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"Marketing expert, Guy Holmes explains why good service makes for happy diners." |
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| Anyone who works in the restaurant trade knows that good service is essential in building a profitable business. It doesn't matter if your food is of Michelin star quality - if the customers aren't treated well, they won't enjoy their experience.
Quite simply, good service personalises food and drink. Any business, especially those operating in the hospitality industry, will survive and prosper by building personal relationships with their customers. Waiting staff, barmen and managers are essentially salespeople for the restaurant. No matter what the product, a rude and surly salesperson will drive diners elsewhere, especially if the marketplace is as competitive as the restaurant trade.
Good service is essential for restaurants with a busy lunch trade comprising of office workers. The hour long lunch break is being eroded by increasing workloads and shorter deadlines, so fast service is very important to busy professionals. Making them return back to work later than they intended due to slow service will result in that establishment missing out on this potentially lucrative target market, no matter how good the food is.
Hunger Strikes
People do not eat in a restaurant just to relieve their hunger, if that were the case they would eat at home. Restaurant customers are there for the whole experience of eating out: the food, the wine, the atmosphere and of course, being waited on hand and foot. Most importantly, dining out is still seen as a treat for many people, instead of a necessity, so customers like to feel that they are being spoilt. Good service is an integral part of this.
If your customers are on the receiving end of bad service, it becomes the focal point of the meal and takes away from the quality of the food and drink. Instead of customers talking about the quality of what they are tasting or simply catching up with friends, conversation turns to the poor service and sours their mood. Aim to put people at ease and let them get on with what they are there for: to have a good time.
The days of a stiff upper lip in this country are behind us, and customers are becoming more and more demanding of quality. If things are not as good as they would expect, their mood and their view of your restaurant will be negative.
Lastly, good service shows that the restaurant has paid attention to detail. A customer will perceive that this is true for the whole establishment, from the quality of ingredients used to the cleanliness of the kitchen. On the other hand, bad service indicates that the staff don't care, and if this is the case, what is the state of the kitchen likely to be?
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Service with a Smile |
| Speciality Chef |
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| May 2005 |
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Act Now
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