Make your words matter
The other day I took my family including my 14 month grandson to a Sunday buffet lunch at a leading 5-star hotel. Having made a table reservation the previous day and upon announcing this, the employee at the entrance said ‘Please follow me’. Despite asking for a table away from the main section of the dining room, I was somewhat miffed to find ourselves led towards a vacant table in a somewhat crowded area. Apart from that, when booking the table, I specifically asked for a ‘baby seat’ to be placed, which I observed was missing, immediately confirming my fears that this restaurant’s reservation system is poorly managed. Customers it appeared were treated as a number.
Mistakes are inevitable when reservations are made over the phone. Hosts can easily mishear guests and book a table for the wrong date, party size or time. That is exactly why staff is told to repeat the booking. During my booking interaction, this did not happen and that was the initial red flag, so as to speak.
Getting back to my story, when I insisted that we sit elsewhere, pointing out a vacant table that caught my eye, the employee replied with the dreaded two words, ‘no problem’…and that made me think.
What makes ‘no problem’ a problem? Is my asking for a table away from the crowd a problem- especially when I had requested for one and there were tables available? Or is it to mean that I caused a problem at the restaurant, which after been no-problemed by hotel staff, should teach me not to cause even bigger problems.
Well in a sense I did cause another problem; but one, that was not of my making. After we sat at a table of our choice and when I peered into the baby seat that was placed, I discovered that it was wet and unclean. When I pointed this out to the nearby female hostess and asked her to get it cleaned, she replied ‘sure thing’. No apology was made. I politely reminded her that that I was the customer and it was not my job to tell her what has to be done. Whoever placed the baby seat should have made sure that it was clean.
Humans speak their first fully-formed words sometime between 9 – 12 months of age. Now, had my grandson sat on the wet seat – he would probably have yelled out in fury using choice toddler language.
Words are the foundation of (almost) everything we do. Psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson says, “If you can think, speak, and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way.” If Dr. Peterson is right, why are ambitious hospitality professionals so often inattentive to and careless with their words?
We spend a huge chunk of our waking hours with words. A University of California, San Diego study estimated the average person consumes over 100,000 words every day. In today’s attention-deficit world, where so many don’t want to listen, how can hospitality leaders communicate effectively? By making sure that staff utter words that are to the point and matter without drifting too far off track with meaningless expressions.
Ilzaf Keefahs - Is a free lance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike.
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