Always Keep An Eye On This Customer[/h3]
Being the hospitality professionals that you all are, I know I’m probably preaching to the converted, however, it’s always helpful to be reminded sometimes of those things that seem less important in the grand scheme of things, yet can have a big impact on your business.
I’m talking about the customer dining alone, the solitary figure in your bar or dining room. This is the customer you need to pay that little bit more attention to. He’s the customer that has nobody to talk to, nobody to distract from the goings on in the bar or restaurant, nobody with him to distract him from the stains on the menu, the food debris on the floor and the length of time it has taken the wait staff to pay attention to him.
I was that lone diner tonight. I was the lone diner that counted the minutes between entering and ordering. I spotted the dirty floor, the inattentive staff and the questionable hygiene practices through the serving window of the kitchen. I also tweeted about some of the things I saw (without mentioning the name of the restaurant), but would other diners be so forgiving? I wasn’t offered a newspaper or a distraction and every inefficiency probably seemed bigger and more impactful without me having anythiong else to do as I sat and waited and waited and waited for my meal.
When I trained in hotel management, we were taught that a guest staying on his own could easily be a hotel reviewer, a restaurant critic or a tourism board representative measuring us for a star rating. That taught me to always pay a little bit more attention to the guest without a companion.
The next time you have a single customer, offer them a newspaper, chat a little bit longer and push the kitchen to get the meal out that little bit faster. Time goes a lot slower for the customer waiting for a meal to break the monotony!
http://www.thebarblogger.com/always-keep-an-eye-on-this-customer/
http://www.thebarblogger.com/
Being the hospitality professionals that you all are, I know I’m probably preaching to the converted, however, it’s always helpful to be reminded sometimes of those things that seem less important in the grand scheme of things, yet can have a big impact on your business.
I’m talking about the customer dining alone, the solitary figure in your bar or dining room. This is the customer you need to pay that little bit more attention to. He’s the customer that has nobody to talk to, nobody to distract from the goings on in the bar or restaurant, nobody with him to distract him from the stains on the menu, the food debris on the floor and the length of time it has taken the wait staff to pay attention to him.
I was that lone diner tonight. I was the lone diner that counted the minutes between entering and ordering. I spotted the dirty floor, the inattentive staff and the questionable hygiene practices through the serving window of the kitchen. I also tweeted about some of the things I saw (without mentioning the name of the restaurant), but would other diners be so forgiving? I wasn’t offered a newspaper or a distraction and every inefficiency probably seemed bigger and more impactful without me having anythiong else to do as I sat and waited and waited and waited for my meal.
When I trained in hotel management, we were taught that a guest staying on his own could easily be a hotel reviewer, a restaurant critic or a tourism board representative measuring us for a star rating. That taught me to always pay a little bit more attention to the guest without a companion.
The next time you have a single customer, offer them a newspaper, chat a little bit longer and push the kitchen to get the meal out that little bit faster. Time goes a lot slower for the customer waiting for a meal to break the monotony!
http://www.thebarblogger.com/always-keep-an-eye-on-this-customer/
http://www.thebarblogger.com/