Customer service in restaurants is often viewed as an insurmountable and confusing topic, especially when it is not going well. Often restaurateurs scratch their heads with extreme frustration and angst and a little dismay. But, in fact customer service is probably the easiest rectifiable aspect of restaurant management and success. Although I am a big fan of systems and measurable procedures in hospitality management, when it comes to customer service for restaurants it can be done well in the blink of an eye. Simply engage the customer as a person with a look, a smile, and an acknowledgment. My mentor, Narsai David, has often told me that the definition of a restaurant is ‘to restore’ and we can all do that easily. We treat customers like they are a guest and voila! We all have different styles and it would be a good idea to have a standard of customer service that is coherent across the board and in line with the brand. But the bottom line is to treat people like people want to be treated and it works.
I know this from very personal experience. You see I have spent my entire career in the Back of the House (BOH) as a chef. We chefs like to isolate, work with food and prefer to stay away from the front of the house (FOH) stuff. But now as a restaurant consultant I have to be johnny-on-the-spot at times, as my job is to bring calm and solutions to frantic situations. And that means actually creating calm in the midst of chaos. I took my first tables and made my first drinks behind a bar with absolutely no training or experience. Gratefully, the notion of customer service was deeply engrained in me so I know to always look a customer in the eye, smile, engage, and put one foot in front of the other.