Top Of The Table

Caroline Barden

Aug. 26, 2001

Forget self, focus on customer. This should be the mantra for everyone in the restaurant industry.

All too often, we lose sight of who we are really catering to, no pun intended, Chefs, owners, wait staff, we all forget who is ultimately responsible for our livelihood. When we truly focus on the customer and forget our selfish intentions, amazing things happen. It actually opens up a whole new world and doesn’t that sound like a nice change?

So how do you know when you’ve lost sight of things? I’ll give you a great example. I used to work at a terrific classic Northern Italian restaurant. This place was smokin every night of the week. Then for justifiable reasons, the chefs walked out. Enter Ramel, who specialized in Asian and Thai cuisine. Since he couldn’t monkey with the menu, all the specials were Asian influenced. In an Italian restaurant. Do you know how silly I felt reciting the days specials? I’d start talking about lemon grass and people would look at me as if I were in the wrong place. Sometimes I wouldn’t even tell them the specials unless they asked. He was a great chef, all the Italian food was executed perfectly, with better presentation than his predecessors. But he lost sight of his customers and this beloved restaurant has closed its doors. Actually it wasn’t totally his fault. The owners got selfish too. They raised their prices, cut the portions and started charging for dinner salads. The good wait staff left when they took away our family meal and glass of wine at the end of the shift. This place got greedy and greed is one of the seven deadlies in the restaurant industry. When you only focus on your needs, you will fail. It’s self serving and ultimately self defeating.

For those of us who are servers, to focus on our customers can make all the difference in the world. Because we have such flexible hours, most of us dash in to work with a lot on our plate, again no pun intended. We are so stressed out from our lives that we barely pay attention to the people who are responsible for our bottom line. This is where the word ‘focus’ becomes so important. It’s actually a form of tunnelvision and when you apply it to the people you are waiting on, your pockets get so much fuller at the end of the night. Think about it. You can go through the physical aspects of this job on automatic pilot, but how often is your heart really into it? Yes this is repetitive work, but it can be creative too. It only becomes monotonous when we forget that we are waiting on real people, each one a unique individual. I’ll let you in on a big secret. The people that we wait on are going through a lot of the same things that we are. Problems in their marriage or with their significant other, difficulties with kids, major exams at school, issues with their parents, health problems, basically everything we deal with. The difference is that we’ve chosen to wait on these humans because they’ve chosen to come in to our restaurant. It’s our job to make sure they are happy with their choice and will choose to come back, providing they’re good tippers of course! Actually studies have shown that people will return to a restaurant with mediocre food if the service is terrific. Which drives home my point that people go out to eat to be served. You can get great food anywhere, but many a good kitchen has been put out of business with bad service. It’s a big problem here in the Hudson Valley of New York. Since we are the home of the Culinary Institute, every restaurant around here has at least one culinary grad. The emphasis is placed too much on the food and not enough on the service. We are definitely low men on the totem pole, although I am diligently trying to change that! It never ceases to amaze me when servers will give a table minimal attention, barely even acknowledging them because they are too busy talking about who got loaded or who got laid the night before. Then they swoop in to pick up their tip and are indignant when that too is a minimal effort. Hello, what happened to good old fashioned customer service? When that goes out the window, so does your tip. Pay attention to your patrons and they will pay attention to you. Okay so there are those ten percenters out there who will never change. It’s some sort of deep psychological problem that we don’t want to get in to. But for the most part you will get out of a table what you put into it. When you service is sincere and focused on their needs you will get a better tip. Just going through the motions doesn’t cut it. Anyone can take an order and bring food to a table. To do it with energy and enthusiasm takes a little work but the results are worth it.

Shall I leave you with another story? My last table this past Sunday seemed a little scary. Two mentally challenged young women and two older gay guys, what was the story here? A lot of tension when they first came in, I wasn’t sure what to do. So I did my normal thing, was very personable, got drink orders, cokes for the girls, stiff drinks for the men, didn’t know where this table was going. The men ordered for the young ladies, but the turning point came when I talked to the girls directly, treated them like any other customer. We had some laughs, everyone relaxed, they ordered magnificent food and a good time was had by all. I always feel you should deal with the obvious, and it was obvious these gals had not been dealt with properly in the past. Cut to the chase, their tab was $138, tip $40. They handed it to me and thanked me profusely. Boy did I feel good, not just because of a great tip, but because a difficult situation was diffused.

So what is the moral of the story? Be sensitive to your customers, try to anticipate their needs, but when in doubt either trust your instincts or ask questions. Always use the Golden Rule, you know, do unto others, etc. But first and foremost, focus on your customers, because they are the ones who will make it all worthwhile in the end. And that can be a beautiful thing.

Are you a manager who is a little frustrated with your staff? Okay very frustrated! Why not try calling in a consultant? We are those quirky people who can focus on what needs fixing and then proceed to make you look really good to your boss. We have ways of helping your staff work better together so they make more money for themselves and for your establishment. They also tell us things they wouldn’t dare tell you! For a free consultation you can contact me at this web site, I would be happy to troubleshoot with you. Let’s all raise the standards in this industry together!

Caroline Barden Restaurant Consultant.