In our age, where services and services have an increasing share in the economy, people get used to quality service more easily. Diversity in the market gives us options and more and more marketing gimmicks raise the standard.
For this reason, there is often conflict between guests and staff in restaurants. Because not everyone likes the same thing. Where one smiles sincerely, the other looks like “the staff laughed at me with a silly grin”. In bars and informal cafes, a rather fashionable appeal to guests “you” is not appealing to the elderly. How do you know who is right and who should be listened to?
By default, there is still a “guest is always right” rule in our restaurant culture, but anyone who has worked in this industry for at least a week understands that this is not always the case.
For example, a simple question: if guests are asked if they like everything in a dish, does that mean that the dish needs fixing if the answer is “no”? And answering that is really not that easy. Taste is again a subjective matter, the degree of pungency or saltiness is different for everyone. Beginning restaurateurs often rush to the kitchen after the first negative review to fix the shortcoming as soon as possible. But the problem is, it’s an endless process. Of course, if there are ten (or even better – a hundred) reviews on the same topic, then it is worth considering. Only in this way, the concept of the chef can be lost (and then why pay him so much?) and you won’t be able to accustom guests to his ideas. People quickly got used to the fishy taste of the original Caesar dressing, because twenty years ago no one mixed anchovies in it, only garlic mayonnaise. But now the time has come – and it’s understood. And now try to put a simple purchased mayonnaise on the salad.
So let’s go back to our original question. Is it necessary to listen to the opinions of guests? Of course you have to. They can suggest interesting solutions or ideas. A particular dish will not necessarily change, but a new dish may appear. And there’s a fine line between being able to negotiate with a guest without hurting the establishment. If the menu does not plan to change, and the guest as a whole liked everything except some minor details in the dish, then a good waiter or chef should be able to suggest what to change next time to achieve the perfect taste. . Not spicy enough? Next time we’ll add our signature chili sauce or more blue cheese. Aerobatics, of course, will remember a person and immediately offer him an alternative next time.
Another interesting question: How to work in conflict situations? All managers teach that a guest should not leave dissatisfied, even if something really unpleasant happens. But is it really that easy to achieve? The fact is that when a person is angry, initially unfaithful or in a bad mood, it is unlikely that he will be satisfied with a free dessert or a discount on a new order. Let’s say the waiter pours a cocktail into the suit of the man at the table. Does he really want to sit wet and eat dessert?
Everyone makes mistakes and glasses fall. It remains only to admit that there will be negative reviews and such situations. Forgotten reservations will have cold dishes on delivery and depressed bartenders. And guests may just want to be more patient and loyal because everyone at work wants to be forgiven for their mistakes.
Another question is when management never worked with the negative but acted as if nothing had happened. For a cold meal, it’s quite reasonable to discount a suit on the next order – a cocktail spilled on the dry cleaner. Corrected mistakes are always easier to forgive.
Often the service suffers due to the lack of basic training for ordinary staff. Until now, restaurateurs had the illusion that waiters only carried trays and bartenders poured glasses. But in fact, both must be skilled salesmen and psychologists. And the manager is also a manager who is responsible for all of them and can actually resolve conflict situations.
And his task is to find a compromise, not to please everyone and everything by handing out free dinners, as we showed in the TV series “The Kitchen”. Yes, writing everything from a waiter’s salary is not an option either, but rather a sign of bad business.
And there is only one way out – to teach. This item of expenditure is usually deleted because it is not a priority, and then they are surprised by the negative reviews in the noisy opening they have been preparing for months. A staff member who knows what to do will bring more money and less hassle.
Let us leave as a separate line the cases where the conflict was deliberately founded on an illegal act. The restaurant cannot take a non-refundable deposit, which is essentially embezzlement, but visitors cannot claim non-payment if there is a dish on the check they don’t like. Slightly torn banknotes must be accepted at the checkout in a public place that is a public refectory, you can take pictures no matter what the management says, and no staff is required to provide personal data to guests. By the way, due to Rospotrebnadzor’s covid tolerance, writing a complaint is practically useless exercise unless we’re talking about a serious breakup or rats in the hall, and managers often use it. But believe me, nobody wants to go back from even writing a complaint.
The guest may not always be right because the guest does not know all the intricacies of the restaurant or cafe. Some desires may be very expensive or even impossible to fulfill. But definitely the guest should be part of the process. They should also learn loyalty and understanding and not take advantage of the vulnerability of staff in the organization.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.