Cyn sent a message to Nigel Travis Chairman and CEO, Dunkin Brands Group, Inc. that said:
Dear Mr. Travis:
I read an article in the Boston Globe last Friday written by Candace Choi that caught my interest. In this article she mentioned that in order to counteract slipping sales, you were going to more actively compete with burger chains, Subway, etc.
For what it is worth, I would like to offer my observations. First and foremost you are a place to get coffee and donuts. That is how you started and that is where your success began. I think you have strayed too far from the basic concept. Bagels are fine, but stop with all the "speciality items". Stick to what you do best, what you have always done best. Leave the burger chains to fight it out amongst themselves. I think the "America Runs on Dunkin" slogan is brilliant and it is true........or was.
Secondly, I would suggest that perhaps it is not what you are NOT offering that is the problem, that perhaps a great deal of the problem is the way customers are treated. We live in Massachusetts so there are Dunkin's on practically every street corner. The ones I frequent most often are two in Tewksbury - directly across from each other. When the one at Kerri Plaza is out of something or something is broken (and it happens more often than not), I run across the street. If I do not go to either of those two, then I go into downtown Andover and hit the one on North Main Street (Route 28) or South Main Street.
What I have noticed over the past several years is the quality of customer service has gone down......way down. I often wonder if the same franchise owner has all of these stores. The lack of service, the lack of civility, the lack of smiles, of a hello would shock you. And if it is happening here, I would bet it is happening lots of places.
If I were younger and could afford it. I would love to have a franchise. I KNOW what good customer service is--I used to train people--and I know when it is not good and at every single one of the stores I have mentioned, it goes from not very good to really terrible. There are some pleasant employees in all of them, but few and far between. No customer should have to stand and wait for 10 minutes in an almost empty store to even be acknowledged, let alone waited on.
I go in these often enough they should recognize me, but they don't and could care less. Not long ago I stood at the counter at the one on South Main Street, Andover for almost 10 minutes and listened, yes, listened to the manager(??) laying into the staff about things she wanted done or things that had not been done. They were all just around the corner and she was loud and obnoxious to her employees. Aside from the fact, this should never have been done in the store, I could hear every word. FInally I had to walk down to the end of the counter and let her see me so she would stop yelling at her employees and let someone wait on me. It was disgraceful. I would have sent her packing if I was the owner.
I could go on and on and give you many examples, but I hope you are understanding what I am saying. There is a definite lack of customer service and that might have as much to do with declining sales as anything else. Believe me, if I liked Starbucks, I would be going there. Lucky for you, I hate their coffee.
Thanks for listening.
Cynthia
