Genesis Blog

So what is the reward for loyalty?

2011-05-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I needed to renew the insurance on one of my cars, but I was astounded to learn that the annual premium had increased by 33%! When I asked for an explanation the person on the other end of the phone, speaking from some far away call centre muttered something like government tax and lots accidents during December when we had a bit of snow.

I don't mind paying for my own mistakes, but I am quite reluctant to pay for someone Else's, especially as I had gone to the expense of fitting winter tyres to my car.

So I shopped around, with a little help from Dawn I managed to find cover, on a like for like basis that actually cost 20% less than my premium last year.

It seems to me that many companies treat loyalty with a degree of contempt and are prepared to to a great deal to win a new customer, and nothing to keep an existing one.

I just cannot see how this model makes sense.

Diesel prices and millionaires shortbread...market forces, or rip off?

2011-04-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

The other day I had to visit the County Hospital in Hereford, those that know the city will know that if you are lucky, in a car you can get across the city in under ten minutes, but if you are unlucky, the same journey can take forty five minutes, and in my experience, it has little to do with the time of day.

Well, I didn't want to be late, so I set off leaving plenty of time, and was lucky this time, so got there about forty minutes early. Great, I could grab a coffee and catch up on the news whilst I waited.

In the cafe I noticed the cakes and spotted a millionaires shortbread biscuit, but was shocked to see that it cost £2.05! That was just too much, so I just had a coffee.

Today I popped into Costa in Ross on Wye, guess how much for a very similar millionaires shortbread? £1.75!

The other day I noticed that Morrisons were selling diesel in Solihull for £136.9 per litre, same store in Ross on Wye however £139.9 per litre.

In a rural area like Ross on Wye most, especially the elderly and families are more dependent on the car, whereas in Solihull the public transport system is excellent, the economy is pretty buoyant too.

So tell me, how come the Hospital cafe, and Morrisons in Ross on Wye are more expensive, could it be that they have a captive market? or am I just a bitter old cynic?

Fantastic value for a fiver!

2011-04-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

The other day we popped out to our local supermarket, which is about a ten mile round trip, to buy some provisions, Dawn wanted to make a steak and kidney pie for dinner.

That evening it turned out that she could only make a steak pie, why?

Well the kidney's upon closer inspection, had a use by date which had expired the previous day! This means that the food was not fit for human consumption.

Having food for sale beyond its use by date in the UK is an offence and can be liable to a £20,000 fine.

This is something that you just don't expect from a corner shop, let alone a national supermarket chain that is constantly telling us about how fresh their food is.

Well, we wanted to let the General Manager know about the failure in his procedures, so we made a special trip back to see him. Guess what we were offered? our money back and a £5 voucher!

That just about covered the cost of fuel.

After some persistence on our part he reluctantly agreed to share the outcome of his investigation with us, but did point out that he would be on holiday, and it was most likely his deputy that we could expect to hear from sometime this week, if we didn't hear then he has invited us to chase her up.

Good to see that they take the matter so seriously. And the voucher? we have donated it to Noah's Ark Trust, they do great work supporting families who have experienced a bereavement.

Go the extra inch !

2011-03-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

At Genesis we deliver a portfolio of training courses designed to raise standards in the hospitality industry. Our training sessions are always well received, and we have a 100% pass rate where the course requires an assessment or exam. Candidates are always very complimentary about our venue and the quality of our home made freshly cooked food.

Our courses are quite unique because we don't just deliver training, but we operate the business too, so when we deliver food safety training for example we can underpin the tuition with practical hands on experience.

Despite all this there in one big thing that is troubling me. We recently ran a pilot Service Quality course and we let a number of our customers know about it, what one of our customers said took me by surprise, he said " You know I will only send my staff on courses when I have to".

When you look at the demand for the courses we run, the ones that fill up first are always the legal, statutory compliance type of courses, Service Quality is seen, by some as a "nice to have" and when times get tougher they seem to be the first to go.

