Something has to be said about maintaining a quality impression when your business is serving consumers. I walked into a Quiznos today and ordered a sandwich, and by the time I walked out of the door I vowed never to return to that Quiznos again. First of all the guy behind the counter was very unreceptive and non-animated when he greeted me (his opening words were “What to you want?”). I believe that first impressions are vital and will give you a certain degree of forgiveness and flexibility from your customers if something should go wrong further down the sales pipeline. If you are able to immediately establish a friendly relation with the customer he/she will often overlook minor imperfections in you service because of this relationship. Well in my case, immediately after I ordered the guy preparing my order dropped his knife on the floor and then picked it back up. Without even hesitating he went on as if nothing happened and was about to cut the bread before I spoke up and asked him “Hey, did you see that knife fall on the floor”. He did not even flinch in his response by saying “Ya!”. It was not until I asked him, “Do you think it might be a good idea if you washed the knife before you use it to cut the bread I’m about to eat?” that he actually turned around and did what I asked of him. After that I micro-analyzed every mistake that he made (which every consumer will do after their faith and trust has been violated). This included not asking me what I actually wanted in the sandwich (lettuce, tomato, CHEESE…), and with the sandwich (pop, chips, soup…). Not only was this guy bad, but the other guy at the till did not say a word to me before or after I paid except to say “Over there” (while pointing) when I asked for pickled peppers.

I can say with absolute certainty that they will never see me there again. There is a chance that the 2 customers before me will never go there again, especially after walking out of Quiznos with a disgusted look on their face. They both saw the knife fall and when they grabbed their meals they did not seem please to have purchased it. This is not the first Quiznos that I have been into that I have had a bad experience with, which indicates there might be some underlying customer service issues. I’m not a difficult customer to deal with either is that is what you were thinking. What is funny is that I know now why they are the only food retailer on the only block who is not completely jammed by traffic. Anyways stay away from these guys:

Quiznos - Store #4768
228 Wellington St W
Toronto, ON M5V 3W1