THE VALUE OF SMILE IN HOSPITALITY

The value of a smile :

Smiles are the single most important currency in this business. It’s true. Sure, customers want good food in a clean, attractive environment. They’re motivated by good service and attention to detail. But smiles from the moment they walk in the door to the thanks they receive on their way out are what really move the needle in this business.

How is it, then, that we can all remember dining experiences that lacked smiles? In a business characterized by the uncontrollable, smiling is single easiest thing to control. But some people in this business find it difficult to smile. Managers might believe they’ve hired employees to do the smiling, and employees might not be invested enough in the business to care.

We all have bad days, and even the happiest people have trouble smiling sometimes. But the hospitality business is more geared toward smilers than any other industry. This means operators have to fill their building with people who are happy when they are smiling.

Smile-plus

The idea is that adding a smile to something of value will trigger a tangible response from the guest. This includes:

? Great entrées (delivered with a smile)

? A welcome greeting to guests walking through the door (with a smile)

? A free round of drinks (delivered with a smile)

? Building rapport at the table (with a smile)

In each case, the smile makes the experience more memorable and tangible. On the other hand, the absence of a smile – whether inadvertent or not – renders positive experiences less palpable. Guests are less likely to remember the positive experience when it is not delivered with a friendly smile.

Get Away with Anything

A major unwritten rule in this business is that the manager or front-of-the-house employee can often get away with anything if they’ve shared a smile with a customer. No one would advocate testing this rule out, but even the best employees and managers make mistakes. A shared smile – even with the most discriminating guests – can smooth out almost any problem during the dining experience.

This rule is most clear when compared to mistakes that happen involving unsmiling employees (especially servers). As a manager, it’s sometimes imperative that servers handle their own mistakes, and the easiest path to doing so starts with sharing genuine smiles with guests.

Building Energy

Smiling employees are happy employees. There is a huge difference in morale between the building with employees who are smiling when they walk in the door and the building with employees dragging their feet as they come to work. A major objective of hiring managers should be to fill the building with employees who like to smile as they come to work.

Smiles give energy to fellow employees and customers. They’re infectious and fun. This business should be about working hard and playing hard – getting the job done and having fun. In a business that can be grueling, anything that builds energy is very valuable. Managers should never take smiling for granted.

Leading the Way

A critical task of restaurant management is that of steering the organizational culture. Most restaurants are characterized by many employees in a relatively small space, making them noticeably influenced by those around them. Restaurant employees are inherently affected by their surrounding culture, willing to follow the path of the prevailing habits and attitudes.

Too many restaurant managers fail to grasp this point and let the employees they hire determine the culture of the building. Managers have to lead the way in terms of effort and smiling. They have to set a standard of having fun and sharing laughs.

One great trick is to be out in the kitchen or server galley for at least ten minutes before a busy shift, laughing and lightening the mood of the employees. Managers who make a point of having fun with the staff are more likely to build a fun, active, enthusiastic culture that translates to the interactions with guests in the front of the house.

Gone are the days when customers were happy just receiving “please” and “thank you” or getting service with a smile. Although those go into the recipe for proper etiquette, it’s just not enough. Satisfied customers are looking for a memorable experience and dynamic service where it counts. 

Wikipedia defines Customer care service as the ‘‘provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase”. By extension Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. “The customer is always right” is a famous business adage.

The underlying truth behind this statement is recognising that customers are the life blood for any business. Understanding the importance of good customer service is, therefore, essential for a healthy business in creating new customers, keeping loyal customers, and developing referrals for future customers.

The importance may vary by product or service, industry and customer. The perception of success of such interactions will be dependent on employees who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest.

In other ways, it is known that the customer is the most important person in a business premise, he is always right and that is the reason why the business opens.

Excellent customer service is vitally important in all businesses. It’s the first point of contact between, for example, the client and business representative or staff. It is the first opportunity an establishment gets to amaze and create a lasting impression. For the customer to return, a need to deliver what was promised is paramount, and perfect if you can exceed expectation where possible.