Well I have a very strong opinion about this, if you are operating a business in the hospitality sector, reliant on your customers discretionary income, faced with considerable competition and increasing operating costs neglect Service Quality at your peril.

The experience you give your customers will be remembered long after they have forgotten the price!

Good News !

2011-03-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

There is a real shortage of good news at the moment, it seems wherever you turn there is a flood, an earthquake, then another massive earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami, nuclear fallout and all this against a background of cuts, more cuts, austerity and a chain reaction of unrest degenerating to civil war in the Middle East.

When the future is uncertain we will often seek comfort from the past. We tend to remember the best bits, but the past has gone I can't buy a pint of Worthington E, shop with my Access card, buy toys for the kids at Woolworths, fly with PanAm, watch a film on my Betamax video tape player or expect a new series of Fawlty Towers anytime soon.

What I can do is live for the moment, make someone happy, even make them laugh, show that I care and think about others and their needs before I consider my own.

Go on, make someone happy today, even if they are a complete stranger! and if you can, give some support to a fellow human being that needs it, even if you don't know them. Create some good news!

Is it Me?

2011-03-10T01:41:00.000-08:00

I am really beginning to wonder if it is me!

The other day we popped out to a local pub for lunch, the food is always good, on this occasion I decided to have a pint of locally brewed Wye Valley Butty Bach, this is a superb brew, and, like ours this is a proper family business that has passion and dedication running all the way through.

What did I get? well it wasn't quite as bad as some of my cask ale experiences, but it was still cloudy, I thought I would let it settle for a moment but I could have left it for a week and it would still be cloudy so, with some reluctance, I pointed it out to the bar person, "what did she say"? I hear you ask.

"It was clear when I poured it" well, I was for once left a little speechless, at first I thought she was joking, then I realised she was quite serious, then I thought that must mean that she thinks I must have done something to make it cloudy, perhaps I should have smiled more at it or something!

We finished our lunch and left.

I promised that I would let you know about the Little Chef "award winning pork sausage" well they have got back to me, and it was within the fourteen days that they said it would take them and this is what they had to say...

"With regard to the quality of our sausages, we constantly review our menu and products based on feedback from customers and research within our market. We have found that by doing this we offer our customers prices and products that are competitive amongst our industry and consistent nationwide. I can confirm that the sausages which we use in all our restaurants have been allocated an industry standard award for their quality".

Fantastic ! if you know what that means please do let me know !

The award winning pork sausage!

2011-03-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

last week I told you about our early morning visit to Little Chef, It had been some years since my last visit, and I know that Heston had used his considerable creativity to modernise the concept last year at Popham near Basingstoke, expectations were high but what we got was barely warm reheated "award winning" pork sausages and eggs that were almost as resilient as the suspension components on my Land Rover.

Well, regular readers will know that the most impressive thing about the experience was the fact that as there was free WiFi I was able to log on to the Little Chef website and leave some feedback.

Now I can report that I have received a response.... it went something like this: "Thank you for contacting Little Chef, your feedback is very important to us, be assured that we will contact you within FOURTEEN working days, the customer services team"!

FOURTEEN working days! I can't wait. I also asked what the sausages won an award for, when they let me know I promise to tell you, in the meantime I guess it might be resilience !

Would you go back again?

2011-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we had to make an early start, we needed to travel to North Wales to visit a dear elderly relative who had been admitted to hospital with a stroke.

As we had my nine week old granddaughter with us, and she needed a feed, we decided to stop at a Little Chef.

Now, it is some time since I have called in on a Little Chef, they were never that fantastic, but at least you knew they were going to be clean, and all the food was cooked to order, in front of the customer.

Well it was great to see that they had moved with the times, free WiFi, a brand new menu, it was looking promising.

What we got was reheated sausages, I think even the bacon was reheated too, it was certainly lifeless and overdone. Apart from the egg, which was so overcooked it could be used as a suspension component for my Land Rover everything else was barely warm.

