I’ve stated many times in this manual that the customer is the number one reason the hospitality industry exists. If it weren’t for the customer, neither you nor I would have a job. Listed below are a number of strategies and tactics to assist in increasing customer service standards. As I’ve mentioned in earlier chapters, as a general rule: aim to create a positive emotional connection between your customers and your venue.
- Send your staff to other venues and have them write an analysis of the customer service methods and standards they see and experience there. This is a big eye opener, and your staff will know what not to do when they are serving their customers. This simple ‘role reversal’ boosts morale, bonds your team and gives your staff something to look forward to (as well as developing their customer service skills).
- Use ‘bar theatrics’ whenever you can. Ask your bartenders to make their drinks up on the bar, if possible. Get them make their drinks with flair and passion (but not necessarily with bottle flaring, as this could hurt someone) and have them demonstrate that they are having a good time behind the bar. Customers love theatrics behind a bar.
- If you have a special food or drink item, give your staff a taste of the item at the beginning of their shift. If they have recently tasted the product, they’ll find it much easier to recommend it to their customers.
- When taking a booking, train your staff to read every detail back to the customer. This eliminates the chance of errors.
- Instruct your staff to exercise confidentiality. Face it: people have love affairs. Get over it. The last place your customers will want to visit is a bar where staff spread gossip.
- If you get freebies from reps, save them to give to regular customers. This will make an incredible impression on them, and your reps will love it (as you are spreading their branded freebies to potentially new customers).
- Get your bar staff to say ‘thanks for waiting’ to every customer when it’s busy. This will make a great impression on your guests.
- Let your regular guests sit or stand in your VIP areas. Tell them they can ‘sit in the VIP area’ even though it may not be a VIP area. Do things that will make your normal guests feel like rock-stars.
- Always have extra cutlery, napkins, straws and drinking water (with glassware) available to customers to serve themselves. However, don’t make this an excuse not to deliver these items to your guests. Sometimes your guests drop cutlery, or would like an extra glass of water. Have a reserve supply available for both your staff and customers, just in case.
- Offer advanced training sessions or ‘master-classes’ (which are normally reserved for staff) to your regular customers. Get your product sales representatives involved as they should be more than happy to offer training on their products to your most interested customers.
- Serve potential customers first. Give potential customers at your front door (or entryway) priority over customers waiting for a drink or table service. Think of existing waiting customers as customers who are already participants in your venue, whereas potential customers waiting at the door are exactly that: potential customers. Make it a priority to convert as many potential customers into existing
- Give your guests at least half an hour notice before you stop serving at the end of the night.
- People like to be ‘seen’, and people like to ‘people-watch’ other people. Take advantage of this curious human behaviour wherever you can – if you can offer a situation where your customers can be ‘seen’ (or vice-versa), you may have an advantage over your competitors who do not.
- Make sure your staff are aware of correct etiquette and manners (depending on your industry). Make sure they know what constitutes rudeness and ‘what not to do’.
- If you are offering table service in your establishment, you have approx. four seconds to acknowledge potential customers as they walk through your front door. Leave them any longer than four seconds and their satisfaction levels will quickly drop, and they may leave your venue to visit a competitor. If you can afford to allocate a staff member entirely to greeting new guests, do it!
- If you want world class customers, create a world class venue.
- With the abovementioned factor in mind, personal contact at the beginning of each customer’s experience in your venue (i.e. when you greet them), and contact at the end of their experience in your venue (when they are paying their bill and leaving) is the most important. This is the time that they will predominantly remember the outstanding qualities of your venue – so, it pays to make this time-period an enjoyable one for them (However, this should not be the case; you should be offering them an enjoyable experience for 125% of the time!).
- Remember the names of your regular customers. Get a name book if necessary. Write down their names and the drinks they like. They will be extremely impressed when you remember this information about them.
- If you have a restaurant, keep a table or two un-reserved for walk-ins or VIPs. You never know who is going to walk in.