Every business needs to keep customers and clients happy, but in the hospitality industry it’s so vitally important to keep guests engaged in order for the business to grow and prosper. Good customer service is one of the keys to success in any business, but is particularly important in the hotel industry, where guests are looking to staff to help them make their stay as relaxing and comfortable as possible.

The issue is strongly related to how service quality is managed and which holds a significant importance to customers’ satisfaction and their perceived performance of hotels. In order for them to grow and survive, they must find new ways of handling their clients.

Great service make customers feel that you care about developing a long-term relationship that means more than just making a sale. Focusing on delivering customer service benefits hotel business more than a mere advertising. Improving “first contact” resolution is one of the primary drivers of customer satisfaction. Good listening skills and questioning techniques can shorten the interaction time with customers.

For hoteliers, learning how to constantly innovate to meet high expectations and provide good service is one thing they must not forget. The customer should be the centre of the universe and services should be designed around them.

Celebrating positive initiatives taken by any staff in this regard, communicating and sharing information on a consistent basis, empowering personnel, fostering wellness and paying attention to intuition are just a few of the small but critical items necessary for hotel staff to produce the kind of guest and customer service ethic that will impress customers.

No matter what role we hold in a business, we all know if we respond to customers’ requests quickly and efficiently, chances are that they will stay with us and buy more from us.

Around the world, companies recognise the benefits of good service for retaining and winning customers. Customers who experience good service stay loyal to the business, more so than those who have bad experiences, thus developing the best, most well-equipped front-line workforce is critical to customer-service success.

Rwanda, for instance, is a service-based economy putting emphasis on providing high-end products and services at all levels. Consequently, Customer service remains important in all business domains, something that is most certainly going to preoccupy hotels during this month of December, a time when there will be influx of people coming to enjoy their holidays. This will not only make our esteemed guests or tourists stay longer, but also create a lasting quench to always make it to Rwanda as the best vacation destination.

In fact, it is important to point out that great Customer Care Service directly adds up to economic growth. It is a hidden complement that works wonders in hospitality and other affiliate industries.

A survey carried out in 2010 showed that Rwandans with higher education and non-Rwandans reported better customer service. In the public, Immigration and Emigration Directorate ranked top while district offices were last in performance. I bet the situation hasn’t changed much. For businesses, hotels received the highest rankings and banks the lowest.

There are murmurs of discontent among a wide section of clientele who visit banks and line up for sometimes hours without being attended to and end up leaving in frustration. It is high time our banks styled up!

2} turning all negative experience into positive ones :

While you would like to think that all your customers will enjoy their experiences with your products and services, the truth is that is not reality.

All companies are faced at times with customers who lo and behold will make things difficult for a customer service rep, a manager or even the big boss. The question then becomes, how do you deal with this individual?

 

Be all Ears, Not all Mouth

The first line of defense is typically the customer service person, be it a phone rep or the administrative assistant/secretary.

Their job quickly becomes that of a fireman, putting the brush fire out before it engulfs an entire department. In doing such a job, there are several key factors that come into play, including:

• Be all ears, not all mouth – The worst thing a customer service rep or other individual handling the angry customer can do is be confrontational right off the bat. Take a few moments to listen to the complaint and see how best to handle it;
• Be composed – It is easy to get caught up in the emotion of things when someone is doing all the talking, interrupting you when you try and talk or even yelling at you. While it is hard, keep your composure. If the issue turns personal, then get assistance from a supervisor;
• Remove the word ‘no’ from your vocabulary – One thing that will escalate the confrontation is if you say no once or several times. Remember, the customer is looking for a solution, not lip service. If you tell them you can’t assist them, you don’t have an answer or you have no idea what is going on, you’re likely to draw more of their rage;
• Provide a follow up message – In the event you do not have an answer for the upset customer, inform them of how you will be able to help them and how soon they can expect that assistance. You may very well have a legitimate reason for not knowing the answer to their question or questions, but don’t leave them hanging, tell them an approximate time and manner of how you will get them that answer.

