Learning made fun

Sketch Restaurant Marketing Misled Me

I used to love going to Sketch restaurant in London. My son had his 21st birthday celebration there, we had been to a private party and for supper too. However, in September the restaurant was shown to be misleading and not interested at all in customer care - not what you would expect from a supposed top restaurant.

I am on Sketch's mailing list and in September got sent an offer for London Fashion Week. Sketch had partnered with Josh Wood, a hair stylist, to offer guests a dry-style blow dry and a file and polish together with a Sketch breakfast for £25. I thought this would be a great mother/daughter bonding session to have before Emily, my daughter, went back to University.

In hindsight I should have been wary right from the beginning, as when I phoned to book the receptionist knew nothing about it, despite the offer starting in 3 days time! My details were taken and I was to receive a confirmation email which 2 days later I had to chase up.

On the email poster, breakfast was descibed as 'Tea/coffee, juices, viennoiseries, fresh fruit salad and muesli." There was a picture of a lady having her hair blowdried and nails varnished with a tray beside her showing breakfast as described.

Emily and I turned up excited for our fun morning. We had our hair blow dried and nails done, which although was fun was a bit of a disaster. I made it clear that my hair is curly so shouldn't be blow dried straight but it was! After leaving and being in the rain for 1 minute it looked really naff! The varnish on our nails had chipped by the end of the day too but we enjoyed the experience.

My biggest problem was with the breakfast. We were allowed tea, coffee or juice (not tea or coffee and juice as described) and mini viennoiseries, fresh fruit salad or muesli ( not all 3 as described and shown in the photo.) My tea and mini viennoiseries were lovely as was Emily's juice and fruit salad but we felt misled.

Over the course of the next week I sent 2 emails to Sketch but both were ignored. I then posted on Twitter and received a response asking me to privately message my complaint. I was then told Management were looking into it and would respond - despite chasing it up a few times, it's now 3 months later and I'm still waiting for a reply!

I have come to the following conclusion. Sketch deliberately misled me with their marketing material and really couldn't care less about customer disatisfaction. All I was after was a response - a sorry would have been welcome but being ignored wasn't!

I wanted to warn others to beware of any Sketch offers. Check everything even though it appears clear. The experience has certainly put me off visiting Sketch again. Emily had thought about doing her 21st there but we have now thought again. Any restaurant that is not interested in its customers views isn't worth visiting to my mind.

 

New Franchisee For Teesside and South Durham Musical Minis

We are delighted to announce that Caroline will be taking over Musical Minis Teesside and South Durham from Katherine at the end of this term. We would like to thank Katherine for firmly establishing Musical Minis in the Teesside and South Durham area and for all the help and training she has given Caroline to ease the franchise transfer. We wish Katherine all the best for the future.

Caroline was first introduced to Musical Minis when she attended a class in Teesside with her daughter, Cora. Caroline saw how much Cora benefitted from the classes over the two years she has been attending and enjoyed watching her develop, becoming more confident and even helping the younger children (particularly her baby brother, Ezra). When the opportunity arose to buy the franchise, Caroline leapt at the chance! Caroline said "I am excited (and a little bit daunted!) to become a Musical Minis franchisee and am looking forward to becoming part of the team and working with all the lovely babies and children in my area!"

In January, Caroline will be running classes in Egglescliffe, Great Ayton, Ingleby Barwick, Redcar and Wolviston with new venues opening later in the year.

Caroline is also looking for people who would be interested in either leading or assisting at sessions.

We are sure that Caroline will make a superb Musical Minis franchisee and we are looking forward to her being part of our network.

To get in touch with Caroline phone her on 01642 272 034 or 07581 549363 or email caroline@musicalminis.co.uk

Castello Cheese and Wine Pairing For Christmas

In July I went to a event which paired Castello Cheese with wine. It highlighted how cheese wasn't just for the cheese board and could be used in various canapes. Chef Ronnie Murray, Group Head Pastry chef at Hix restaurants, was there as he had created some great canapes from the Castello cheese range. Matt Day, a top London Sommelier, was there too to suggest wine pairings that complemented the cheese.

The Castello cheeses there were: Pineapple Halo, Jersey White, Creamy White, Creamy Blue, Danish Blue and Danish Blue Extra Creamy. More about the range of cheeses can be found on the Castello website.

The dishes on offer for us to try were:

• Giant Olives stuffed with whipped Castello Jersey White and smoked Marcona almonds.
• Smoked salmon on soda bread with Castello Jersey White.
• Castello Pineapple Halo and pineapple on sticks.
• Variety of Castello cheese straws.
• Baked leek tart with Castello Jersey Blue.
• Lyme Bay on Scallops with Castello Danish Blue Potatoes and bacon.
• Ground rib steak burger with Castello Danish Blue.
• Wild strawberry and Castello Pineapple Halo cheesecake.
• Mulled wine tart tatin with Castello Creamy Blue.
• Mince pies with Castello Danish Blue ice cream.

 All of the above dishes were paired to certain wines. Some of the pairings can be seen here.

The recipes seem really easy to make. The Mince pies with Castello Danish Blue ice cream takes 30 minutes to prepare, 12 minutes cooking time and makes 12.

