Hervey Bay Businesses Need to Improve Their Service
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009Martin Fraser from Fraser Coast Business Brokers thinks that some local Hervey Bay businesses need to improve their customer service.
Like many other businesses we spend a lot of money encouraging people to move to Hervey Bay, we meet and greet them and want to show off the best of our city. I fear we are going back to the days of old Hervey Bay “where the coffee will kill a brown dog, and if you dont like it P off!”
Wife went to a well known Esplanade Thai restaurant with a small group of school mums a couple of nights ago. Service was very slow, to the point of total indifference. The wine was corked (why serve a 2006 Chardonnay in a warm climate anyway?). After the term “corked” was explained, waitress took it to the kitchen where they tasted it and agreed. Another bottle was ordered an delivered with the blunt statement: “If no good, bad luck!”Next night I went as well, I think it was to punish me. The service was again slow, with the waitress just wandering and when a request was made, continuing for quite a while until she had finished her routine tasks . Only two tables were occupied, the place used to be packed out. Plates on the table setting were removed after we ordered and set on the sideboard for reuse, not washing: we had been sitting before those plates for half an hour or more. A common soft drink was not stocked. The mandolin music was just too loud. Plates were removed from two diners while the third was still eating.
As wife had to wait for the bill the previous night, we asked for the bill early and were told “Go to the counter” This was not a takeaway, it was a licensed restaurant!
So we queued while takeaway customers ordered. No smiles, no thankyou, no courtesy. We weren’t difficult customers, perhaps we should have been.
We eat out a lot and get great service from a really friendly little Asian restaurant in Bideford St. Even though we know the menu backwards, guess where we are going back!
Sadly we’ve encountered similar poor levels of service from some local eateries and from comments made to us from time to time we’re not the only ones who are disappointed in the level of service that some Hervey Bay businesses seem to think is adequate.





