Anarchy at the coffee-shop
Scene: an outlet of a recently opened coffee chain in a plush new Noida mall. A cosy place, not more than 20×20 ft, with seven tables (only two of them occupied), all in full view of the counter. Behind the counter stand 5-6 people, which means there are more employees than customers at present, and everyone can clearly see everyone else. The staff seems indolent, uninterested, and resentful of their supervisor – an intense young man with a very short fuse, who frequently swears and sarcastically says things like, “MAY I KNOW what you are doing please?!!â€Â. (No doubt he also has half an MBA degree and a perfunctory acquaintance with business management textbooks.) Abhilasha and I walk in, hoping for a quick coffee and sandwich before resuming our mall-tour.
At the counter
Jai: One cappuccino and a toasted cheese sandwich please.
(Short-fuse supervisor looks flintily at me through his spectacles, a psychotic love-child of Lord Emsworth’s secretary Rupert Baxter and Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle)
J: Um, are you taking the order?
SFS: One moment please, sir! (Barks at subordinates, mutters under his breath. They look at him with sullen resentment. He stares back at them in a fixed way, like Robert De Niro about to go at a TV set with a baseball bat, then redirects his attention at me) Yes, okay, please be seated.
J: And can we get some water please?
SFS: Okay, okay, okay, okay, I’ll send it across.
Minutes pass and there’s no water in sight. The wife and I are making gagging sounds, like slaves working on the Pyramids. I approach the counter and ask SFS if there’s a drinking fountain nearby.
SFS (nostrils flaring magnificently) You mean they STILL haven’t given you water?! (Screams instructions at minions, spraying spittle all over the counter)
A few seconds later a sullen young employee approaches our table, bangs down a large jug of water with things floating on the surface, glares at us and leaves. Several more minutes pass and throughout this time we are in full view of the employees; they can clearly see that we’re waiting for our order, yet no one seems desirous of making cappuccino.
Abhilasha: Most of them aren’t even doing anything, just staring.
J: Ooh look, that one is sniffing at the coffee vociferously before serving it at that table – maybe they give out a free sample of nose-hair with each mug.
I approach the counter meekly, asking for food and drink.
SFS (eyes bulging, looking like he’s going to have a heart attack) Sir, what was your order again?
I remind him. He hollers at his staff who look back at him, contemptuously amused; stray words like “valued customer†and “respect†can be heard in the tirade, and SFS now resembles the Vodafone dog.
SFS (forcing a smile): Sir, please be seated, I will personally hand-deliver your order.
Which he does, five minutes later, along with an additional cup of cappuccino (“our compliments, sir, sorry for the delayâ€Â). He also forces two members of our staff to apologise to us by sticking his fingers in the backs of their necks.
Abhilasha: Aren’t you having your coffee?
J: No, they almost certainly spat in it. I would have.
Welcome to Customer Service (and Staff Management) 2007.
P.S. No, I’m not averse to naming names: it was Costa Coffee at the First India Place mall. But we went there once more and things had slightly improved. Less spittle on the counter this time.
on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007, 6:38 am in Musings › 
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This is so f***ing familiar (Cafe Coffee Day in CP circa August 2007). It seems that all these places want to hire English-speaking college students or recent grads to work as waiters, but the kids think it’s all about living out their ‘Friends’ fantasy of Central Perk. Either it’s lousy (non) service or over-officiousness and adding items you didn’t want to your order so that they can prove themselves to the boss. I think there’s a serious psychological adjustment necessary for many of these young people to get used to the idea of working service jobs (particularly if they grew up with mommy and a chhotu waiting on them hand and foot at home), I’ve found a similar and really infuriating lordly attitude among computer company service representatives in Delhi and Bangalore, who seemed to perceive themselves as big shot engineers who had “arrived” and were infallible and would never admit to making a mistake. Bah.
On all sides, I would guess!
But Jai, are these coffee chains driving the old style coffe houses out of business? Where the waiters wore white uniforms and turbans with a flourish, the coffee was piping hot, and served in 15 seconds? If so, why? Those ‘India Coffee Houses’ had a superior business model to the Starbucks-y types - any day of the week. Shouldn’t they be giving the Starbucks-types a real run for their money?
