30 mins is a very long wait for a sandwich - long enough that it wouldn’t allow most working people on a lunch break to get there, eat, and get back to work within an hour (and some lunchbreaks are shorter than that). If they work ten minutes’ walk away that leaves literally ten minutes for eating, and you’re not even including the time they took to queue before placing their order. That is not a workable business model. 30 minutes is restaurant time, not lunchtime sandwich time. Fifteen minutes is pushing it to the limit and that is what you count as standard.
I’m not sure there’s much you can do to change that until you get more staff or something; perhaps warn customers that there will be a wait but provide seating while they wait?
Even if it’s obvious that you’re swamped, that’s hardly the customer’s fault because most people do not expect even a swamped deli to take 30 minutes to deliver the wrong sandwich. And then, from her POV, she gets to wait perhaps another 30 minutes for the right one. Time she may not have. If she works ten minutes’ walk from your deli that’s an hour and a half lunchbreak with ten minutes of actual eating time and the rest queuing or waiting.
I’ve worked in catering - in Europe, even - and this sounds like a long wait time. Sorry. You seem like such a nice person. But even 15 minutes as standard is a long time to wait for a sandwich.
RNATB, I did do a thread here maybe about 14 months ago.
We opened just about 5 months ago and we’re still learning ourselves. Staffing needs is one of the most difficult aspects of this whole thing for us. Business has been very unpredictable up to now.
We have a help wanted sign on our door, but good help is indeed difficult to find. We know we aren’t offering the ideal job for anyone since we can only offer part time work right now, but we are growing every day so we have been increasing the hours the last week or so. We are losing our sandwich guy to a full time job though.
But business has really picked up. We placed an ad in our local paper, plus Apple Hill is officially open now and apparently people weren’t kidding when they told us to expect an increase in our numbers. Boy howdy, we are doing very well right now.
As of today, we are letting folks know up front that it will take a bit. We were even busier and service went pretty smooth.
With the lady yesterday, she wanted chinese chicken salad, which we don’t do. My girls claim she settled on chicken salad, but the customer said she ordered turkey. When we took the free sandwich card out, the other lady at her table said we didn’t need to do that. So, I don’t know. She did eat all the food.
Anyway, thanks for all the feedback and well wishes everyone. I’m still worried about winter, but so far, we’re fairly pleased.
If they screw up my order and then comp me, I might be back. if they just give me a card, probably not. Particularly if the place used to have something I liked and doesn’t any more. New management, new menu, whatever. Plus a long wait. YMMV.
In a growing/expanding business it is far better, for your business, to have a few hours being overstaffed, rather than get caught out delivering bad service, when you have more business than anticipated.
Like everything, it’s a balance, to be sure.
But it’s no good drumming up more business if you can’t meet the demand when that volume comes through the door. If you want that volume steadily, you’d better be ready to show you can handle it, when it comes.
Be honest with the people you hire, the hours are part time, but variable. Offer them a perk like a staff meal, if they get sent home early on days when it’s not that busy.
Service staffing is not easy, but you’ll get the hang of it, just keep trying to find the right people. Once you get a couple of ‘good fits’ you’ll have a better idea what to look/watch for.
Do keep us updated, we love hearing about your thriving new adventure!
Growing pains. It’s the nature of the small business beast. Do whatever you can to avoid giving your customers the impression that you are unable to produce good quality at a good price in good time. I agree with others above…tell them up front of the wait and offer to comp a soup or appetizer while they wait. That being said, you can’t continue to do business like this. You must focus on your end goal. Hire some help now and have a contingency plan in place when one of your staff is a no-show.
Most small businesses that I’ve been involved with don’t have any type of contingency plan for anything, but frankly you have an obligation to the success of your business to consider what your options may be in the event of an emergency. For example, what would you do if one of your major pieces of equipment failed or either you or your husband became very ill and unable to be there or the building suffers major damage from a fire and can’t be repaired for 3 months? Do you just close up shop or would it be a better plan to know where you can rent equipment, hire temporary help, or purchase insurance to pay for the loss of your business income? Plan, plan, plan!
Scifisam, I should clarify. Most of the time, it doesn’t take us too terribly long to get a sandwich made. I’d guess 5 minutes for cold sandwiches. Our goal is 3 minutes, but I admit we are not there yet.
On our employees, there is only one guy leaving for a full time position and it was his replacement that failed to show. We made a bad choice. We knew it too. We actually felt sorry for the guy, but we should have known better. Anyway, we fired him and we already have another guy hired. Hopefully, we made a better choice this time.
If you’re just doing lunch (that was your plan right?) you should advertise to stay-at-home parents who want to make some money while their kids are in school, but at a job where there will never be a conflict with getting to school, coming home from school or after-school activities.
Coming in at 10 and leaving by 3 would be perfect for a parent. Heck, it’s like working the lunch room at school, which is what my mom did when we were school age.
Lots of SAHMs I know do stuff like selling MLM stuff (Tastefully Simple, Pure Romance, etc) so they are definitely looking to make some cash.
It always seems better to me to give the complainer your personal card so you can take care of them personally the next time they come in rather than a free sandwich card where they might end up being served by the same person they feel screwed up the first time. This gives you a chance to be personally involved in reclaiming their business.
I’m glad to see you’re doing so well. I remember that thread being a bunch of people (including me) wishing you well and then telling you to plan for doom and gloom.
