|
|
Post by Frankiesleftpeg on Jan 21, 2015 15:37:06 GMT 1
On the staffing issue, the numbers of agency workers we had kind of validate everybodies concerns. Similair to the stewards,the ones employed on a more permanent basis tend to be much better. but more expensive, as they are the regular, reliable guys who are sought out by other employers. UK job vacancies are now back above 2008 (pre-recession) levels, so people can vote with their feet. SODEXO@HTAFC want to employ the youngest and cheapest with no thought to skills or abilities or staff retention. Many of us will work daily within margins an understand the cost/benefit equation but I really do think that Sodexo are providing we Town supporters with very very poor produce, poorly trained and poorly motivated staff which results in a an almost insulting level of customer satisfaction. I want them to do well, I really do, and it does not matter to me whether they make a big profit or a teeny, tiny one, but they absolutely have to look at their own procurement, their staffing levels and staff retention and at service levels as I for one (and I know there are many others) will do all we can to avoid buying from them. From personal experience of their staff, whether it be front line or management shuffling around in the background, is that Sodexo don't really care very much about us as customers (anyone ever been TALKED to by one of these guys? It costs them nothing, but how useful could it be for them and for us as customers). I want them to do well because it has the opportunity to enrich my matchday experience, but all I see is that we are treated as cash-cows to be milked. Action points - 1) Lets have some local produce on sale - we are The Yorkshire Club, lets have some decent Yorkshire produce. 2) Improve the quality of what you sell. 3) Get some decent staff in and work on staff retention. Pay people what they are worth, not because they are the only ones who will work for you and treat them with respect. 4) Ever thought about putting the same (good) staff on the "Home" bars, so you get to know the people?
I'm available for consultation and my rates are very reasonable for HTAFC!!! Harry looking to switch ends then?  |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 15:37:24 GMT 1
Why not separate the beer from the food then they can concentrate on each one and do it better at that particular one. So one booth does food other beer, also I would serve mainly bottles and just have j smiths pulled save loads time. I would also like to see a better variety of food maybe sandwiches ,chips and maybe some offers on for kids snacks Agree. Note by the way that they do sell chips already... at least I saw quite anfew people eating them in the NSL at the last game and I can't imagine they brought them with them. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 15:44:30 GMT 1
Sodexo at the John Smith’s Stadium are pleased introduce themselves on Down at the Mac. This will be a great platform to inform you of new changes, future plans and for you the fans, to submit constructive feedback / suggestions for improvement. We are a relatively new team at the stadium and really want to improve the entire match day catering service. We are positive with your assistance we can make the John Smith’s Stadium the best in The Football League.
Sodexo Team
What I'd like to see is active engagement with the fans rather than "here's a sounding board, vent your spleens".
Obviously not every point can be addressed individually, as you'd never get your job done, but there are already some emerging themes of issues and suggestions that SHOULD have been addressed already, weeks, of not months or years ago, so how about a follow up now this has been up a day??
We have been through this process before with previous caterers, not a single one of them has acted or changed on the back of positive or negative fan comment. You need to do the hard work now to build up that trust and respect and engage the fans as equals... as yet, I don't see it.
Also, if theres multiple of you using this login, maybe add a first name on replies?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 16:57:39 GMT 1
Hotdogs made from real dogs would be a start,,I'm not fussed if the tomato sauce isn't real tbh
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 17:02:04 GMT 1
Sodexo at the John Smith’s Stadium are pleased introduce themselves on Down at the Mac. This will be a great platform to inform you of new changes, future plans and for you the fans, to submit constructive feedback / suggestions for improvement. We are a relatively new team at the stadium and really want to improve the entire match day catering service. We are positive with your assistance we can make the John Smith’s Stadium the best in The Football League. Sodexo Team What I'd like to see is active engagement with the fans rather than "here's a sounding board, vent your spleens". Obviously not every point can be addressed individually, as you'd never get your job done, but there are already some emerging themes of issues and suggestions that SHOULD have been addressed already, weeks, of not months or years ago, so how about a follow up now this has been up a day?? We have been through this process before with previous caterers, not a single one of them has acted or changed on the back of positive or negative fan comment. You need to do the hard work now to build up that trust and respect and engage the fans as equals... as yet, I don't see it. Also, if theres multiple of you using this login, maybe add a first name on replies? Bloody hell eager beaver give em a bloody chance. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 17:22:54 GMT 1
