Customer Hospitality
People want to feel comfortable dining in your establishment. So it’s essential that your team make every single one of them feel welcome.
Don’t pigeonhole yourself too narrowly by aiming to attract only a certain type of customer base or occasion. Keep it more open, welcome a broader range of clientele, and make sure more customers can appreciate your menu on more occasions.
I dislike food snobbery – it upsets me greatly.
If you have friendly staff and an efficient team, your name will spread like wildfire and any mistakes will be quickly forgiven by customers.
However if you have a snobby and overly precocious team, the moment any of them make an error your customers will be much less forgiving, which puts your reputation at risk.
Focus your attention on the right proportion of your customers.
If you want to position yourself as a restaurant first and foremost, rather than a place to ‘go for a pint’- you may need to change perceptions of your establishment. Your regulars are important, however they are often only 5% of your overall business - what about the other 95%? They may not be as regular, but their weight of purchase can often be greater.
You want to focus on generating the attention of a melting pot of customers, not just one type.
A good dining room requires attention to the democracy of the room.
You cannot allow one group to dominate and, if necessary, you may have to intervene when you get a table of rowdy customers. They cannot be allowed to destroy everyone else’s evening.
Set a standard - the dining room is a melting pot of personalities and sometimes the customer is not right.
