Holiday Blog...

Well, I am way overdue to update my blog. What better time than after a holiday?

This year Lee and I decided to tour some northern Europe cities and then settle back in our 'second home', Germany.

First stop: Stockholm:

I am a complete stress case when travelling for more than a couple of days. Especially when my destination is quite close to home where the weather is unpredictable. Should I pack a long sleeve shirt, I'd better take a jacket if it gets colder at night, hat if its hot, umbrella if its cold. Coupled with my rather over active work travel schedule, I have to try to fit in washing some clothes to prepare for the holiday too. Needless to say, I decided this year to start early and I picked out some clothes early during the week before and made sure I was better prepared to avoid the stressed state I inevitably get into immediately prior to travelling.

As it happened, I was stressed but not because I had forgotten to wash the clothes I needed or left my umbrella at work or forgot to check the train times to the airport. I was stressed because...wait for it...I had nothing to be stressed about! I was actually worried that everything seemed to be prepared. We were packed and ready to go to the rail station with plenty of time to spare. There must be something???

So off we headed to Cambridge Station. The direct train to Stansted airport often gets cancelled so I predicted that this would be the fate to await us. We got to Cambridge Station and lo and behold....erm...the train is on-time. Hmm, something must go wrong, why am I so pessimistic?

We arrived at Stansted in very good time, but phew, it was extremely busy. Stansted used to be such a pleasant airport to travel through, now it is hell! Low-cost airlines coupled with the widening number of European destinations being served has attracted hundreds of thousands of extra passengers travelling through this airport. That is fine, but it means you need much more space to handle everyone and you need to employ efficient staff who have excellent customer service skills. Unfortunately, in my view, Stansted cannot handle the volumes now passing through and the training offered to the staff working at the various business, restaurants, airlines, security etc, appears to be abyssmal. I have some examples.

After the very long queue at check-in, we had enough time to have some lunch after we passed through security into Departures. We decided to go to Frankie & Benny's. Usually a reasonable price and whilst the menu offers barely more choice than offered in motorway service stations, it is usually better quality. Firstly we were greeted by the waiter, who made little or no eye contact, didn't smile and basically pointed out a table to us rather than escort us to it. Ok, I guess it is a busy day for him. When we sat down, I noticed at least five four-seat tables which had not been cleared, and a growing queue of customers waiting to be shown to a table. Not enough staff on duty, doh! Then , when I looked to the floor, I saw food droppings, cutlery, used napkins and even menus littering the fooor at various places in the restaurant. I witnessed at least four different members of staff completely walk round or over this litter, not bothering to pick it up. Meanwhile they then ran out of forks when they delivered my food - erm, not surprising since cutlery was still on the floor when it could have been coming out of the dishwasher. The queue was lengthening, but I also saw a number of people give-up and leave the queue - all this time the same uncleared tables remained unused.

This is inefficiency and lack of planning at it most depressing. Frankie & Bennys lost trade that day, and probably every day, due to lack of staff, lack of training and poor planning.

I make a conscious effort to smile at shop assistants, waiters, bar staff etc. I believe that if I smile, they maybe feel a greater desire to offer me excellent customer service. It means I'm so much more likely to come back again, right? I believe that when I don't get a smile back those people are either so miserable in their jobs or they have not been trained. I know we all have a bad day from time to time, but if you work in a customer facing job you need to rise above your mood and at least pretend you are there to help, and smile.

Having said that, some people are so badly treated in their jobs I guess it is no wonder it gets to them. Here I blame their managers. Some so-called managers couldn't manage a piss-up in a brewery.

We haven't even boarded the plane to Stockholm yet. Well, we did and arrived in Skavsta airport in the late afternoon. Bus journey to Stockolm city, an extortionately expensive taxi to the hotel (minimum charge approx GBP 10.00 for about 1 kilometre) and at last, a new city to explore....