The only good thing was that I was able to use the WiFi to Email my experience to the Little Chef website whilst I was moving my breakfast around on my plate!

When I was asked if everything was OK, I said yes, like most of us, I will only complain when I intend to go back.

Whatever Happens!

2011-02-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

The other day I came back in from walking our labrador Jet to find a pond of water on the kitchen floor, the washing machine had decided to become incontinent!

No problem, I thought. I remembered when I bought the machine I also bought "whatever happens" insurance. So I retrieved the paperwork from the appliance file only to discover that the additional cover that I had bought at a cost of over £130 had expired just over two months ago.

Well, I am quite handy with spanners, guessed it must have been a hose or a filter, so took the thing apart. it turned out that the concrete casting used to stop the drum from going into orbit when the machine is on its spin cycle was very abrasive and had worn right through the drum casing.

This wasn't a cheap washing machine, I just don't do cheap! The additional cost of the insurance made it a very expensive machine, so from now on "whatever happens" I will not be buying Bosch and I will not be taking out additional insurance!

Just how hard can it be?

2011-02-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was out shopping with Dawn, where possible we like to buy groceries from small, independent shops, where they still know about what they are selling, how it is made and, like us, appreciate quality.

Well after visiting the greengrocers. the deli, and the butcher I thought we would see what the bakery had to offer, it was part of a well known national chain, but would save us walking all the way down to the bottom of the high street to the bakery we normally get our bread from.

As we walked in through the entrance I couldn't help noticing that the floor tiles were filthy, worse still there was dog mess trodden in too, but we were committed now, then once we got inside there were two uniformed assistants standing at the counter, the younger of the two was fiddling with her earring, which judging from the inflamed redness was clearly causing her some discomfort, other than this there was no activity at all, no welcome, no smile just vacant expressions!

I glanced at Dawn, she instinctively knew what I wanted to achieve, and then quick as a flash she asked if they sold personalised celebration cakes, initially I thought what is Dawn asking that for, we make them, and are pretty good at them too. I soon realised, when the assistant said that they didn't make celebration cakes and directed us to our usual bakery down the high street.

I am glad that Dawn was able to think faster on her feet than me, and secure our escape.

If any of your team would benefit from training in food safety, customer service excellence, selling skills or team building do give is a call

Who did you upset today?

2011-02-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

I was chatting to my son Edward today, like me he wears glasses, and like me he also wears contact lenses, especially when he is playing sport, which, unlike me, he usually wins at!

Well, he needed some new contact lenses, and popped into the optician that the whole family uses to order some. "They will be here in two days" the assistant advised. Edward went back two days later only to be informed that the assistant was wrong and that they would take five days! This was getting a bit too close to a rugby match, so Edward asked if they could promise that his lenses arrive by then because he needed them for a match, the assistant promised, Edward went back three days later, and you guessed it, no lenses, they would be another two days!

At this point he called me, I asked him to work out what his custom was worth to this optician, he spends £20 a month, and it comes to over £15,000 during his lifetime, add in me, my daughter Jessica and my sons James and George and we are talking about well over £75,000! I suggested that he put this to the manager, he did and his lenses were delivered two hours later.

I think that the potential cost of losing our custom focused the opticians mind and managed to earn our continued loyalty.

We can't go back to the Seventies?

2011-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

I don't get much of an opportunity to watch TV, but over the Christmas holiday I did check out what was on, and what did I get? The two Ronnies from 1976!

Then over the last few days I have heard a great deal about black bags of rubbish piled high in the streets and binmen (if we are allowed to call them that these days!) in Birmingham going on strike.

In 1976 I was taking my O Levels and can remember trying to do my homework with the lights going out at no notice and having to resort to candle light, and you should have seen the clothes I was wearing!

I guess at least we had a hot summer and petrol cost 76p a gallon. But I for one don't want to go back there.

2011 in my opinion, will be a year of opportunity businesses focused on their customers, providing fantastic service, faultless products and excellent value for money.

I can't think of a better time to invest in a Pub, can you?