The Black Info Booth Test
I did a little test Sunday at the info booth. I finally saw someone there. I think they need a higher chair, though because all you see is the top of her head.
When I approached the booth, she was leaving, not sure why, it was 4 pm, prime time for the Grove on a Sunday. Anyway, I stopped her and asked if she could give me some information.
I asked her where the Coconut Grove Playhouse was. She looked bewildered and she went back into the booth and grabbed a map. You know, one of those brochure-map things that every tourist gets in their hotel or car rental agency. This is what these info people are using.
So she attempts to look it up and I said, "You know what, forget that, where is Greenstreets?"
Greenstreets? The girl didn't have a clue where it was or what it was. She grabbed for her brochure again. Just then two good Samaritans came over and gave me directions for the Playhouse and Greenstreets. I told the Samaritans what I was doing, and they knew The Grapevine and got a kick out of my experiment.
I apologized to the girl in the booth and told her what I was doing, too. I told her not to worry, it isn't her fault. Apparently anyone can work there, they throw you a map/brochure and you have at it. That's your job. No training needed.
Total waste of tax payer dollars. My next test is to get a tourist with the same map/brochure and see how fast they can find a location compared with the info booth person. I will bet anything that the
tourist wins.
Between the terrible customer service at some stores and the lame info booth, I can just imagine what tourists think of Coconut Grove. I don't think it is a good impression. Maybe some of us who actually know our way around can volunteer to do some shifts in the booths.
When I approached the booth, she was leaving, not sure why, it was 4 pm, prime time for the Grove on a Sunday. Anyway, I stopped her and asked if she could give me some information.
I asked her where the Coconut Grove Playhouse was. She looked bewildered and she went back into the booth and grabbed a map. You know, one of those brochure-map things that every tourist gets in their hotel or car rental agency. This is what these info people are using.
So she attempts to look it up and I said, "You know what, forget that, where is Greenstreets?"
Greenstreets? The girl didn't have a clue where it was or what it was. She grabbed for her brochure again. Just then two good Samaritans came over and gave me directions for the Playhouse and Greenstreets. I told the Samaritans what I was doing, and they knew The Grapevine and got a kick out of my experiment.
I apologized to the girl in the booth and told her what I was doing, too. I told her not to worry, it isn't her fault. Apparently anyone can work there, they throw you a map/brochure and you have at it. That's your job. No training needed.
Total waste of tax payer dollars. My next test is to get a tourist with the same map/brochure and see how fast they can find a location compared with the info booth person. I will bet anything that the
tourist wins.
Between the terrible customer service at some stores and the lame info booth, I can just imagine what tourists think of Coconut Grove. I don't think it is a good impression. Maybe some of us who actually know our way around can volunteer to do some shifts in the booths.
posted by Tom Falco at 7:47 AM
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24 Comments:
On Saturday night while waiting for a table at Jaguar, I thought I too would give a test, by asking a random Grove related question, as my sister looked on.
I walked up to booth in front of the Gap and stood at the window for a few moments. The woman did not acknowledge my presence and sure did not look up from her portable handheld TV. I looked to see what she was watching. Seeing nothing compelling, I then knocked on the window. She opened it. I asked if I was disturbing her. She said no - not convincingly. She did not smile. She was not welcoming. In fact she did not say anything, just sat there blankly. As I was about to ask her the whereabouts of The Barnacle (an easy one!) two tourists from London walked up with valid questions. I told them please, go ahead. They were looking at a flyer, and asked her where Oxygen Lounge was. To my utter amazement and disbelief, the woman in the booth took out a map of the Grove and started looking for it herself. After a few minutes, I just pointed towards Mayfair and told them exactly where it was, and that it doesn't open till 10, but has great sushi, drinks, dancing and music.
She was still searching her map while I also recommended a stop at the new Nikki Beach, which they happily accepted. They then asked me if there were any gay bars in the area. I said no, not exclusively, but not to let that discourage them from checking out the area. This was when the woman in the booth looked up and said a decisive, "No", apparently in reference to there being any gay bars.
In my view, the person in this particular booth is a poor representation of and for the Grove. Enthusiasm would have been a good mask for her unacceptable lack of basic knowledge. Perhaps if they had asked where the Gap was she might have known.
I would have thought that the hiring of local people be vital to the success of these booths, or at the very least a short class on etiquette and knowledge of the Grove be a prerequisite.
These oversights may leave our visitors with a poor impression, which I assume is the opposite of what the booths seek to achieve. As for me, I'm already familiar with the ineptitude and apathy of our Miami peeps, so I just walked away shaking my head.
P.S. She also had poor posture, slouching as she was in her shiny pretty black booth
I haven't done a test myself, but probably will just for the sheer fun of it.
However... this is the kind of thing where citizens do have a lot to say.
May I suggest:
1. Write the Herald and the New Times with specific data so they can run a story about wasted taxpayer dollars
2. Write to the mayor to stop this nonsense
3. Write to everyone in the city commission to stop this nonsense
4. Write to the rest of the government circus: the governor, state senator, representatives about this.
It takes all of 2 minutes to write a note, then another minute or so to click on their emails and send notes.
