I had a call from a London publican earlier this week who is really annoyed by the "continental " oversize pint glasses Heineken have introduced, which he is now using in his pub.
His complaint is that the glasses essentially cost him money because they can take around 100ml more than a standard pint glass and staff find it difficult not to fill them over the line, so he is effectively selling a greater volume of beer for the same price as a pint.
He lays the blame firmly on the glasses, rather than the staff. I've tried to contact Heineken to get their response to this criticism but have had no response.
Any thoughts - is it the fault of the glass, or should the staff be better trained?
Staff should be trained but this might not solve the issue -- many customers expect their glass to be full to the brim and will demand a top up, which staff would feel obligated to do.
training of staff would help but also training in politel explaining the lined glass and how liquid to the line is full, not to the top of the glass
Calvin Hanks
www.cjgroup.co.uk
CJ: training of staff would help but also training in politel explaining the lined glass and how liquid to the line is full, not to the top of the glass
Do you mean a polite explanation to the customer? That is a very good point - I suppose that even if staff know they have to fill to the line, customers could complain if they didn't feel they had received a full glass.
Does Heineken insist he use them? If so training should surely do it!
Anthony Lloyd
Fallowfields Hotel and Restaurant, Oxfordshire
www.fallowfields.com
Apart from writing for BII Business as The Business Doctor and advising many BII Members, I also own and run SureStock4bars - a widely used stocktaking company,
We have many clients using oversize glasses and not one of them shows anything like a 20% loss in service using these glasses.
We track our clients losses/gains by product and the most I can find is a 3% loss which our client is working on to acheive a better result. This is comparable with products served in "pint to rim" glassware where some wastage occurs through staff overpouring into the drip trays.
So this raises some questions;-
1. What does the licensees stocktake show - is he really showing a 20% loss on these products? If he is, then not training his staff is financial insanity.
2. If his stocktaker has not itemised and compared his consumption v. sales by product then he wants shooting!
3. Has he read the BBPA guidance on measures which sets out quite clearly the issues surrounding oversize glasses and draught service in general?
4. If not it is available via http://www.beerandpub.com/industryArticle.aspx?articleId=76
5. There is no mandatory requirement to use branded glassware. He can always revert to unbadged "pint to rim" glassware but, in the process, will lose the superb presentation effects that using the branded glassware acheives.
Hope this helps.
Trevor Brown. CBII.
well spotted!
yes a polite discussion with the customer - finger typing issue!
i recall using oversized glasses with a line - my GP was always spot on as I trained staff and monitored filling
i also trained them on what they could say to customers who questioned why glass was not full to the top