Great Western Coffee Shop

http://travel.cnn.com/shanghai/life/china-sets-amusing-rules-shanghai-beijing-bullet-train-attendants-287576


Posted here for comparison purposes ...

A spoof advert for FGW buffet car attendants ..

For comparison purposes


Rules for would-be buffet car attendants include:
Smile with only eight miilimetres of bared teeth, 4mm each side. No Dracula like fangs should be visible, a feat achieved by daily customer-baiting training.
Scowl through the eyes. Training for this talent involves covering all facial features save the eyes and trying to out glare  each other. Best tried after the customer has asked for an extra wooden stick to stir his/her coffee
The inability to carry out impressive talent shows.
Provide ^5S^ service to passengers. Although many indiscreet English jokes can be fashioned out of it, ^5S^ actually refers to scowl, surly, slam,silent and spill.

I have met several staff in various places who will have attended the charm school where chuffed's standards would have been met with flying colours, but my personal experience has not included FGW buffet staff.  However, a false smile is usually seen for what it is and I think making work genuinely pleasurable and employing people who actual like giving service probably obviates many training schemes in customer service.

I use the catering facilities on FGWs HSTs on an all too frequent basis. The majority of the staff are excellent, although there are one or two for whom it seems that anything is too much effort, even raising a smile.

London based crews are lowest in my estimation of what makes good Customer Service. Those from Plymouth are by far the best.

I quite agree with that sadly. There is a particular member of Buffet Staff that seems to want to spend time gossiping with colleagues rather than serving customers. I once stood in the Buffet and made a "buying signal" and was told "Just a minute sir" they decided to continue what was clearly a staff gossip conversation. 5 minutes later I peered around the counter again and heard, "Just a minute sir, please!" quite sharply. My response may sound rude but was more frustration in being ignored was "It was 1 minute, 5 minutes ago!" They came to the counter and I ordered a comp coffee. This was begrudgingly made. I asked for fruit cake and was told to wait for the trolley. Completely overlooking that fact I came to the buffet just before Bath Spa and the train terminated at Bristol Temple Meads. The regulars of those trains will get what I'm implying there. (The answer was a poorly disguised, NO!)

I have to agree in contrast though, that most staff are excellent. When I did my years of commuting between Taunton and Bath Spa on the 07:15 and 18:00 return. Some of the staff even remember how I took my coffee, how many milks I have, some of them would just make it without me having to say anything. It certainly sometimes felt like a personal service rather than a commercial one. One occasion I ordered a breakfast from the Traveling Chef but forgot to say No Tomato/extra egg or something instead please. Needless to say I realised when I saw the breakfast being brought to me I had forgotten. The Customer Host hadn't. No Tomatoes in sight and an extra Egg and piece of toast ;D

Personally, I think it's amazing how something such as that can make your start to the day seem so much better ;D ;D

I think the regular customer host on the 07:30 Paddington to Penzance worries I might be ill if I DON'T order hot food from the Travelling Chef on that service and only have a coffee.  ;D

I would agree that Plymouth CH's are excellent.  However, in the evening there are a couple on my Swindon to Nailsea journey who seem to think it's ok not to bother doing a run of 1st Class between Swindon and Bristol and one woman who I have never seen smile. They're not Plymouth, though where they are based I couldn't say, and to be fair most of the evening crew are pretty good, even though there seems less of a chance to build up a rapport with regulars.