Saturday, November 28, 2009

Product Names and Their New Meaning

When you have a customer come in and ask for a soda by a brand name, do you tell them the brand you actually have? In our society certain brand names have become synonymous with the product. For example, when you need a tissue, what do you typically ask for? When ordering a vodka mixed with an energy drink, do you say just that or ask for the brand name you know and is most common?

At my bar, we typically don't tell customers that we have an off brand energy drink or the exact brand of soda we carry, unless they ask. Do you agree with this practice? What do you do at your restaurant?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only thing where I work is someone will ask for a Coke and I will tell them we have Pepsi. Some people just want to know that. But giving brand names no I do not bother.

BB said...

typically at our bar if our typical college customer asks for say a vodka and soda we give them our cheapest vodka because they are looking for a cheap price. If it is an adult and he asks for a vodka soda I will name off our higher priced vodkas and ask which one he prefers.

As far as soda, we don't really specify. I have no idea if our sprite is actually sprite or if it's 7up or sierra mist. To be honest, I've never had someone say "Oh no that's not sprite that has the more zippy taste of 7up". And the same goes with our rootbeer. I have no idea what type of rootbeer it is and nobody has ever asked me to specify.

purplegirl said...

We get a lot of people who ask for Coke; I always ask if Pepsi is okay, because so many get pissy and change to something else when I do so. About half the people mean cola in general, but some get really irate.

purplegirl said...

Oh, and some of them like to argue with me--"You had Coke last time!" Sure, if the last time they came in was before May 2001!

Waitersfriend said...

I agree whole heartedly. I think generally if it is an issue for someone they will ask you what brand you carry - there is no need to tell them. Most customers, for example, would just order a vodka lemonade - not specifying the type of vodka they want, just as long as they get vodka... those who want a premium product, or a specific product will ask for it.

Miss G said...

We carry Pepsi products at my restaurant, and in the past, I had never bothered to correct anyone who asked for a Coke. However, I had one customer recently who ordered a Coke, and after bringing her a Pepsi, flipped out on me because she was "allergic" to Pepsi! Seriously?! How could you be allergic to one but not the other - and if you ACTUALLY were allergic, wouldn't you make a point of mentioning it? So, to answer your question, yes i do clarify whenever I get the Coke/Sprite order.