In my sales class the students do a hands-on selling assignment to learn sales; a skill that cannot be learned from reading a book on sales. To simulate the sales function, the students sell merchandise as part of a student association fundraiser (Hospitality Sales and Marketing) to earn the right to go on the incentive trip that is established at the beginning of the semester. They are the ones who also choose the details of the incentive trip, which is usually a dine around to two or three restaurants by stretch limo, so it will be something they want to do and motivate them to sell their products (which they also choose) during the semester. It also allows me to teach them to do budgets on a small scale.
Last night was the big night. The students raised $18,000 from the sale of glassware with Purdue logos and met their sales targets for the dine around. Four stretch limos showed up outside our building to provide transportation to the first stop on the tour for the 46 students who earned the right to go on the dine around (actually the whole class earned the right but some opted out). The kids joyously jumped into their limos and headed out for their dine around. So far, so good!
The first stop on the tour went off without a hitch. We had pre-ordered the starters and they were ready when the students got there in the limos. I stopped in to pay the bill toward the end; I do not ride in the limos to "cramp their style."
The second stop would provide a sharp detour on what had been good food and service established at the previous restaurant. The limos pulled up as scheduled. I arrived a bit earlier to make sure they were ready for our party. When I went in some of my students were there working reception (hard not to find hospitality kids working in local restaurants and bars with 700 kids in the program) and showed me where they would be seated. To my surprise, smack in the middle of the tables that were set aside for our party was a four top that was finishing up. We had to wait for them but after 15 minutes I asked to start seating the students who were waiting outside in the limos, which interrupted what had no doubt been a quiet dinner for the four top up to that time.
The next snafu was when the kids called me over to point out the prices on the menu. Since the kids set the budget for the dine around we had done a pre-order using the online menu for the restaurant to help guide their choices and meet the budget. It turned out the actual prices were, on average, $10 higher than advertised on their website, which was disappointing to those who had pre-ordered as many as two entrees. I told them I was disappointed as well but the budget was still $45 for that stop on the dine around and to do their best ordering things they would like.
The next snafu hit. We sent in the pre-order yet I was watching the servers and noticed them taking orders. I approached one of the servers and asked why he was taking orders. Well, he said, he was allowing students to change their minds and was not not sure what became of the pre-order. He assured me it would not take interrupt the speed of service so I reluctantly allowed it to continue.
Okay, the salads and bread came up rather quickly. BUT 1.5 HOURS LATER THE ENTREES BEGAN TO ARRIVE even though I kept insisting they get them out sooner. I even had them take the orders for dessert or entree takeaways while we were sitting on our thumbs. Had I known that would have been the case I would have sent the kids back to their limos to drive around until the entrees were done.
Then the NEXT snafu hit. I had billed the place as being the best fine dining restaurant in town, which helped the students make their decision and choose it over another. So, I wanted to check with the students to see how they liked the food. Sadly, there were disappointed faces on many of the students faces. I asked what was wrong. Some had filet's and NY strips that were tasteless, one could not even eat the chicken parm because they apparently fried the breaded chicken breast until it was leather. I asked them what I could do to make it better, such as get a new entree, take it off the check, or get a voucher. I got the owner/manager, told him of the situation, and he went to retrieve one of the parms that was sitting in front of a student with a few bites taken out of it. He came back from the kitchen and said it was not too bad, "although the chicken was a bit overcooked."
Hello! That was what my students were complaining about! He said he did not want to argue, he wanted to make it right -- which was a very GOOD response indeed. I told him there were 12 students that would accept a voucher for any entree on their next visit because I really wanted them to see the place at its best.
But all was still not right with the world. I knew the students ordered desserts to go but the servers started to bring out trays stacked with small clam shells. INSIDE WERE THE SIDES THEY DID NOT BRING WITH THE ENTREES!
To compensate the time the students sat in the restaurant I asked them if they wanted to extend the limos another hour so they could drive around and enjoy them as planned and of course they thought that was a good thing to do, even though it added $400 to the pricetag of the dine around (which I had anticipated when setting the budget).
A longer story short, the students DROPPED $3,000 ON AN AVERAGE MEAL in the restaurant last night on the night dedicated to reward them and their sales prowess. The servers repeatedly apologized to the students for the poor service and average food but that only fell on deaf ears -- nobody who dines out wants apologies, they want great food and service. Besides, our students are trained to produce hospitality and they knew the details of the service shortcomings they experienced first hand.
I am still sad today as I write this blog and have called the owner/manager to request he call me so we can discuss the problems I encountered at dinner. I owe that to my students. I will walk him through the steps that led to the snafu last night, starting with the bad decision to allow the students to order anything they wanted off the online menu. They should, as we all know, have given the kids a limited menu to choose from to serve such a large party. There will be more to discuss NO DOUBT!
I guess the takeaway is that what would we expect our graduates to do if that was happening under their watch? Is it the responsibility of the customer to bring the manager over and express dissatisfaction with the food or service or do we teach our students to be proactive and go to the customer to find out? And if we are teaching them to do it, are they? Our industry is suffering right now due to the recession and if there were ever a time for our students and graduates to hang on to every customer that walks through the door -- and admonish those they work for for and/or those working for them that do not get this simple fact -- now is the time to do so. If not, McDonald's and Walmart will continue to eat away at daily stomach share because the price point is reasonable and the service sufferable (plus you get what you pay for when you have low expectations from the start)! It also means that those we are preparing for hospitality and culinary careers will find their career choices limited which may ultimately lead to steadily declining enrollments at our respective programs.
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