Customer service in Calgary - thoughts?

[calgaryblood]

Does anyone else find customer service in Calgary to be going down the drain? I'm a born and raised Calgarian and I can't recall ever dealing with this level of customer service. It seems like the bigger fast food chains maybe have moved away from "the customer is always right" and is now a strictly money making venture.

I think a big issue lies with TFW (temporary foreign workers). You can't go to any restaurant without there being at least a few and in a lot of places like Tim Hortons the entire staff is made up of TFW. My orders are always being screwed up, and when you complain nobody cares.

In the more fancier restaurants it's still ok but I still find that servers feel like they are owed a tip instead of earning it.

So I'm mostly talking about fast food chains, Timmies, McDonald's, Wendy's, etc.

And don't get me started on the wait times.

[worth]

OK, we won't get you started.

[Regular_John]

[Reaper]

In other news, scientists have confirmed that water is wet.

[Sliver]

Wendy's is surprisingly fast. Basically you pay at the first window and your stuff is already bagged and waiting for you by the time you get to the second window. Best food quality right now, too.

[llwhiteoutll]

Not just in fast food chains, any customer facing job should require a minimum level of proficiency in English. If you can't understand your customer and have to ask multiple times for them to repeat parts of the order, you need more language training.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

You didn't even have to come in that door gramps, thread title was clearly labeled.

[GGG]

I'm going to disagree and say that the TFWs are generally faster and more effective then the average teenager and also that the last two years service has improved significantly from boom times.

I think if your order gets screwed up regularly you need to change how you order. It could be that you are ordering in a sequence or pace that's confusing. Or you are making substitutions and modifications to items.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Wendy's is surprisingly fast. Basically you pay at the first window and your stuff is already bagged and waiting for you by the time you get to the second window. Best food quality right now, too.

Agreed that Wendy's in the best of the bunch. And they don't really hire TFW as far as I can tell or not as many as others do.

[nik-]

It's funny that you complain about the TFW's. I typically find their service to be much better than the regular Calgary service.

And it's not recent. Calgary's service levels compared to most cities has been brutal for a long time.

[PepsiFree]

I'm always a fan of the "they should get good at English! They never understand me!"

Always said by some mumbly hillbilly who even native English speakers have to say "Um, what?" to, half the time.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Does anyone else find customer service in Calgary to be going down the drain? I'm a born and raised Calgarian and I can't recall ever dealing with this level of customer service. It seems like the bigger fast food chains maybe have moved away from "the customer is always right" and is now a strictly money making venture.

No they aren't, and anyone who thinks this way/expects businesses to think this way is usually the bigger part of the problem when they get "Bad service".

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by GGG

I'm going to disagree and say that the TFWs are generally faster and more effective then the average teenager and also that the last two years service has improved significantly from boom times.

I think if your order gets screwed up regularly you need to change how you order. It could be that you are ordering in a sequence or pace that's confusing. Or you are making substitutions and modifications to items.

Yeah one medium steeped tea with 1 sugar and 1 milk is very confusing. I literally got a coffee yesterday instead on my usual tea and the lid even had "ST" on it. Sometimes it's not mixed well other times they don't put the lid on right and it drips all over the place.

My orders aren't confusing at all and I disagree I think TFW are a major part of the reason customer service is going down the drain. They barely speak English and I think generally have low morale even though they are always smiling they lack the skills IMO.

[undercoverbrother]

You get what you pay for.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Not sure it is demonstrably worse than any other time. Remember, it was only a few short years ago that restaurants/fast food joints were begging for additional help. Surely customer service was worse when those places were busier with (presumably) less staff.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Agreed that Wendy's in the best of the bunch. And they don't really hire TFW as far as I can tell or not as many as others do.

How do you tell a TFW from a landed immigrant or new citizen?

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

How do you tell a TFW from a landed immigrant or new citizen?

He asks to see their green card, duh.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

No they aren't, and anyone who thinks this way/expects businesses to think this way is usually the bigger part of the problem when they get "Bad service".

McDonald's literally used to repeat this to their employees and put it in their training books.

I used to work there ages ago and that was their motto to their employees.

[PepsiFree]

I'm actually surprised how rapidly this morphed into "it's because I don't like brown people"

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

How do you tell a TFW from a landed immigrant or new citizen?

When there are 20 Philipinos that all of a sudden start working at the same restaurant you've been going to for 20 years it doesn't take a scientist to know they are TFW.