My take? After a few tests like these and a Miami Herald story, it should stop.
So... action? Or just words?
Marcelo, they spent over a month digging and rewiring and planning the whole thing, I don't think it is going anywhere. It's just a shame that the powers that be don't ask for input from the citizens. I don't know of one person who likes this stupid idea. Let's just laugh at it and make it a tourists attraction: STUMP THE INFO GIRL. The person who asks a question that she can answer wins a prize!
I am going to do a test and maybe film it -- I am going to ask the girl where CocoWalk is.
Bless the powers that be for trying something that on paper sounded really nice but in reality is totally wrong. What could of been a unique stand out point appears to be turning into the joke of the year. That is so not what I want the Grove to be. SO I wonder if I went up to her and asked her if she knew where the information booth was if she would take out her map to see if it was featured? That does sound like an experience and the next installment in:
Stump the Information Girl
a total waste of money i agree, but come on the job is a no win situation, for minimum wage are you expecting them to attract theatres students with big bright smiles and enthusiastic explanations on how to walk to green street? and as far as volunteering goes I will volunteer to demolish the booth, maybe one of those things where you pay $5 bucks for 3 swings with a sledge hammer.
I am gonna break the lock (if it isn't broken already) and sit there and give info out today while sipping lattes from Focaccia's. Come by and try to stump me. :)
I don't agree with SILK's comment. When I worked for just above minimum wage at Disney World, their philosophy was to hire friendly people and then train those friendly people for the job. It's not rocket science. But, then again, it IS the City of Miami.
OK...so here I go again...any job worth doing is worth doing well. Sorry, you can't put a lady with a map in a little black box to help nobody with my money! I am definitely going to write to the Herald and whoever else I need to.
And no, I will not "volunteer" to sit in a little black box when evidently, this is a paid position even if the pay is probably minimal. I volunteer where I am needed. I often help a tourist out like we all do. No need to give my time to the city of Miami thank you very much!
I wonder if the lady in the box has been given a tour of the area...I think not.
disney philosophy = miami, a good one.
I just don't understand why we have to waste money on stuff like this when we don't even have sidewalks in the grove. I have to push my stroller in the street to walk 2 blocks... Yet we can spend hundreds of thousands on info booths and traffic circles!
And, therein lies the problem.
One person might not do much... though I sincerely dispute that and you can see the results on Business Week's issue of 2 weeks ago, the Vigilantes.
I have created one man campaigns that have changed directions of companies as big as Comcast.
If 100 people email a bunch of politicians AND the Herald, 100 people can effect change.
All I see here is a bunch of people who, so far, only talk and don't act.
I'll send comments to the Herald, will send comments to politicians, but the defeatist attitude of moaning and groaning about what one person can and can't do is what really defeats you going in.
Thank you Marc Sarnoff for wasting MY hard earned tax dollars. What were you thinking? Couldn't you have used that money to help Saint Alban's remain open so that hundrends of children could get a good head start in life and thus become productive citizens?
Len Scinto:
Strut 2008: Troup of little black info booths running around asking tourists for information!
Hahahaha! I like the Strut suggestion!
This is an outrage and total waste of tax dollars. Who is paying the employee to sit their with their finger in their nose? Who is paying for the electricity?
All a lost tourist has to do is walk into a store in CocoWalk, 10 feet away and ask for directions.
THIS IS NONSENSE. When are residents going to take over the piggybank and stop this waste of our money? Who approved this waste?
all the stores closed at 6pm - boy I sure notice how no one wants to volunteer their time for anything!
I say let Anna Maria and her gang have at it with their paints and dress up the damn thing.
Hey Marcello, that's not what you see. Who says that Coconut Grove residents do nothing? We may not always get the results we need but we don't ONLY bitch.
We're a pretty active community. Certainly more active that many communities in Miami. It takes a little venting to get our butts out there but you will see our butts if you get out there.
Let's see, where could we get drama students that know the grove that need to fulfill their community requirement for graduation? If only there was an Arts high school in the area!!!
And if you think that these small black booths are criminal, you should see the empty arena in Overtown that sits empty, built by our tax dollars. Perhaps it was too close to public transportation and the city couldn't make any money off parking.
And if you think that an empty box is/was a total waste of your tax dollars, wait until you see what they have in store for us at the old Orange Bowl site. If you want to complain to your commissioners, they will be the ones in the sky boxes. And don't worry about public transportation. Except for buses which always run late, there isn't any.
Elena. I doubt it. A year from now the booths will be there, no one will have done anything about the money spent and people will still only talk
There is an arts high school right in the center of the Grove, behind the Mayfair building. It's a magnet school called "Arts and Minds."
Arts and Minds Center is on Commodore Plaza. Not behind Mayfair.
Yes, I do know about Arts and Minds. I was just pointing out that we do have volunteers in the Grove that know the Grove. But why use volunteers that need hours when we can hire people that don't know the Grove and don't care because they don't make enough money to care? And if these people have any prejudices against anyone, whether they be gay or whatever, they should never man a tourist booth. Gay tourism should be promoted, not dismissed with disgust.
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