 

Reality Isn’t Always the Case

While it sounds good to be calm, cool and collective when dealing with an irate customer, we all know that is oftentimes not the reality of the situation.

Remember, you are a representative of your company, so keep that in mind in the event you feel a bit of a temper explosion coming on. Not only would you be portraying a bad image of yourself, but your company’s reputation for having fiery employees is not something you or your boss wants.

The reality of the situation is that nine times out of 10 the customer is not personally upset with you, just the company you represent. That being said, do not take the complaint personally, but rather due to the fact you represent a certain company, product and service.

Lastly, remember the old adage that “the customer is always right” that was drilled into your head from day one?

While many bosses still swear by that motto, the reality of the situation is that customers are NOT always right. They too sometimes make a mistake on a receipt, a communication they had with one of your co-workers and so on.

Treat each situation individually and make your best judgment as to why this particular customer is so upset with your company.

When you do that, you lessen the chances of a small brush fire getting out of control.

 

They happen. They?re part of the business, in spite of all your efforts over the course of time. I?ve seen the most talented people in this business completely screw up, and I?ve seen a miraculous combination of events lead to a horrible guest experience. It?s the nature of the restaurant business that anything can happen. It?s an organic experience that relies on many people to go right. In fact, it should go wrong sometimes. The fact that it does should confirm that the restaurant business is a very human process. Careful management can control most of the guest experience, but mishaps are inevitable in every restaurant, all around the world.

The best-run outfits get out in front of bad experiences and turn them into positive ones. They consider mistakes an opportunity to overwhelm the guest by demonstrating how far they?ll go to make things right. In fact, the method that management uses to handle bad guest experiences is a good measure of the merit of a business?s operation. Great responses to bad situations indicate that a business is well-run, and headed in the right direction.

Addressing guest problems should be part of a restaurant?s core policies. Operators should thoroughly train managers on the fine art, and managers should rehearse until they get it right. Here are a few tips that make up great responses to bad guest experiences, and how your restaurant can turn that frown upside-down.

Get out in Front of it

The first step to addressing customer complaints is to get out in front of them as quickly as possible. The guest having a bad experience and voicing displeasure is doing management a favor. Not expressing displeasure ? and walking out the door ? is a recipe for never coming back. Expressing the problem gives the manager a chance to fix it, which is the opportunity he should want.

It?s important to get into the habit of dropping everything as quickly as possible to go speak with a guest who has had a bad experience. A few things in this business should immediately become priority number one ? a ruptured water pipe, a broken HVAC system, and a guest with a complaint are good examples.

Many restaurants fail to do this, and they are usually chain corporate operations. The fact is that most independents need to leverage failure into opportunity as quickly as possible.

Make it an Opportunity

The very nature of the hospitality industry is to value the chance to turn a negative into a positive. Managers should quickly acknowledge the mistake and apologize for it. They should also spend the rest of the guests? evening out working to win them over. That might mean:

·        Buying a round of drinks.

·        Comping an entr?e.

·        Bringing a free dessert.

·        Spending five good minutes getting to know them.

Conversations that start with guest complaints almost always begin with stern tones and serious apologies. The ultimate goal is have guests smiling by the end of the conversation. A solid apology is quick and sincere, and it leads to a pivot, after which management works to make things right.

Be Honest

Most guests appreciate honesty and abhor falseness. Many of them have worked in this business, or a related field. Most people understand the nature of the business, though they may hate when unfortunate mistakes happen to them. A simple, shoulder shrug and a ?we screwed up? may not be enough to make things right, but it?s often a step in the right direction.

Follow Up

Managers should develop a restaurant managerial style that involves always following up apologies for serious mistakes with an additional chance to make things right. Many restaurants will offer discounts or giveaways of minor items (e.g. free appetizers or desserts) as enticements to guests to return. Guests returning after bad experiences should be noted in a reservation book or to the server, so that the manager can be sure that their experience exceeds expectation.

Another tactic is to follow up with personal correspondences or emails to express remorse or explain events further. Many long-term customers have been won over by managers who aggressively work to make positive experiences out of negative ones.