KFC- Bad service

calleyw

sarahlouise210 wrote:

Well... I have thought myself that the staff at KFC are paid the minimum wage but so are many others who do bother to be civil and give good service. I would not be able to be rude in my job whether I was paid £4.00 or £400 per hour - you are what you are.. surely most people do not behave badly just because they are not being paid a good houry rate!Do you think if the staff at KFC started to receive £10.00 per hour the service would change overnight? I know that low wages cause bad self esteem.. but the minimum wage has brought choice to even the lowest paid jobs-dont like the one you have move to another on the same wage. When I visit anywhere I expect good manners and good customer service-it does not matter if I am in KFC or Harrods. If you have only tried KFC once then perhaps you had a bad experience as KFC is undoubtably delicious.......:drool: ..in fact I may even consider working for them to get a staff discount:rotfl:

I agree that it does not matter how much they are paid that they should not be rude. But as I said they are paid min wage that does not mean they are paid to care, no they are paid to serve. And you can give good service and make the customer feel happy without caring about what you are doing. Also if they looked dirty or untidy then it was the manager who should have dealt with it and made sure they where tidy before going on shift.

And everyone has off days. So lets give the staff a little bit of slack it is hardly the most wonderful job in the word serving up burgers and fries and dealing with rude and gruff customers all day long. And the customers are rude and are not even being paid to be they are doing it for free. And for some people this is the only job they can get.

I have done a customer facing job and was paid more than min wage and I did care about doing my best. But in the end it got to me having to be nice all the time and putting on a smile while trying to help the most rude and offensive people who thought that they better then you. And no matter what you did was not good enough for them. In the end I dreaded getting out of bed in the mornings. And you know they don't give a toss about your problems e.g family problems or if you are having a bad day. But you have to care about theres.

That is why I cut people doing these sort of a jobs some slack. And I alway polite to people who serve me by saying thankyou and goodbye. Yes they maybe doing there job and being paid for it. But it use to make my day when someone thanked me for helping them.

As I have always said everyone for a few weeks should do two things:

1) work in customer facing job. It is eye opening and you might realise that these people are just doing there jobs. And they really want to help. But abusing them and shouting at them does not really make the situation any better.

2) ride a bike on the road. Might think about how much space to give when overtaking a bike. Rather then trying to squeeze through and knocking someone off there bike.

But personally I would not expect the same level of service in KFC as I would expect to get in Harrods. It is about percieved value. KFC is cheap so I would expect resonable service but not expect someone to go way and above the call of duty for me. As I would most likely be spending less than £10. But if in Harrods as I would spending hundreds if not thousands of pounds would expect a much better service, one to one and to spend lots of time with me. So don't think that you can compare them like for like.

But as I said before I don't eat in such places any more, rarely did anyway mainly just the odd coffee or icecream. And you get what you pay for because be it Macdonald, KFC etc the food is gross mass produced rubbish that would bring a heart attack on just by looking at it. But each to there own.

Umm not sure why you think raising the wages would make the KFC workers customer care any better. It is the whole of the company and the environment they are working in. I am sure I would love to go home everday after work stinking of burgers and fries. And realise that this was what it was going to be like for the rest of my life. That is hardly going to make me the most happiest person in the world. I would do my job and not be rude. But I doubt I would be jumping for joy everyday.

And I sure that we will agree to disagree with each other on this.

Yours

Calley

bridiej

I dont really agree, courtesy and politeness costs nothing and surely makes the employee's day easier as they have less aggression shown towards them?

I am always polite to people who serve - unless of course they are rude to me in which case I admit I tend to get a bit arsy, so as I say it's in their best interest to be polite in the first place....

newfunk

Nile wrote:

Newunk, you don't say whether you stopped the car and went inside the KFC branch to complain.

If you look in the 5 Star Service board, you'll see a thread I started about McDonalds. It's a similar story to yours but mine had a happy ending.

How did yours end? Did you complain and demand recompense?

I did complain, and they didnt do a thing, wouldnt give me head offices number or address....so i left b4 i made a scene

sarahlouise210

Callyw...... I did not say that the KFC employees would care more if paid £10.00 per hour..exactly the opposite! The original thread was about KFC but could be anywhere where poor service is received repeatedly. I feel for these employees as much as the next man.. you are quite right.. I would not like to go home smelling of fat every day but that is no excuse to be rude. I always am polite to everyone,,have not got it in me not to be. I always say please and thankyou and even say sorry when someone bumps into ME!!! I can tell you have personal experience of bad tempered unreasonable customers but not everyone is like that - you just expect a certain standard. I have gone to Harrods foodstore and bought a scotch egg and received impeccable service.You do not need to spend thousands in Harrods - I can also tell you that Harrods employees are not overly paid as I have had experience with their payroll. The restaurant that you eat in paying £100 for your meal will have a waiter/waitress serving you that is on low wages - no-one gets rich in catering except the owners, so why would you expect better service from them just because you were paying more???
Yes..we agree to disagree but I do value your comments and opinion thankyou
Sarahlou

newfunk

Totally agree with you sarahlou, it doesnt matter what the wages are, if you cant be polite, dont do customer service jobs...manners dont cost a thing, and if we had more people using them, then the country would be a better place

calleyw

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh unless I am reading these replies wrong why do I get the feeling people think that I am saying it is ok to be rude on min wage.

I have never said that and yes no matter where you shop you should have the same level of customer care. But this is the real world we live in. And yes there are good customers and bad customers. But I have a feeling that in some jobs the bad customers well out weigh the good ones. As people in general are getting so aggressive.

