Great Western Coffee Shop

Arriving at Chippenham Station for the 06:55 this morning ...

* The ticket machine in the car park tells me that it's "rebooting" when I put in my card, and I'm left scrabbling for change.   Not the first time recently eithe.  fail

* The ticket machine offers me Bath, Bristol and Swindon as popular journeys.  I start with letters for PAD... Paddington and it offers "Paddington Und".  Hmm - press the button and it says "Sorry, no such fares" and I eventually find what I want by typing in LON ... and Selecting Paddington. fail

* The first fares offered are super offpeak pass and that's an excellent change from having to search to pages 2 and 3 for the lower fares on the next train

* The ticket restriction comes up "Valid for return between 10:00 and 15:00 and after 19:00 on Monday to Friday".  Hmm ... nothing about the times I can return on this ticket on Saturday (later today, which I want to do) or Sunday. fail.

* I abandon the machine any buy at the manned counter, reporting the lack of information to the clerk there.  I get the impression that the lack of data will go no further, though "I suppose it should say and any time at the weekend"

* The door to Steamers, the coffee shop, has a label on "WE ARE OPEN. PLEASE USE OTHER DOOR".   I walk around to the other door, which is open but the place is in darkness.   I put my head in to the door and see tables stacked and hear noises being the counter.  "Can I get a coffee" I ask.  "We're not open" says a voice from behind the counter.  "But it says that you are on the door" says I.  "I wasn't on yesterday when that was put up ..."  Ah, so that's OK then ;-)  fail

So I sit on the 06:55 Paddington train ... I've got a good seat pass and indeed there's sufficient space for people at the tables to have bags on other seats, and feet up on the seat opposite too ... without making other stand.   The fare of 48.50 is one I'm happy with - confirmed by the ticket cleark to be valid back at any time later today.   Happy with the journey ... but noting the little challenges that should be resolved for the most part should we want to encourage newbies onto the trains.

"First class is at the front of the train" before it arrives.  But ... "which way will it arrive" asks the tourist / newcomer. ...

Having done a stint in retail management, I do understand the often difficult trade-off between allocating scarce resources in your budget to be able to pay your staff to open/close outside of "public opening hours", and not doing so thereby risking the kind of experience grahame encountered.

However, balanced against that is the fact the customer will almost always be antagonised by this sort of thing, particularly if (as is so often the case) a member of staff at a different establishment elsewhere has "gone beyond the call of duty", and "sorted something out" for the customer. As a result, the miffed customer is unlikely to frequent the establishment that spurned them again, unless they have no choice but to do so.

That's pretty much my experience of Steamers, unfortunately. It could be a nice little independent-style outlet of the kind I personally would like to see encouraged, mixing newspapers/magazines, decent beverages, internet access etc with an inviting d^cor and welcoming comfy seating.

The problem is, despite doors being open and a member of staff being present, I have either been unable to purchase a cuppa, nor been able to enjoy it relaxing on the comfy seating on rather too many occasions in the recent past for my liking. By contrast, I have turned up at a number of Pumpkin (other national retail outlets specializing in railway stations are available) caf^ shops, and cant remember being refused, despite sailing quite close to the wind closing time-wise several times.

As a result, as much as I would like, as a general principle, to see Steamers succeed, I tend to avoid using it unless I absolutely have to.

The upshot of it is that to avoid incidents of this nature occurring, outlets need to be either visibly open or visibly shut, with opening hours and employee hours tailored accordingly. Whilst treating your employees as well as you possibly can is obviously to be both commended and encouraged, there is little point in going unreasonably overboard to the extent that you have no business left with which to employ them.

We're in "retail" too I suppose - retailing hotel rooms, also happy to do cafe style service and have extreme hours to cope with, and I can sympathise with shoulder hours where you have staff preparing / cleaning up at the end of the day.   What really got me was (i) that the ONLY sign I could see was this on the door in the ticket office was:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/notreallyopen.jpg)

(ii) that the "other door" around the front of the station was wide open, no signs at all and
(iii) that the staff member took the attitude of "I've just got here - of course we're not open" and when I told her about the sign said "I wasn't on yesterday.  That's because they were having trouble with the door".

Take down the "we are open" sign when you close for the night, folks ... don't snarl at a wannabe customer who follows such a sign if it's been left up by mistake, but rather apologise nicely and be seen to correct the problem, and you won't loose a regular customer ... nor get bad reviews posted.     Had Steamers said "closed" on the door, even had there been staff inside, I would have just shrugged, thought "well it is early on Saturday" and carried on past.  With no fail reported here.


At times I ... despair ... at how easy it is for us to get reasonable reviews just by being nice and understanding with customers, help provide what they want when they want it (if we can), and if we can't ... express regret, give reason, suggest alternative.


I'm not sure what their official times are ...they're certainly not obviously posted


"If you like what we do, tell others ... if you find something wrong, please tell us".  I've not been able to find an email address for Steamers, but  I do know that they were owned by the same company that supplies our hotel with lunchtime baguettes when we're running an event.  I haven't felt able to raise my concerns with the staff I have met an Steamers, so I'm thinking it might be worth my while (and help get something improved at what is, after all, one of our CRP stations) if I do a bit of off-board digging.  In a way, I'm feeling slightly guilty at my initial rant, but I know that Lee and I are not the only one to have concerns that aspects are below average, and that can't help the business or the keeping of jobs there in the medium term

I wouldn't feel too guilty, Graham.  Customer service seems to be what this is about and sometimes neither staff nor management 'get it' and see customers as a nuisance to be put up with.  I'm sure the good folk at Steamers will be pleased to learn that a few minor tweaks to their approach will bring commendation and increased custom (and profit).  Only the fool-hardy ignore potential new customers when it comes to business.  Nothing posted here has suggested that about this establishment, just some carelessness.