Declining Service?

[bgd]

On Friday I was in my usual after work bar. Normally the service is top rate and wait time for drinks is very short. This time our orders were missed, wrong, incomplete and wait time stretched to half an hour for one or our party. While it was busy the cause was a local staff member. Basically he was useless and it was interesting to see how one weak link really disrupted all the servers.

The thought did occur to me that perhaps this is just the start of things to come. A general decline in service quality due to low quality locals being forced on bars due to the new local/foreigner ratios.

Or he could just be new and will get better with time.

[Wd40]

Yeah, but then quality of service is relative. As more and more locals are hired all places will have the same quality of service. After sometime, everyone gets used to the "Local" quality of service

[Hidy Ho]

I haven't been here long enough to know if service is "declining" but whenever I go back US, I'm beginning to notice the "service" there. From friendly smile on young staff at the coffee shop and from friendly and competent service staff at AT&T store, bank and etc. Plus, they can all understand my English

[nakatago]

Plus, they can all understand my English

This.

[sundaymorningstaple]

You aren't from the middle eastern seaboard states are you. There most service staff speak Spanish and rudimentary English at best. In fact, some business are now requiring Spanish as a second language just to get a job in a supposedly English speaking country.

[AngMoG]

On Friday I was in my usual after work bar. Normally the service is top rate and wait time for drinks is very short. This time our orders were missed, wrong, incomplete and wait time stretched to half an hour for one or our party. While it was busy the cause was a local staff member. Basically he was useless and it was interesting to see how one weak link really disrupted all the servers.

The thought did occur to me that perhaps this is just the start of things to come. A general decline in service quality due to low quality locals being forced on bars due to the new local/foreigner ratios.

Or he could just be new and will get better with time.

Yeah, I've been noticing the same in some bars.... you can especially notice in more recently opened ones, as they have no choice but to hire surly locals. I distinctly remember one where after having told them in advance, and the same day when we sat down that we want to split the bill, when we wanted to pay they were not prepared, and then the young SC waiter gave me attitude over it. Not the only experience in that vein, but one of the more memorable ones

We also had a bad experience recently in a Thai place, they simply forgot my wife's order! And then could not even apologize for it on their own!

[Addadude]

I can't recall having any significantly poor service experience from local bar staff here. Quite the reverse in fact.

My 'local', Harry's @ Harbourfront, is almost 100% locally staffed and I've found the service to be excellent. I only go in there on average maybe once every 2 weeks and I'm not exactly a big spender but they always remember my usual order.

I go to another locally owned and run bar close to my workplace very infrequently which has a 2 Edinger for $25 deal and they keep track of the balance of the beers I've ordered. On a number of occasions, when I've returned after as much as a 3 months absence, they have actually reminded me that they own me a balance beer - something I'd completely forgotten about.

[yogaloungeforever]

Pubs and bar staff aside, I normally have coffee with friends and acquaintance at the Starbucks Raffles City shopping mall. Now I am not sure if the staff there have an elephant memory or I just happened to be the odd customer (as I have a specific recipe as to how I want my coffee). 2 weeks ago (and after nearly a year from my last visit) an acquaintance asked me what I wanted from this Starbucks. I told him the specifics of the recipe. He came back after 20 minutes later and told me what happened. Apparently as he was going through the list of specifics on how to make my coffee, the staff who was serving him cut him off mid-way and told him the rest of what should be included in the coffee and the staff had been spot-on on the list of specifics! My acquaintance had only started off on the 1st item (out of 10 items in the list). I laughed upon hearing this but it hit me that this staff obviously remembered me. And the staff was a local.

[uscate]

Pubs and bar staff aside, I normally have coffee with friends and acquaintance at the Starbucks Raffles City shopping mall. Now I am not sure if the staff there have an elephant memory or I just happened to be the odd customer (as I have a specific recipe as to how I want my coffee). 2 weeks ago (and after nearly a year from my last visit) an acquaintance asked me what I wanted from this Starbucks. I told him the specifics of the recipe. He came back after 20 minutes later and told me what happened. Apparently as he was going through the list of specifics on how to make my coffee, the staff who was serving him cut him off mid-way and told him the rest of what should be included in the coffee and the staff had been spot-on on the list of specifics! My acquaintance had only started off on the 1st item (out of 10 items in the list). I laughed upon hearing this but it hit me that this staff obviously remembered me. And the staff was a local.

What the heck do you put in your coffee?????

