Attorneys are often criticised for our service levels, and in recent times have been trying to compare our services to those of many other industries. It is amazing that, the example, you get restaurants with fantastic food, great service and words seems to spread so slowly, that there aren't that busy. On the other hand, you get institutions, places that made their name a long time ago that currently have more business than they can handle, and are expanding the premises to cater for more clients, but service levels have long since dropped past atrocious. A perfect example of that is a copy shopping in Dunkeld by the name of Fournos - which, at apart from having a name for chicken, has also seen its number of branches expand all over Johannesburg - including at the airport.

I've had some bad service there recently so I decided today to go at a not so busy time, after the mid-morning rash, and arrived at one o'clock when the store closes at two. I ordered my copy and roast chicken with salad, and when my coffee arrived the waiter advised me that they'd run out of ready chicken and what they had was raw, and still had to be cooked for quite some time. To be frank, a recent experience of waiting more than 10 minutes to be served, while the waiter picked at his skin in front of me, made me take a decision to leave a little faster than would normally be the case if I was not going to try something else, but not before an attempt to discuss it with a manager. I never found one, but my wife did, and he told her, the time being 1:10pm "I have already sold 200 chickens and at 2 p.m., so what you expect?". The attitude of the staff, chiefly the waiters of whom there are not enough in the first place, was pretty similar, so I guess I know where they got it from. The place is doing its best business right now, but as word of mouth spreads, you can rest assured that if steps are not taken, the future of the store is not as bright as its current attendance would show. I discussed the matter with a friend, and he told me he no longer goes there because of the poor service, and then I heard the same story from my mother. That's how buzz about bad service spreads, and is something we all have to be careful of, from the new receptionist who misses all of her calls to the staff member dealing with clients on the phone. Your business may be booming now, but if you give the kind of service that Fournos in Dunkeld is giving now, the boom days will soon be behind you. The picture, which we snapped today, shows the empty racks, and shelves at Fournos. The manager, predictably one would guess given the barren nature, asked us not to take any more.  Maybe he was just irritable, another male client was busy complaining too.

Tomorrow its I think my 9th AGM, in terms of attendance, at the JAA.  It seems a long time ago that I was Chairperson, and its great to attend without having to give a speech.  I have of course the Gauteng AGM in 10 days time, and an annual report still to prepare there - which will remind me of the work involved!

Tomorrow my role is limited to introducing Ronald Bobroff.  I was asked to do the same thing last year, and our Chairperson, Hoossen Sader, then delivered a 3 minute warm up on Ronald's role in the profession etc.  I sat back, knowing there was nothing left to say, assuming he had forgotten it was my task, and looked forward to hear from Ronald on what he had to say.  As Hoossen wound up Ronald's introduction to the anticipated, "And now its time to welcome Ronald to the stage....", or at least thats what I expected him to say, as he had said all I could say on a short evening, he in fact announced, "and now Michael de Broglio will give us a brief introduction to Ronald..."

Hopefully, this time he leaves something for me to say!  Of course Ronald and I will see more than our share of each other this week - a 1.5 hour media meeting Monday, the JAA AGM tomorrow and the whole of Friday at the Law Society Council meeting mean we can't say, "haven't seen him for a while."!