What I'd like to see is active engagement with the fans rather than "here's a sounding board, vent your spleens". Obviously not every point can be addressed individually, as you'd never get your job done, but there are already some emerging themes of issues and suggestions that SHOULD have been addressed already, weeks, of not months or years ago, so how about a follow up now this has been up a day?? We have been through this process before with previous caterers, not a single one of them has acted or changed on the back of positive or negative fan comment. You need to do the hard work now to build up that trust and respect and engage the fans as equals... as yet, I don't see it. Also, if theres multiple of you using this login, maybe add a first name on replies? Bloody hell eager beaver give em a bloody chance. Well all these questions and suggestions have been available pretty much since about 2003, I'm not sure how long a chance is required? Another 10 years maybe, perhaps it's like the Academy?! I personally don't really care that the individuals or company has changed, the issues remain the same. |
|
|
|
Post by ruud1boy on Jan 21, 2015 20:37:03 GMT 1
For all the talk about getting better staff, more enthused, better trained etc, they'll be paying minimum wage for a few hours work every 2wks - they're not exactly going to have hordes of graduates throwing their CV's at them. It'll be casual work for students who are skint that week. I wouldn't be surprised if they were recruiting new people every week.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 1:11:52 GMT 1
As a disabled fan in wheelchair (Revell ward Stand) I can agree with most of what is being said on the catering as there is hardly a match day when my carer comes down without tales of lack of service, understanding the order, failure to give right change, no lids for hot drinks, no pies (failure to estimate numbers & also on one occasion failure to actually put in oven early enough)amongst lack of condiments & other little niggles - other week there was even no hot water for hot drinks and had to go hunting for a hot drink! I dont have a problem with the current pies on sale apart from a lack of certain pies at times and selling out when there is a predicted large crowd. Hot drinks are ok although personal choice is for when we had the Kenco  I do agree with the previous poster on catering for disabled fans and providing some sort of "Delivery" type service, especially with regard to hot drinks is a good idea, we used to have a flask brought to us in previous seasons and even had an order form type service in the early days which was brought to us just at half time. In regard to the actual staff used I was told (not sure if true) that they can be shipped in from all over the place as on one occasion was told that on chatting to them they had come from Newcastle, turning up at Newcastle ground put on minibus and sent to fill in at the JS, like I said not sure on validity of this but if you treat staff like crap your going to get crap in retun! |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 1:16:07 GMT 1
i cant understand how they can justify some of the prices especially for burgers ,hot dosgs and cheesy chips
|
|
|
|
Post by thenuggett on Jan 22, 2015 11:51:23 GMT 1
Service is very poor. I am of the opinion youngsters turn up on the day of the match and are given no training. There is no teamwork behind the counter the whole operation is shoddy.
Away grounds seem to have a structure whereby service is slick. The thing is I have seen no improvement season to season !
|
|
|
|
Post by claytonwestblue on Jan 22, 2015 16:00:15 GMT 1
Bloody easy to sort get people selling hot drinks from side lines half time and how easy would it be to sell pork pies from our many award butchers in the area or do the same with the ones you already sell ps learn the staff common English and show them how to heat the pies up without burning them and then stop trying to sell the burnt pies Not one company has got the catering right since the stadium opened it's a complete shambles lost count of the times I have complained and never got anywhere
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 18:17:27 GMT 1
Bloody easy to sort get people selling hot drinks from side lines half time and how easy would it be to sell pork pies from our many award butchers in the area or do the same with the ones you already sell ps learn the staff common English and show them how to heat the pies up without burning them and then stop trying to sell the burnt pies Not one company has got the catering right since the stadium opened it's a complete shambles lost count of the times I have complained and never got anywhere Well that's common enough.   |
|
|
|
Post by SODEXO@HTAFC on Jan 22, 2015 19:40:08 GMT 1
Thank you for all your suggestions and comments so far, there's already been some great ideas and we appreciate your time. We would like to take this opportunity to respond to some of the comments.
Based on your comments we have brought in Soup2Go in cup, initially its Knorrs Tomato Soup but if it goes well we can always extend the range to encompass more flavours. Hope you enjoy the hot soup; it will be available at the next game across the stadium.
We could also change the crisp supplier to Seabrook Crisp’s if that's the general consensus? (That customers prefer Seabrooks?)
We would love to bring in some local ales but as you correctly stated the John Smith's brand is owned by Heineken and therefore due to sponsorship deals and contracts, Sodexo aren't allowed to sell any other Brewery related products other than Heineken products (hence Fosters, Bulmer & John Smith's). Heineken do have a limit range of ales but they can't supply them in plastic bottles, so the only option would be draught (which we are looking into).
A lot of people have also mentioned the speed of service surrounding pints. Once again Heineken supply all the fonts/ equipment. We have recently requested faster service equipment's and more fonts / T-bars, which we will continue to chase up. However, we aware there is some stuff we can be doing to speed it up like faster staff & more accurate prepours.
We have recently managed to recruit enough staff to not have to use agency, so there should start to be some more consistency. Having said that, good staff are hard to come by and if anyone knows anyone (over 18) who could bring some reliability and consistency to the matchday team then please message me.