[zzm9980]

Pubs and bar staff aside, I normally have coffee with friends and acquaintance at the Starbucks Raffles City shopping mall. Now I am not sure if the staff there have an elephant memory or I just happened to be the odd customer (as I have a specific recipe as to how I want my coffee). 2 weeks ago (and after nearly a year from my last visit) an acquaintance asked me what I wanted from this Starbucks. I told him the specifics of the recipe. He came back after 20 minutes later and told me what happened. Apparently as he was going through the list of specifics on how to make my coffee, the staff who was serving him cut him off mid-way and told him the rest of what should be included in the coffee and the staff had been spot-on on the list of specifics! My acquaintance had only started off on the 1st item (out of 10 items in the list). I laughed upon hearing this but it hit me that this staff obviously remembered me. And the staff was a local.

And I have the exact opposite experience. Except for the Starbucks I frequent (both meanings of the word - I go 2-3x a day), I can tell the second I walk in and see the staff if my experience will be pleasant or painful. I only get one of two drinks, and the second has a fair amount of adjectives. I do order it in exact 'Starbucks speak' though, so it should be simple for the cashier. Of course not though when it is a blur disaffected local. I'll often get a blur stare with a bit of drool, followed by a "uhh... did you mean the ice cube one or the blended one", even though nothing in my order is even remotely similar to a "blended one" (A Frappuccino, something they have an official name for). I guess "iced" confuses them.

[zzm9980]

Pubs and bar staff aside, I normally have coffee with friends and acquaintance at the Starbucks Raffles City shopping mall. Now I am not sure if the staff there have an elephant memory or I just happened to be the odd customer (as I have a specific recipe as to how I want my coffee). 2 weeks ago (and after nearly a year from my last visit) an acquaintance asked me what I wanted from this Starbucks. I told him the specifics of the recipe. He came back after 20 minutes later and told me what happened. Apparently as he was going through the list of specifics on how to make my coffee, the staff who was serving him cut him off mid-way and told him the rest of what should be included in the coffee and the staff had been spot-on on the list of specifics! My acquaintance had only started off on the 1st item (out of 10 items in the list). I laughed upon hearing this but it hit me that this staff obviously remembered me. And the staff was a local.

What the heck do you put in your coffee?????

For me, it's more what I take out. Non-fat milk, and one pump of mocha if I get a mocha. Those things are so damn sickeningly sweet in their normal form, they might as well just be liquid chocolate with espresso.

[zzm9980]

I haven't been here long enough to know if service is "declining" but whenever I go back US, I'm beginning to notice the "service" there. From friendly smile on young staff at the coffee shop and from friendly and competent service staff at AT&T store, bank and etc. Plus, they can all understand my English

I notice this *everywhere*, even in China. I was at a dinner with some friends at a very expaty area of Shanghai (Xintiandi), and they were going off about how bad the service was because it was all peasants. I personally thought it was excellent compared to here

[Hidy Ho]

I laughed upon hearing this but it hit me that this staff obviously remembered me. And the staff was a local.

I go to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf almost every working day to pick up my breakfast "to go" ... I mean "takeaway". I almost always order the same thing every morning ... large coffee and cranberry muffin to takeaway ("to go" is not often understood).

If I deviate at all from their "trained" manner of asking (admitted, very hard for me to understand), it's chaos. Even if it's same person taking my order day after day, week after week, I'm still asked exactly same questions in same order ... mostly, without any sort of smile or friendliness.

I gave up simply asking for "a large coffee and cranberry muffin to go, please"; instead, I stand there and go through the motion of answering all their questions starting with a drink order. It's much less stressful that way for both of us.

[Hannieroo]

How can you put ten things in coffee? Coffee and water. Maybe sugar and milk if you are a big baby. But that's only four. Six straws?

[yogaloungeforever]

after frequenting the starbucks in orchard and some parts of singapore i have to say that the s'bucks vivocity and raffles city are the friendliest. the rest they are a bit blur sotong

... I can tell the second I walk in and see the staff if my experience will be pleasant or painful. I only get one of two drinks, and the second has a fair amount of adjectives. I do order it in exact 'Starbucks speak' though, so it should be simple for the cashier. Of course not though when it is a blur disaffected local. I'll often get a blur stare with a bit of drool, followed by a "uhh... did you mean the ice cube one or the blended one", even though nothing in my order is even remotely similar to a "blended one" (A Frappuccino, something they have an official name for). I guess "iced" confuses them.