Restaurant Magazine - May 2005 - Good Service

Anyone that works in the restaurant business knows that good service is essential to building a profitable business and earning good tips. But why would the customer that comes to a restaurant to get fed and have a few drinks value good service so highly, if the food is of Michelin star quality but the customers aren’t treated well why won’t they enjoy it. In order if find the reasons why Captivate Restaurants has asked a number of its clients for the main reasons why we must strive for excellent customer service.

Good service personalizes the food and drink
Any business especially those operating in the hospitality industry, survive and prosper by building personal relationships with their customers. Waiting staff, barmen and managers are essentially sales people for that restaurant, no matter what product is being sold if you find the salesperson rude and surly you’ll go else where especially in the competitive market place of restaurants. Obviously the opposite is also true, a restaurant that makes its customers feel special will see repeat business for each customer that gets good service.

Customers on a time limit
Good service is essential for those restaurants with a busy lunch trade comprising of mostly office works. The hour lunch break is being eroded with 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 restaurant missing out of this potentially lucrative target market no matter how good the food is.

Adds value to the whole experience
People do not eat in a restaurant just to relieve their hunger, if that were the case they’d be at home or they’d go to a sandwich shop. Restaurant customers are there for the whole experience of eating out from the food and drink to the atmosphere and being waited on. 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 as it adds value to the whole experience and makes them feel special.

Helps people to relax
If people are on the receiving end of bad service it becomes the focal point of the meal and takes away the quality of the food and drink. Instead of customers talking about the quality of what they are tasting or simply just catching up with friends, conversation turns to the poor service and scours their mood and therefore their whole experience on an occasion when they are excepting to be spoilt. Good service puts people at ease and lets them get on with what they are there for: to have a good time.

People expect good service
The days of stiff up a lip in this country are behind us, customers are becoming more and more demanding of quality these days both in terms of what they consume and the service they get. If things are not as good as they would expect their mood and their view of your restaurant will be negative. If it’s a first time a customer has visited a particular restaurant they will be looking out for what the service is like as a way of rating that restaurant.

Good service shows attention to detail
If customers get good service it shows that the restaurant shows good attention to detail so a customers persecution will be that this is true for the whole of the establishment from the quality of ingredients used to the cleanliness of the kitchen. Obviously the opposite is also true, bad service could mean that the staff don’t care and if they don’t care what is the state of the kitchen likely to like?

By Guy Holmes, Captivate Restaurants