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The Toasted Bagel

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I went to a breakfast meeting this week in a “euro” hotel.  It had gold plated taps, stripy carpets and sat in the middle of an industrial estate.  I am sure you would recognise it.

They served smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels.  This should have made up for the gold taps, I get hungry thinking about it.

But they didn’t use a toaster.  So instead of a hot crispy toasted bagel with soft cheese and delicately smoked salmon, I got a lump of cold stale bread and fishy tasting cheese. Try it at home; you can experience the disappointment for yourself.

The point is it doesn’t cost much to toast a bagel, it isn’t difficult to toast a bagel and it doesn’t take much time.  You just have to know to do it.

Do you toast your customer’s bagels?

Photo by Christian Kaindl on Unsplash

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, customer focus, poor service

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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