- Have a regular customer’s favourite drink waiting for them before they get to the bar.
- Order in a special request product for a regular customer.
- Maintain a strict ‘no backs to customers’ rule. It looks unprofessional if your bar staff have their backs facing towards customers at the bar.
- Offer complimentary antibacterial hand gel to your guests, alongside antibacterial hand soap in your bathrooms.
- Install a cash machine in your venue. Doing so will improve the customer service in your venue in a number of ways. Firstly, it lessens the frequency of customers paying by card at the bar, which speeds up service (a cash transaction takes far less time than a card transaction). Secondly, it draws people into your venue (if they know they can withdraw cash inside).
- Under-promise and over-deliver. Or tell your customers they can do something, even though your ‘rules’ say they can’t). Your customers will think they are receiving ultra-exclusive service.
- Have spare birthday candles somewhere behind the bar. Always.
- If a customer has a bad experience in your establishment, do your utmost to turn the situation around – try and turn it into a positive experience for them. Think of it as a marketing exercise (remember, it’s cheaper to keep existing customers than market your venue to find new ones).
- Try and create the ‘wow’ factor in any and every aspect of your establishment. People feel positive emotions when they say ‘wow’. Pay attention to detail, and make it obvious that you care about the little things. Do something extraordinary. You could do this by adding a focal piece of furniture, or renovating your décor, or simply organising a ‘flaring’ show (flaring is where experienced flare bartenders throw bottles skilfully around themselves). You could also purchase a round of drinks for new customers (customers whom have not been to your venue before). Do something that will make people say, ‘wow’. People that say ‘wow’ return to your venue.
- Ask your staff to have an ‘ace up their sleeve’ – have them choose one beer, one wine and one cocktail (and any other product you see fit) on your list as their ‘personal recommendation’. Ask them to know and understand finer details about each product. Arrange for each staff member to fill out an ‘Ace’ form as part of your induction process (see part nineteen). Do this so that when a customer comes to the bar and asks “What’s a good white wine?” or, “What’s a good beer?” your staff will have a solid understanding of at least one beer, wine or spirit etc. Have them know things like:
- Where the product is made
- Where the product’s ingredients came from
- When it was made (if it’s a maturable product)
- What’s in the product (ingredients of a cocktail, or grape varieties of a wine, or brewing ingredients of a beer)
- The flavour profile of the product
- Any foods the product may be matched to
- The price of the product
- The last time your bartender had the drink (“I had this beer last night after work!”) to give weight to the sale
- Make sure your floor staff are seen (by customers) at all times in their sections. Even if they are standing there doing nothing, make sure they are seen. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being to find a wait-person, right?
- Have an internal ‘Frequently Asked Question’ sheet containing questions that your staff and customers ask the most. This will save everyone’s time – you won’t have to answer the same questions a hundred times and your staff can check the FAQ sheet as part of their initial ‘information gathering’ process. Include detailed answers to your questions, including why. Questions to include on this FAQ sheet could include:
- What is our most buttery Chardonnay?
- What is our sweetest white wine?
- Which is our ‘biggest’ red wine?
- Which is our lightest red wine?
- Do we have any chilled pinot noir?
- Which glass do I serve XX in?
- Why are different wine glasses shaped differently?
- Which wine on our list goes best with red meat?
- Which wine on our list goes best with white meat?
- When is a good scenario to decant red wine?
- What is a good aperitif (before dinner) cocktail to upsell?
- What is a good digestif (after dinner) cocktail to upsell?
- Which lager goes best with food?
- Where are the customer toilets?
- Where can customers withdraw cash?
- What is a good <insert wine variety here>? (have a recommendation (and justification for your recommendation) for each variety of wine you have on your list)
- Have pre-set responses and reactions to difficult situations. Basically, be prepared to listen to complaints and have a pre-set process in which you handle them. Try and be prepared for the following scenarios:
- Complaint about food
- Complaint about service
- Complaint about a particular staff member
- Complaint about the toilets