Lower FM have different food facilities because when we took the contract on there was no kiosk provided for us to sell from in lower FM. So we had to out source it to a food van. However, we are realistically looking at building a kiosk down there ready for next season. We will provide an update as soon as that is 100% confirmed (which should be relatively soon).
Name badges are a great idea and we are in the process of purchasing them. We will have them in place for all staff no later than the end of March but hopefully a lot sooner.
Apologies if there's some points I've not responded to however let me reassure you that we read all your comments thoroughly and we are acting behind the scene to improve the service. Thank you again for all your comments.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 20:24:24 GMT 1
So soup and name badges then
|
|
|
|
Post by goodshot (FGS) on Jan 22, 2015 20:51:10 GMT 1
Pork pies (local) and bacon baps - easy to do.
|
|
|
|
Post by ajsfad on Jan 22, 2015 21:20:57 GMT 1
Local pies, local ales. Simple. It's what we all want I think. The area is well known for these delights, let's get the away end well stocked too and make it a good away day for visiting supporters, brag a bit about what local food n drink we have to offer, apart from when Leeds are in town of course when we should only serve them cold bovril if they're lucky
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards
|
|
|
|
Post by patfield on Jan 22, 2015 21:50:54 GMT 1
Not usually one for food and drink at the stadium but I was so cold and hungry the other week I decided to part with my money.
Fm upper for me.
Eventually got served at half time. I wanted hot chocolate and a Twix nothing too demanding, unfortunately sold out of hot chocolate and twixes . So a black coffee and a snickers served by an embarassed member of staff.
Whilst I understand stock is dead money until its sold, as far as I'm aware a Twix doesn't have a shelf life of two days and could have been kept probably the whole season without going out of date.
Wont make the same mistake again , I will get my hot chocolate and a Twix from the burger van outside B+Q at half the cost.
So to summarise.
1/ Get more staff
2/ Keep a decent stock
3/ Price competitively.
|
|
|
|
Post by dxterrier on Jan 22, 2015 21:57:39 GMT 1
@sodexo@HTFC
One of the major points that keep on being raised is using local produce. I am the part owner of a local catering butchers, I can supply locally sourced good quality meat, if you would be willing to send me some contact details via a PM then we could have a talk, pretty sure most on here, and stadium goers in general would be happier to use the catering facilities if they were buying locally sourced quality produce
|
|
|
|
Post by patfield on Jan 22, 2015 22:02:44 GMT 1
Oh I'm a veggie but bacon butties and pie and peas would sell by the hatful.
Trust me I work in sales.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 22:05:34 GMT 1
Oh I'm a veggie but bacon butties and pie and peas would sell by the hatful. Trust me I work in sales. What price do you reckon locally produced pie and peas would sell at? Bearing in mind the mark up on the present rubbish? |
|
|
|
Post by patfield on Jan 22, 2015 22:13:32 GMT 1
I know at most farm shops pork pies sell for about £1.10 to £1.40 obviously theres a decent mark up on the pies. Im sure you could get locally pork pies to the stadium for 80p a throw . Mushy peas cost feck all tbh.I reckon they could churn pie and peas out for approx £2.80 making a healthy profit.
BTW I dont sell pies....or peas for that matter. Just my opinion.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 22:16:22 GMT 1
Talking of shelf life's... and not really to do with improving service.
But what happens to unsold food that might be unsaleable by the time the next match comes around?
Is it dumped, or shipped out elsewhere or something? And what volume if any is wasted?
|
|
|
|
Post by patfield on Jan 22, 2015 22:27:02 GMT 1
Talking of shelf life's... and not really to do with improving service. But what happens to unsold food that might be unsaleable by the time the next match comes around? Is it dumped, or shipped out elsewhere or something? And what volume if any is wasted? Its left a while then served up for the pigs at bell end road. Oink oink |
|
|
|
Post by Terrier Ramone on Jan 22, 2015 22:44:43 GMT 1
If this company (& senior management at the club) are serious about wanting to provide a decent product & a realistic alternative for more customers the first thing they should do is send senior managers "undercover" to see the whole experience for themselves...they would soon see the problems.
I refuse to pay ridiculous prices for awful products served by incompetent/cant-be-arsed staff.