Ingredients:
For the pastry: 225g cold butter, diced
350g plain flour
100g golden caster sugar
1 small egg
Icing sugar, to dust
Jar of traditional mincemeat
Pinch of salt

For the ice cream: 200g Castello Danish Blue
Good quality vanilla ice cream

How to Make:
1. To make the pastry, rub 225g cold, diced butter into 350g plain flour, then mix in 100g golden caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Combine the pastry into a ball and knead it briefly
2. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Line your patty tin by pressing small walnut-sized balls of pastry into each hole and then spoon the mincemeat into the pies
3. Take slightly smaller balls of pastry than before and pat them out between your hands to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden
4. For the cheats blue cheese ice cream, put the Castello Danish Blue into the freezer for 3 hours until frozen. Put your shop bought ice cream into a mixing bowl and let it melt for 5 minutes. When soft and malleable, grate on the finest side of a cheese grater the blue cheese and start working it into the ice cream with a baking spatula until the cheese is running evenly through the vanilla ice cream
5. Transfer into a freezer friendly dish or Tupperware box and refreeze over night
6. Spoon on top of the mince pies just before serving Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

If you want to know how to make any of the others let me know and I'll post the recipies. My favourite cheese was the Pineapple Halo. I'm not a great blue cheese fan but I still had fun trying all the canapes and pairing them with the correct wines.

Nativity Plays - Fond Memories from the Mum Of A Donkey!

MY children's nativity plays were always one of the year's highlights. They were something I wouldn't dream of missing and luckily being my own boss I could gear the Musical Minis term around my own children. I suggest to our franchisees that they should finish classes early at Christmas time so they make sure they have time to watch their children's plays. This is a great advantage of having a flexible business.

I have enjoyed all the school plays my children have ever been in but a few stick out as being really memorable. My all time favourite was when Alex, my middle child, was 3 years old and he was a donkey in his nursery's nativity. Alex was guarding the crib in the stable with a boy called Bruce who was a sheep. The 3 wise men came and left their gifts, which apparently were left in a position slightly different to the one expected. This resulted in the sheep and donkey having a fight on stage struggling to put the gifts in the exact correct place! Alex won and the sheep was so fed up that he went to sleep and had to be woken up at the end. Little did we realise then, that Alex would end up studying drama at University and obviously exact staging was extremely important to him!

Matthew, my eldest, when he was 3 years old was Joseph in the nativity. The cast then performed the Christmas Alphabet and he and Mary (a girl called Imogen) had 'M is for the mistletoe where everybody kissed'. It was really sweet watching these two 3 year olds kiss on cue. I still love the song and made sure it is on our Musical Minis Christmas lesson. Another one of my favourites when was Matthew was at primary school, aged about 6 years old. They were performing a rock nativity and Matthew managed to lead his whole class off stage at totally the wrong time - they all followed him!

The nativity that sticks out in my mind with Emily, my youngest, was when she was about 3 years old and at nursery. One of the scenes was with a girl, called Georgina and a boy, who I can't remember, doing 'I'm a Barbie Girl' with the rest of the nursery dancing around. I still have no idea why they were doing this but it was really sweet. At primary school, when Emily was 5 years old, she was given the task with a few others of playing percussion instruments to accompany the play. Her years of Musical Minis training paid off!

I would love to hear your nativity play stories with your children. They are a very special part of being a parent and I appreciate all the teachers' hard work in putting on a performance, with such young children, that can be remembered for years to come.

 Photo by Flickr jrwi

Musical Minis is ‘Top Of The Pops’ with franchisees in satisfaction survey!

I was delighted that the Musical Minis franchisees are a happy bunch according to the results of our latest franchisee satisfaction survey. The Smith & Henderson survey was completed anonymously by our franchisees and contains 29 questions. Our overall Franchise Satisfaction Benchmark was 89% compared to the 2012 national benchmark average of 69%. The survey broke down the benchmarking into 6 main areas; Training & Support, The System, Culture & Relationships, Stewardship, Value & Rewards and General Satisfaction.

We scored 100% in 12 categories including, Head Office Support, initial training and support, communication and work life balance. Musical Minis franchisees run classes for children aged from 0-5, designed to help their cognitive, physical and emotional development through music, instruments and stories. In additional comments on the survey, franchisees spoke of how running a Musical Minis franchise allowed them to run a profitable business, which fitted in around their families and made them feel as if they were providing a ‘genuine service that is much better than our competitors.’

I think this survey is so important because it allows us to find out exactly what the franchisees are really thinking and thankfully, they seem quite happy! We were above average in 28 out of 29 categories. Naturally there are some areas for improvement, as there is with any business and we’re looking forward to implementing some of the suggestions made in the report.

We see Musical Minis as one big family, all working together and supporting each other; we’ve got some tremendous franchisees, running hundreds of classes across the UK every year and we’re very proud of them all.

Musical Minis provides an opportunity to work and earn an income whilst still having time for yourself. The Musical Minis franchise allows franchisees to balance work and home life, they choose how many hours they want to dedicate to the franchise and what targets they want to set themselves. This flexibility together with the opportunity to work with children are some of the main reasons why I believe our franchise is one of the leading part time franchises for women in the UK.

If you would like to know more about running your own Musical Minis business phone 020 8868 0001 or email enquiries@musicalminis.co.uk . To download information about becoming a Musical Minis franchisee click here.