Italiannies Part 2

Yes, a part 2.

Its getting really challenging to eat at italiannies for some reasons.

I went to Italiannies at the Curve shopping mall with my wife and kid to meet a make up artist on Thu, 11th Sept (911). Everything was ok, the atmosphere, the food, the music. We sat at a table for 4 pax and then we decided to move to a bigger table to accommodate the food, the photos albums, baby stroller.

There wasn’t any waiter around my area and the only i could see was behind me, which is on the lower floor. I called out to him “Excuse me”, the waiter turned around and looked at me for 2 sec, and then walked away. WHAT THE FUCK? ? ?  I called out to the same waiter (Lets call him WAITER X ok?)  again, this time i raised my voice “EXCUSE ME!” almost all the customers in the restaurant heard me and know that the damn waiter was ignoring me!

Just when i was about to get off my chair and throw it at someone, another waiter (Lets call him Waiter A) came and quickly apologized. I asked him to move us to a bigger table and please get the manager.  By now, most of the customers in Italiannies are also dumbfounded as to why THAT PARTICULAR waiter refused to serve me. The make up artist also commented “How RUDE!”. Later i asked waiter A as to WHY waiter X refused to attend to me? is it because the waiters here are attend only to their ZONES? The answer was the obvious YES. Still, couldnt waiter X tell me to wait or hold on while he get someone to attend to me?

About 30min passed and we finished our dinner and the make up artist left, still no sign of the manager. I asked waiter A, what happened to the manager? is he busy? he quickly replied to me, “OH! you WANTED to talk to the manager? wait wait!” .

Perhaps all the waiters that night have hearing disability and i shouldnt be making fun of them in this blog?

2 min later, the manager came (Mr MAX LEE) and i related the whole incident to him. Max was quick to apologize and pacify me by asking me “Have you paid for your meal? ” . I told Max in a firm voice ” Sir, im not complaining to get a free meal, im doing you a favour by giving you feedback. I am customer and i will pay for the meal” . Max was SHOCKED but came to accept my decision and thank me and then he left.

My

After paying for the meal, we left the restaurant and i could see Max at the kitchen corridor screwing waiter X. Max was really upset!!

I should be saying ” Serves you right muthafuka!” but i didnt.

I just dont understand why the service level in Italiannies @ the curve has gone down so much even though its under the same management of TGIF! TGIF is known for great friendly service right!? Why cant they just train the staffs together? Surely more can be done to train the staffs ??

One thing that i DO notice is that Italiannies 1 Utama hires mostly young local malaysians vs imported labour @ the curve but this can hardly be the deal breaker i believe. With the righ training, rewards and encouragement, im sure they will get better in time.

To anyone from Italiannies reading this post, feel free to drop a few comments. No need to apologise or offer me a free meal. Cheers

Italiannies

Yeah, i know the spelling is different but its the only logo i can find on the net.

Ah….i was supposed to post this up weeks ago but life’s been hell lately.

Italiannies is one of my favourite place. Curve,1U,Gardens- ive been to all of them, frequently!

So few weeks back my family pop in for a quick coffee break at Italiannies 1utama. It was around 9pm and the place was around 70% packed (weekday). We ordered two coffees and then i took my son out for a stroll. 10min later, i returned and presto…..we were still waiting for our order.

I dont mind waiting but cant they at least serve us some plain water first? I got hold of the waiter that took our order and asked him whats taking holding up our order?!

Guess what our waiter did? He looked at his other colleague and asked him ” Didnt i tell you this table’s order?!” This other guy, looked like he just saw his grandma in her knickers, just stood there and look at us…..

So it turns out they were passing “orders” (pun fully intended) around themselves.

Just so happens, the manager overheard the conversation among his staffs and quickly came over to apologise. He told his staffs to quickly get to our orders and bam! our coffees came in less than 3 min. Which is what i have come to expect from italiannies!

Around 15min later, the manager came again to apologise (again!) and then we started to chat.  I asked him if i could take a pic of their POS (point of sale) screen as this reminded me of my experience in KFC

After we finished our coffee and my nice little chat with James, i asked for the bill from the waiter. James the  manager came again for the 3rd time and said the drinks were on the house! Damn! i should have ordered pizza and pasta to go! I insisted on paying but James is a BIG guy and you know what they say, never argue with the BIG GUY!

So there you have it, What would have turned into a bad customer service experience was rectified with the right actions : timely apology, quick resolution. Sounds simple enough but yet hardly practiced within the service industry in malaysia