I'm positive that neither Deano, nor a senior representative from this customer could honestly actually claim to have enjoyed the catering & think it decent value for money...I'm afraid that neither the club nor the catering company actually care enough to do something about the situation, yet in reality how hard is it to produce a decent pie & peas at a reasonable price?
|
|
|
|
Post by daveweston on Jan 22, 2015 22:59:08 GMT 1
What about using some proper local products from local suppliers maybe support some of towns partners like Haighs Farm shop? People would be far more likely to buy products like that and it would have a direct benefit to the club. At the moment it is a them and us situation. Am sure our helpful commercial staff would help to bring good deals together!
|
|
|
|
Post by turbo2 on Jan 22, 2015 23:09:07 GMT 1
I know at most farm shops pork pies sell for about £1.10 to £1.40 obviously theres a decent mark up on the pies. Im sure you could get locally pork pies to the stadium for 80p a throw . Mushy peas cost feck all tbh.I reckon they could churn pie and peas out for approx £2.80 making a healthy profit. BTW I dont sell pies....or peas for that matter. Just my opinion. They charge £3 for a sausage roll that costs 80p at greggs. They would want about £8 for a decent local pie and pies. |
|
|
|
Post by smj1 on Jan 22, 2015 23:40:03 GMT 1
If this company (& senior management at the club) are serious about wanting to provide a decent product & a realistic alternative for more customers the first thing they should do is send senior managers "undercover" to see the whole experience for themselves...they would soon see the problems. I refuse to pay ridiculous prices for awful products served by incompetent/cant-be-arsed staff. I'm positive that neither Deano, nor a senior representative from this customer could honestly actually claim to have enjoyed the catering & think it decent value for money...I'm afraid that neither the club nor the catering company actually care enough to do something about the situation, yet in reality how hard is it to produce a decent pie & peas at a reasonable price? Just back from London and I have and continue to watch this thread with interest. Some great ideas and comments from our supporters and I hope Sodexo implement them. Feedback and engagement with supporters and the Club on this subject is to be welcomed. I am afraid I do completely disagree with the comment that the CLUB (I can't comment for Sodexo but by the nature of thier two posts demonstrate a positive step) do not care about the subject. In fact it is just the opposite we (the Club) care very much! Each week we provide Sodexo with our feedback from the boardroom to the terraces. We have those documented and would be happy to share those if you wanted to meet me at the club. Each week we hope they improve. Equally we have been champions of local produce and would welcome Sodexo working with us on our Partners ( I.e. haighs - who invest in your club to be a partner and are big Town fans) or potential partners. I have indeed sent an email to Sodexo this evening to help create a win win win situation for the Club, the fans and indeed them. I await their response. We also provide our feedback to the KSDL board meetings and insisted in the last board meeting that the comments we made on Sodexo were included. We also provide feedback to Sodexo that is given to us by mystery shoppers implemented by the football league. This is excellent independent feedback. On the reports given the catering has sadly been the underperformer and scored points below other parts of the business - this is something we want to change - but is not under our control as opposed to retail or the lotteries for example. What's more Dean is a champion of value for money and that includes the terraces and the experience of fans. Lastly for clarity it is KSDL that appoint the caterers and are ultimately responsible for their performance. We suggest and welcome dialogue to Sodexo but they will make thier own choices including prices as per their contract with KSDL. As I say we really do hope they listen to what you have said and work closer to the club on local produce - this ultimately helps the local economy and local employment. Once again we care a lot about the experience provided - it is Very important to us and to imply otherwise is wrong. Rant over Sean |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2015 0:16:13 GMT 1
Good post Sean.
I would ask why its necessary to pay a visit to the club to see the meeting notes?
If they're acceptable for public consumption, then why not simply just publish the notes so we can ALL see them ?
I'm guessing from the openness in the responses, and the way in which the Sodexho poster has refrained from reacting to the wisecracks, that they'd be more than willing to have the notes made public.
Ps. Please remember that we are customers of the football club when we're down there between 245pm and 5pm on a Saturday. Both the current and previous owners have hid to an extent behind the "its a contract with KSDL, we're not responsible" mantra. As fans of Hudds Town, we don't care about what services are subcontracted etc etc, the football club should be our single point of contact for everything to do with match day concerns and should be seen to be leading change and challenging the current delivery of services to strive towards excellence. I don't see that unfortunately.
Irrespective of that, the football club has significant minority shareholding in KSDL and representation on the executive board, so I'm not sure how the hinted hand off of responsibility works other than as an attempted deflection technique?
|
|
|
|
Post by smj1 on Jan 23, 2015 0:28:15 GMT 1
You make some good points.
The feedback forms are very extensive - one of the commercial team is responsible for collating them and has a large folder
Don't know on Sodexo wanting to make them public - I guess we should ask them - seems only fair
Rest assured we don't hide and we are looking for a catalyst of change. I agree with us being the sole point and sometimes that is the frustrating bit - some of the services that provide the total Matchday are not under our control and very difficult for us to change them - but we want change, we want improvement. I wish you could see what is said/discussed on a daily basis to help our supporters but naturally that is v difficult
Defo not deflection.
Sadly I can say it till I am blue in the face - we want change and are doing what we can to try and get it. But sometimes it wrong to was dirty linen in public - you just have to trust us.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2015 1:02:32 GMT 1
Fully understood.
Lets let this thread do what its supposed to in the meantime and get back to suggestions and commentary on concessionary stand service.
|
|
