flag right away. He didn’t welcome us or tell us his name. In fact, we didn’t find out his name until we saw it on our checks at the end of the meal (his name is William).

Our server brought back our waters and left without saying a word. My friend and I wanted to order appetizers so we literally had to call him out and ask, “Can we order an appetizer?” He jotted it down and left.

Soon, the rest of our party arrived. We talked a bit and then ordered another appetizer. After we finished both, I was still licking (with my fork) the yummy sauce off my plate when out of nowhere my plate was snatched up from beneath me. Yes, we all had finished, but our server never asked if he could take the plates out of our way.

Now we come to our main course. All of us made sure we ordered different meals so we could share and taste each of them. About 5 minutes after we ordered, our server came back and told a friend of mine, “I just saw that we are of Garlic Snap Peas. Do you want to look at the menu again?” My friend responded, “Are you kidding me? I came for this.” So she ordered something else. Let me remind you that I quoted the server. No where in that quote did he make an apology or take initiative to make up for the loss especially when my friend expressed her disappointment.”

During the meal, one friend ate a hot chili pepper and her mouth was on fire. She asked our waiter what it was that she ate, and he responded, “That’s a chili pepper. You’re not supposed to eat it,” then turned away and walked off.

Throughout the meal, our server came back and refilled our classes. He did this unobtrusively like it should be done. Other workers came by and refilled our glasses as well.

After we finished the main course, our server asked if we wanted to box anything up and then cleared our plates. As soon as he boxed up our food he said, “I’ll go get your checks.” I stopped him and told him we’d like dessert. He showed us the desserts and we asked his opinion of the best one. We all agreed that the Banana Spring rolls looked the best.

When our checks arrived, and we slipped our money in them, our server flashed us the first smile of the night. We all got up to leave and walked out passing three hostesses –not one wished us a great evening or spoke to us at all.

Not a good experience . . . but delicious food! I will comment more on this soon. I’ve got to write a column on it first!

Thank you for your patience. You won’t be disappointed when you see the post.