But the point I was making was these people are real people and have real problems and yes being rude is wrong. No matter what side it comes from either customer or employee.

Again it is about percieved value. I expect harrods sales people are paid a little more than min wage. But is whole different atmosphere and company and probably a little bit more pleasant then working in KFC. The company KFC or any fast food place really don't have what I would call an nice atmosphere as they know that people will keep coming through the doors as people will always buy fast food and if you don't like one outlet you just use another. And they can always get another young person to come and work for them at a drop of a hat.

Maybe I have confused people a little by using the word caring. But you can do a good job and not care about the individuals that you are helping.

But then I have different expectations depending on where I am. I don't expect people to be rude to me fullstop no matter if they are on min wage or earning £1000 an hour.

I just want to make it clear that I never ever said it was ok to be rude.

And I agree with newunk "manners dont cost a thing, and if we had more people using them, then the country would be a better place"


"Sarahlou
"The restaurant that you eat in paying £100 for your meal will have a waiter/waitress serving you that is on low wages - no-one gets rich in catering except the owners, so why would you expect better service from them just because you were paying more???.""

Maybe I am just not very good at explaining but I do expect better service or maybe that should a different type of service or experience. You are sitting down and it is whole difference experience to rushing in to burger joint grabbing a burger to chuck down your throat. And rushing out again. Maybe it is down to a different type of customer. Just as I would expect different level or type of service/experience in a hungry horse, Harvester than I would in a proper restaurant. I do know that catering can be one of the worse paid career choices unless you get very lucky. But maybe they are more polite hoping for a tip. And they are more likely to have a little more time than a burger joint where they can be very harrassed.

As I said before I don't think you can compare the service in a burger joint to a restaurant or taking tea at the ritzs. Or comparing Aldi/lidls to waitrose or M & S. Or moving away from food comparing the NHS with private medical care. They just don't compare they are totally different experiences. I don't expect anyone to be rude to me but would expect better service/experience in waitrose as oppose to aldi/lidls and yes aldi and lidl pay there staff up to £7.50 an hour so hardly min wage.

I hope the above makes sense.

Yours

Calley

IvanOpinion

I think the underlying question is why should anybody expect to receive 5-star service if they pay 1-star prices. Sometimes you just get what you pay for. It does not excuse anybody from being rude ... but then rudeness is more likely to come from the customer who feels they have been wronged than the service representative (who is working within tight guidlines) ... in many cases 1-star customers expect 5-star treatment.

There is also a lot more to employment than just the wage. There are many other hidden payments that make up the overall package that can determine whether or not an employee is happy.

I agree with Calley. I have worked in customer service ... If I was paid minimum wage I would treat people exactly the same as they treated me (I would have no incentive to be nice to someone demanding this and that, if they talk to me nicely I will do what I can within the guidelines I have been given) ... However a nice big juicey salary with loads of incentives could persuade me to be very nice .. even to the most obnoxious customers (I can always turn my headphone off while I make faces and call them all the names under the sun).

Calleys comparison with the NHS is a perfect example ... DW has seen the same consultant both as an NHS patient and as a private patient ... in one case it was 'Oh Mrs Opinion how nice it is to see you again, how have you been? Would you like a cup of tea?' he could not have been nicer, he knew her case history etc. ... but when it was NHS all you got was 'Well?' and he hadn't a clue about her history (he just didn't care ... although his tune changed when DW questioned his double-personality and he realised that she had also been a private patient of his).

We keep trying to drive prices down but expect to receive more and more service .. something has to give ... and generally it is mollie-coddled customers exepcting too much.

Ivan

slowen

I used to work in KFC when I left school about 6 years ago as I was looking for a job and could not find anything so I worked their for a few quid.

Some of the customers that you come accross are downright nasty / horrible towards the staff as it used to do my head in as "the customer is always right" and you have to take smug remarks.

I have only been the KFC where I worked a few times this year and the staff are grubby looking with no manners and the restaurant is poorly run with the food left standing longer than it should be as when you do you training you are told how long the product lasts before it has to be thrown away but this does not always happen when I have visited as you can tell from the foods appearnace.

If you are not happy with the food you have two options

1) Phone the store when you return home or notice items of food is missing and they will replace the item / itmes or the whole meal for you

2) Complain to head office and they will normally send you a "chicken cheque" which is to the total value of the food that you complained about so when you back to the shop the staff know the only way customers can obtain the "chicken cheques" is by complaining so your order will be perfect. I know this is not what should happen as they should hsve 100% accuracy all the time and with staff that have manners but nothing is perfect all of the time

liz_uk

My local KFC is no different, only I go through the drive thru now as the manager there is abit of a pervert who stares !! Makes me feel really uneasy, so don`t go there now !!!!!

Vic_980

calleyw, I have to agree with you. I worked in customer facing jobs from when I left school, until about 6 years ago. I got out due to the low pay, and the general abuse from the public.

There is little excuse for being rude to people, but after you have worked in a job paying £2 per hour and taken abuse all day, it is understandable that there comes a point when you just stop caring. People deal with it in their own way, some leave the jobs, some get abusive back.

There are a small minority of people who look down on you because you are serving them with cigarettes or lottery tickets, and they see you as below them, and almost fit to be abused.

I must admit it was a great feeling for a while when I was promoted to a store manager for a newsagent chain. I enjoyed barring a number of customers who were abusive to my staff!