Have Indians begun to look down their noses at anything that doesn’t have a ‘phoren’ Starbucks-y cachet? Then again, as Stephen Cohen notes elsewhere, the Ashok Hotel now has a Bentley dealership.
Chachaji - those places still flourish, mainly in CP, but are more expensive than the glossy new Cafe Coffee Day places and are frequented mainly by old-timers doing business deals and firang tourists wrapped in dupattas carrying their Lonely Planet, and no doubt looking for grand colonial atmosphere (the college kids go to CCD because it’s cheaper and more hip). It’s a shame they haven’t improved their coffee and reinvented themselves a bit.
SP,
I would cut these kids some slack. It is only recently that people have started working early in life and I am sure they will come around.
Chachaji,
The United Coffee house and the other older coffee houses are more expensive than their newer counterparts. Also the CCD and Barista’s have a younger more vibrant feel which appeals to the youngsters. Although I went to a Barista in Vasant Vihar two years back and a frappacino and hot coffee costed close to INR 200.
Brown,
I’ve worked similar jobs (and more menial ones) in college, coming from a similar background, without pissing off customers, and it’s been at least ten years now that college kids have been working those sorts of jobs in Indian cities (I distinctly remember college-kid sales reps at the Weekender in Bombay circa 1992). But you’re right that it’s a learning process, it’s the rare teenager who doesn’t radiate attitude in his or her first job.
Their managers do bear a lot of responsibility for poor training, too, I’m sure, like the comically accurate SFS described by Jai above. In Indian cities the rule, sadly, seems to be worse service in more expensive/Westernised-hip places. And of course the other extreme is fawning, embarrassingly obsequious service where there is a clear class difference between servers and served. Hopefully a happy medium will evolve.
BTW, Barista used to be ridiculously expensive, but lowered prices to compete with CCD. Their coffee is still not as good, though.
SP, those are good points - many of the middle/upper-middle class families even in urban centres continue to have feudal mindsets (subconsciously, in many cases) and in a lot of coffee chains you’ll see youngsters who seem resentful about having to do what are still thought of as menial tasks, fit only for servants or lower-class people. You don’t even have to be a particularly spoiled youngster or from a privileged family to feel this way - the idea of dignity of labour (or the “summer job” culture popular in the West) isn’t a natural one for many people. It doesn’t help, of course, that most of the customers at these restaurants/coffee chains have a condescending attitude towards the people behind the counter.
SP,
I absolutely agree with you, I have seen some obnoxious managers in Indian eating establishment which in mind explain the staff’s behavior to some extent. I have seen a lot of managers abuse their staff and wouldn’t put hitting people besides them.
What puts me off is the chip on the shoulder and how Indians are treated badly in the establishments you talk about and the foreigners are fawned upon. All this has to change and once again you are right that the process is slower than expected.
Although after living in Bombay and Delhi, I think the attitudes in Delhi are far worse than in Bombay.
Not really, brown! The chhotus of the world always existed. They still exist. What I don’t understand is why the CCD people don’t hire them from the dhabas, put them in a uniform and set them to work, instead of hiring ‘English-speaking’ ‘upper-class’ kids.
And SP, the India Coffee Houses came in quite a range of ambiences - the CP one was posh, others were not. But in any case, college kids went to the roadside tea stall for tea and bun-anda! To want to go indoors for coffee, and to be served by an age-and-class peer - hmm, things really seem to be changing.
Chachaji,
I was talking about the college students working in jobs similar to American summer jobs in Mcdonalds etc. They will not hire a chotu from the dhaba to keep up the image which is sadly what is sold everywhere.
BTW the bun unda and chai stall are not going to go anywhere as there are enough people who still patronize such places. I used to love the ones outside of IIT Delhi and Dhaula Kuan near the gas station.
Brown/chachaji, I much prefer the bun-anda places and tikki stands (and pav bhaji and vada pav in Bombay), but Kids These Days would rather make a statement by eating McDonald’s or sitting in a Barista (even if only one out of three of them orders something).
CCD would not hire a chhotu though, because they’re selling a Westernised dream and a status product, hence the English-speaking college kids.
Jabberwock, I agree completely about the dignity of labour - I had that exact phrase in mind, actually.