Bon Voyage: Leon is fired

Leon was sent packing on last night's The Apprentice by Lord Sugar for failing to do anything in the Parisian task but draw pictures to describe products to French retailers as he couldn't speak the language.
 
'All I've heard from you is that you don't speak French. When I first set up I did business with the Japanese and Koreans. I didn't speak the language then and I still don't. The majority of places you went they spoke English.'

'Leon I don't know what you were doing. If you wanted to be an artists you should have gone to Monmarte.

'I'm going with my gut instinct, Leon you're fired.'

Tom, PM of Logic, Melody and Leon all went to the boardroom for a last ditch attempt to save themselves from being fired. Their other team mate, Natasha, was allowed back to the house.

'Natasha you're a very lucky lady', said Sugar.

The team's biggest failure, Lord Sugar said, was their poor pitch to La Redoute, an appointment he had set up for the teams to sell their British made products, and only offering ten units of a teapot light when the company are the biggest retailer in France. La Redoute put in no orders.

Logic's independent sales didn't fair much better, having only sold 11,705 euros worth of their two products, a pop up cress postcard and a teapot light. Venture made 14,699 euros from the sale of their products, a carseat backpack and universal grip. La Redoute also put in an order of 214,000 euros worth of the backpack, thanks to an outstanding pitch from Helen.

'It's not just a loose, it's an anniliation', said Sugar. Venture have set a new record for this boardroom.'

Lord Sugar told PM Tom, who made no sales and originally wanted to sell the backpack, that he should have stuck to his guns and that Melody walked over him and Leon.

'I'm struggling to see how you can stay in the process', he told Tom.

Whereas Melody, who used her french language skills to her advantage, Lord Sugar said he likes, despite being ruthless and not sharing the appointments she made to sell their products with her team mates.

'Melody you hijacked the process but did lots of selling. I like your hunger for bulldozing and taking the lion's share, these people let you do that so good for you.'

Next week the remaining contestants are given the task of creating a new biscuit.

What I watched last night-Mary Portas Secret Shopper

A fitting room with themed ‘style icon’ cubicles, a catwalk, till point and Tweet Mirrors, technology that lets you take a photo and post it onto Twitter, was all part of Mary’s plan last night to transform fast fashion store Pilot, costing the owner a cool £1 million. That was just one of Mary’s suggestions to make the store in Braintree more customer friendly, a place where training consists of a poster in the staff room demonstrating customer feelings through faces with different expressions, and a ‘motivational’ laminate in the toilet with phrases such as ‘smile like you’re on a stage’, no wonder customer service is non-existent on the UK high street.

The MD of Pilot wasn’t much better having never met the three members of staff working at he store, despite one working there three years. Instead he considered speaking to them over the phone adequate enough. I guess you shouldn’t expect too much from a man who carries security tags in his briefcase to test door alarms.

Nevertheless he listened to tough talking Mary and let his girls practice their service skills on customers at a branch of restaurant chain Leon, along with agreeing to roll out the new fitting room concept to all 44 stores. Not sure I would listen to a retail expert wearing a fuchsia dress teamed with a khaki cotton top against vivid orange hair, Mary what were you thinking?

It was clear from the start of the programme that Mary had very high expectations of high street stores. Going undercover in Primark, New Look, H&M and Zara, she discovered how unwelcoming and untidy they are, and their total disregard for customer service, what ever happened to the saying ‘The customer is king?’

However what did Mary expect from these fast fashion stores when staff are working for minimum wage and have to buy their own uniform, ie Primark. And this is all coming from the woman who shops in Selfridges with the help of a personal shopper in the VIP area. Perhaps Mary you would like to hear some of my experiences, which include being totally ignored by staff, them having no product knowledge or seeming more interested in the layout of the store than you, the customer.

Mary continues her mission for good customer service and the golden rules-smile-speak-service, next Wednesday on Channel 4 when she visits a large chain of furniture stores, heads will roll.