The Perils of Portion Control
I travel to London roughly once a fortnight, and go by train so I can work. The line was run by GNER, but has been taken over by National Express.
Ticket prices are high and getting higher, and trains are always packed full of people. Some people end up standing having paid
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Hi Steve, Agreed... wouldn't
Ask M (not verified) on January 1st, 1970
Hi Steve,
Agreed... wouldn't it have been better to supplement the breakfast with some freshly ground, freshly brewed coffee?
As well, at that price:
- the sausage should be a premium quality organic sausage, no Tesco Value bangers
- the eggs should be free range
- And they should be ashamed of themselves for filling up the plate cheaply with baked beans!!
Perhaps they could even offer a variety of breakfasts - e.g. American pancakes / fresh fruit salad / croissants and pains au chocolat?
Bring the customers in, don't drive them away!
And I'm an accountant!!
M
Well, all credit to National
Steve Parks on January 1st, 1970
Well, all credit to National Express, I received the following email:
So I've got back to them. There were also some other issues with the service that I didn't mention in the blog because they weren't relevant to the article on portion control.
It's excellent that National Express are on the ball with how their service is being discussed on the web, and ready to respond.
I desperately want to avoid
Steve Parks on January 1st, 1970
I desperately want to avoid becoming Victor Meldrew here... but this original post was about the perils of portion control - drawing a larger lesson from what was a very small issue.
In the email above National Express East Coast said that they hadn't introduced portion control - but I gave their breakfast another go the other week and sure enough, half a mushroom.
But a more serious issue on that journey was the staff seemed to view customers as a real inconvenience, and treated one other customer very rudely indeed. I wasn't impressed at all.
is it downhill now for the East Coast mainline service?
I travel every week to
mike (not verified) on January 1st, 1970
I travel every week to Edinburgh and have always used the restaurant for breakfast.
The menu has now been tweaked and within a week of the change I noticed the restaurant is now usually empty at breakfast, whereas a month ago it was hard to get a seat some days.
The black pudding has now been halved, NO BAKED BEANS which has left the full english rather dry and unedible, oh and it went up in price!
Fruit cocktail has vanished to be replaced with an item of fruit.
Even the staff admit that the menu has changed for the worse and yesterday told me to smugle beans onboard and the chef will include them in the breakfast for me!
Hi Mike yes - I see what you
Steve Parks on January 1st, 1970
Hi Mike
yes - I see what you mean! I decided to try breakfast on the way to London once more the other week, and baked beans have gone as part of the cost cutting. How much does a dollop of baked beans cost??!
The fruit cocktail has gone too. And the price has gone up!
The staff seem to be quite embarrassed about all this (and embarrassed and annoyed by the fact that their expensive new handheld gadgets never work anymore, so they're having to write out paper receipts and put cards through an old fashioned imprint machine).
National Express seems to be having some issues.
I've also noticed that this seems to have led to less people using the dining car.
I've given up on breakfasts now, but may give the dinner coming home one last try tomorrow night! Fingers crossed for me. :)
i think M's comment on this
Anonymous (not verified) on January 1st, 1970
i think M's comment on this matter is a bit strenuous,organic bangers,really people see value as ammounts,if you had two sausages and no brand beans and one large mushroom most people whould pay extra for the tea or coffee which all companies make a fortune on,even fairtrade rubbish
There really are bigger
Anonymous (not verified) on January 1st, 1970
There really are bigger issues in the world - even in the world of train travel... you're lucky that you can afford the breakfasts on the trains. As a 'start up' I find it difficult to afford the ticket to London, let alone all these extra perks you are droning on about, you're not living in the real world.
I think you misunderstand me
Steve Parks on January 1st, 1970
I think you misunderstand me Mr/Ms Anonymous. The aim here is not to complain about the breakfasts, it's to try to learn lessons from things we see around us in the world. So here we learn that customers really do notice even small changes in your level of service, and it has a disproportionate impact.
That's important, particularly in times like these, because entrepreneurs could be tempted to cut corners in their service to trim costs - but they have to be very careful what they cut and how they explain this to the customer.
You may be a startup now, but if you keep looking and learning from whatever you see around you, however small those lessons are, you'll one day be successful enough to afford the train ticket and the breakfast! It's still the real world, its just a different stage in the growth of your business.
And I do agree with you on the extortionate cost of the tickets. I'm now doing fewer trips to london and staying a bit longer while i'm down, as a direct result.
I always travel standard class, but I have friends in the corporate world who get to travel first class - and the price rises are so high that they now find it cheaper, if there are two of them travelling, to hire a chauffeur driven mercedes to pick them up from their houses in Leeds in the morning and drive them to London and back. That can't be right.
And brace yourself - the train companies have announced more fare rises for the new year.
Good luck with your startup.
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