The Match Day Experience

[brb]

As most of you may know who are regulars to this board, one of my biggest moans is about the catering on match days. I always feel that if you offer a match day experience in a family friendly ground, along with new promoted catering menus then you should be able to deliver.

I believe the price we pay today to follow our respective clubs, in itself brings higher expectation from supporters, basically what is that match day experience for the prices we pay?

Hence after recent experiences again for the start of another season, I contacted the club.

They were prompt at dealing with my complaint and acknowledged it more or less immediately, along with an apology. I also had a follow up explanation.

I enquired why certain products were unavailable?

We did misjudge the ordering for the pies which are a fresh product made specifically for our Company and delivered in on the day of the match – expecting a much hotter day, we did not expect to sell so many pies.

So who ate all the pies I say tongue in cheek? I thought we were dealing with a multi million pound catering company, however, forecast has been adjusted. In regards to no bottled water in 30c heat, no explanation was offered, so I can only assume that also comes under forecasts or the following response below...

We have had a significant change in staff over the summer and we agree that the training carried out so far has not been good enough. We will be carrying out more training sessions this week and next week. This will emphasize customer service. My Retail Manager will be spending much of his time on matchday ensuring the organization of the kiosk and the staff is correct.

So there we are things are going to get better.

 

[alwaysright]

If you think that our match day experience is bad - you are in for a rude awakening at Barnet this week - probably the worst food I've tasted.

 

[brb]

If you think that our match day experience is bad - you are in for a rude awakening at Barnet this week - probably the worst food I've tasted.

Fair point. However, if you promote your product you should deliver what is based on the charge.

It's just the same when you go to the County Show, you pay ridiculous prices for some of the food and then see an entire bin full of waste (although that was not the case at Priestfield). Now either people have loads of money to waste or it was not appealing to taste, probably both.

These are multi million pound contracts, if you get rubbish service at a venue tell them, what is it with us Brits?

 

[alwaysright]

brb - the bottom line is that we are a captive audience. It seems that there are too many places where you haven't got any other option but to avail yourself of whats on offer - and why is it usually well below decent standards and vastly overpriced ? At Wycombe, for example, a burger from a stall outside the ground was £2. Inside the stadium the price was £3 ! Anyway the answer to my question is ;
Take it or leave it ! - assuming that they have it in the first place - I said in a thread that at Crawley last season they had run out of pies about 40-45 minutes before the game began !

 

[brb]

brb - the bottom line is that we are a captive audience. It seems that there are too many places where you haven't got any other option but to avail yourself of whats on offer - and why is it usually well below decent standards and vastly overpriced ? At Wycombe, for example, a burger from a stall outside the ground was £2. Inside the stadium the price was £3 ! Anyway the answer to my question is ;
Take it or leave it ! - assuming that they have it in the first place - I said in a thread that at Crawley last season they had run out of pies about 40-45 minutes before the game began !

I think the take it or leave it option can obviously apply to everything we do in regards to most retailers, hence go elsewhere. It becomes an issue when as you say 'we are a captive audience'. Also more importantly the club has a Customer Charter in which it states:

............

Gillingham Football Club is committed to providing a high quality of service to all our customers.

If the customer feels that they are less than satisfied with the service they receive they should direct their complaints to the Chief Executive.

Telephone: 01634 300000

Email: [email protected]

http://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/club/customer_charter.aspx

Priestfield Stadium @PriestfieldStad
New products sold on the concourse at the 1st Sept match - The Pie Factory, Flaming Good Burger & Franks Hot Dogs! Try them! @thegillsfc

..........

These days we spend far to much money as football fans, so I chose not to take it and leave it and followed their laid out procedure.

 

[alwaysright]

Sometimes charters may not be worth the paper upon which they are printed ! Don't we subscribe to a charter relating to being an equal opportunities employer ? (McCammon )