Part time during lunch on weekdays? - perfect job for a SAHM who wants a little extra cash. Maybe try advertising in the local elementary school newsletters?
In the mean time, a local sandwich shop (“Potbelly”) has these great signs they put up at intervals. “The wait time from this point is X minutes.” Then they place them such thatit will always be a bit less than that.
Most of the time I can glance at the sign and see that I have time and it will be fine. Now and then I’ve taken a look, said “No way!” and moved on to a less desirable but faster alternative.
Maintains my trust and avoids serious annoyance on busy days.
That still sounds like a long time. I swear, when I worked at a deli, we could pop out sandwiches in about 30 seconds. And there were two people on the line making them. (I wasn’t one of them. I was way too slow.)
I don’t want a goddamn sandwich that was made in 30 seconds. Hell, they can’t get a burger out from under the heat lamps at McDonald’s in less than 30 seconds.
A thousand times this. Very good quick and inexpensive way to let people know that you’re more of a custom deli rather than a 30-second Subway alternative.
I’m also fourthing or fifthing everyone who said to let your employees know ahead of time that you will ALWAYS be throwing them under the bus to unhappy customers.
To add to that basic concept, you need to grow familiar with your workers, and if you have someone who is consistently excellent but just got the shit end of the stick with an asshole customer - repeat that message in the moment to the staffer. She/He will appreciate that you acknowledge that they’re a consistently good worker, and that you aren’t looking for reasons to replace them or that you secretly think they suck.
Other good ideas:
Required First Step Every Time: Give the mad customer time to vent. Stand there and agree with them. This is the most horrible experience I have in my job, and it doesn’t get any easier. You *want *to defend yourself, your business, and your employees. DO NOT DEFEND YOURSELF. If they say you are the most awful piece of shit and that you can’t make a sandwich fit for a dog, agree with them, and apologise. If they want to complain to the licensing agency about your cleanliness, offer to give them the number, and apologise. Agree and apologise, rinse and repeat.
This step sucks ass, and you have to do it, especially if they’ve been stewing over something for longer than about 3-5 minutes. They need to get all that spleen out of their system before you can start to mollify them and try to make them happy. Just roll with it, know it will be over soon, and when they start running out of steam, then begin offering compensations and corrections. Something to Keep in Mind: Know that sometimes you’re just going to get an asshole that you can’t make happy. Do your best for the audience (the other tables) so they realize that’s an asshole, and they feel sorry for you, and proud of your efforts to make things right. You’ll lose one asshole customer, and gain a lot of brownie points with existing customers. This is NOT a loss.
**Make things Better on Their Terms: **Offer the customer *choices *in how they want things fixed. Three choices is a good number. Usual choices I see are: Comped meal, card for free meal later, free dessert/take-away item.
If you have a really shit customer, or they had a god-awful experience, offer them two-out-of-three of those choices up-front, and if they still seem pissy, then follow up with the last item. Food is expensive, but customer loyalty is worth more than any food in your inventory. If you feel like you can either win this person back, or win points from the other tables from the effort (which is almost always) then be generous with this.
**Watch Out for Repeat Recreational Outrage: **You know, and I know, that some people are awful. People will take advantage of you, they will put bugs in their own food, they will claim to have ordered one thing and not gotten it, or that your mousy service person cursed them out when they ordered. Always take the customer’s side THE FIRST TIME. It looks good to the audience, you can’t know if something really did go sideways, and at worse, it makes the asshole think they got one over on you, so they leave quicker.
Remember those people. Try to get screen shots from your security camera. Trade notes with your crew. Recognise when they come in, and do what you need to make that particular customer not like your location for their scams.
Specific advice to achieve this:
Try to always serve them yourself - identify yourself as the owner/manager.
Get your waitstaff to be super-attentive - always at their table perkily and over-nicely asking if they need refills or anything changed.
Come by yourself right when their order is done and ask them to check that everything is right.
You’re trying to let them know in a cheerful way that you know they tend to pull shit, and at the same time, letting them know that you’re going to make it difficult for them to pull shit in the future. Last Resort: If you get a truly awful specimen, you can get a restraining order / injunction against them. This really is a last resort, and you don’t ever want to advertise that you have done this (except to your crew, who need to know) but this is possible, and sadly, every once in a while, made necessary by customers being total scum.
Good luck with your deli!! It’s so nice to see someone doing well in this economy, and with their own business to boot!
The experience I had a the restaurant I was talking about is a good point here. I was complaining that a key unexpected ingredient, coconut, wasn’t mentioned on the menu. The waiter listened to me, walked away to a corner, and pulled out a menu. It had the look of him checking up on me before offering to bring me something else. That may not be what he was thinking, but it’s how it came across to an angry customer. In this case, he should have done that completely out of sight, or after I had left.
Little things like that can matter, especially to someone who is already upset.
-D/a
There’s no way we’ll ever be a 30 second place, that’s for sure. Our most popular sandwiches are our hot ones and they take time.
This is going to be a challenge for us. Business is so unpredictable and finding good employees that are willing to be flexible has been difficult, which I totally understand.
We need to communicate better with our customers about how long it will take when we’re swamped like that. And then hope they agree it’s worth the wait.
Panera, Subway and Quiznos all have hot sandwiches, and they’re not taking a ton of time. Come to think of it, McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s sandwiches are technically hot too. What are they doing differently?
USA service is like something from another planet. I live in Italy and I would not expect to get anything at all in this customer’s position. At most I’d get an apologetic shrug if I complained.
