*High Horse Warning*

At the risk of sounding 40 years older than I am, whatever happened to customer service? In the current climate you’d be expecting businesses to go the extra mile to make the sale, and staff to be putting in the extra effort to get ahead and stay in a job. The news last night reported that young people have been the hardest hit with one million now unemployed, but that’s another post.

Last week I had three bad experiences in one day…

T K Maxx

I’m not really a fan and have only shopped there a couple of times, but with the lure of occasional bargains and a flat to furnish (my mum’s) we decided to give it a go. We found loads of stuff and ended up with an overflowing trolley.

Problem number one, a broken lift. There was no way we were getting the trolley down the stairs so I reported the lift problem to a member of staff who promptly said “Are you sure?” Eh…no…I’m just pretending (you idiot). Lift problem sorted, we headed for a checkout.

Problem two; Amongst our loot was a Marilyn Monroe box set, you know the ones where you get three boxes of differing sizes which stack inside each other, like those Russian dolls. Well the checkout lady scanned the price that was on the large box, she then opened the box and said that she thought that each box was priced seperately, even though neither of the two smaller boxes had a price tag. We asked for the manager who said that the other boxes should be priced seperately, and that the tags “must have fallen off”. The manager demonstrated no customer service and at one point adamantly exclaimed that he “would not be selling us these boxes today”. He didn’t try and cut a deal or even inform us of what the price was supposed to be, I got the impression he didn’t know, he was more interested in throwing his managerial weight around. We ended up walking out of the shop leaving over £100 of stuff at the checkout.

Sainsburys

Usually excellent on their customer service with their ’smile and pack two items’ policies they fell a bit short when at the cigarette/lottery counter I purchased a couple of items and requested a bag. I was busy putting away my change and receipt while the member of staff just dumped the bag on top of the items, making no effort to pack the items away. Now I don’t expect my bags packed for me all the time but seeing as I was busy and he was standing there like a fart in a trance it wouldn’t have been much to expect a little help.

KFC

Fast food joints aren’t exactly renowned for their customer service so no surprise really. We spent a while deciding on a couple of box meals, the only request was that we could exchange chicken wings for a corn on the cob on one of the meals. The member of staff refused point blank with no explanation and no effort to ask a senior member of staff it could be done. There seems no reasonable explanation not to fulfill such a simple request, it’s not like the food is already allocated. It left a bad taste in our mouths (literally).

………………………………………

After all that moaning I feel like I should end on something positive….

I tried to join Graze a while back, it’s a new company that provides healthy treats delivered to your door. As I was signing up I had difficulty registering my card and eventually gave up. I happened to tweet that I was really keen on the idea but was having trouble signing up.

I couldn’t believe it when the next morning a member of staff contacted me and fixed the problem (which I think was my own stupidity), well I ended up successfully signing up yesterday and I’m happy to spread the good word about their service I’ll let you know how the treats taste.

Ever wondered how kids meals compare nutritionally between McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. I have. Here’s what I found…

Introductory Comment

This little experiment isn’t intended to show any one brand up, rather it was to satisfy my own curiosity. It’s worth noting that there are hundreds of combinations available which I haven’t compared, instead choosing a small selection of popular combinations that I would likely choose. There are other combinations that will be more healthy and unhealthy than those I have shown. All fries are unsalted.

McDonalds

Happy Meal including Chicken Nuggets, Fries and Fruit Shoot
Calories 420
Fat 21g
Salt 1.2g

Comment: A pleasant surprise really, the calorific value is reasonable (around a quarter of a child’s daily allowance). The amount of salt in this meal was the second highest out of the 6 combos.

Happy Meal including Hamburger, Fries and Coke
Calories 590
Fat 20g
Salt 1.8g

Comment: Calorific value much higher here, mainly due to the coke. Salt was by far the highest of all selections.

KFC

Kids Meal including Fillet Burger, Fries, Fruit Shoot & Yoghurt
Calories 587
Fat 20.8g
Salt 0.8g

Comment: The second highest for calories, but quite a low salt value. Includes desert which other combos do not.

Kids Meal including Chicken Strips, Corn, Fruit Shoot & Yoghurt
Calories 479
Fat 23.2g
Salt 0.9g

Comment: Calorific value is relatively low but this meal has the seond highest fat content. Lower in salt than other combos. Includes desert which other combos do not.

Burger King

Kids Meal including Hamburger, Fries and Diet Coke
Calories 520
Fat 25g
Salt 0.8g

Comment: Very high fat content and calorific value over 500. Salt is relatively low

Kids Meal including Chicken Tenders, Fries and Coke
Calories 510
Fat 23g
Salt 0.97g

Comment: Middle of the road in calories but quite high in fat.

Conclusion

Burger King does badly for fat content. McDonalds performs poorly for salt and choose the wrong combo from KFC and consume nearly 600 calories. My favourite combination was the KFC chicken, corn, fruit shoot and yoghurt meal. Its quite high in fat but includes a vegetable, protein and dairy for maximum variety and it has the yoghurt providing a desert. I was surprised how evenly each brand performed overall. The biggest alarm bells rang when I saw how much full sugar carbonated drink added to the values.

What do you think?

McDonalds photo by flickr user noodlepie
KFC photo by flickr user viZZZual.com
Burger King photo by flickr user paranoias80