Being ' busy ' is no excuse for poor service.
During my time as Head of Branding for a hotel conglomerate, I used to send out my team to carry out regular audits to verify the level of brand standard compliance. While most audits were announced in advance, there were the mandatory unannounced audits each hotel had to undergo. In the case of the latter, we came across several hotels within the chain, where at some time or another, standards of food hygiene in the kitchen slipped. Unsurprisingly, the excuses for the detected shortcomings were attributed to being busy and ironically, the hotel happened to be extremely busy on the exact day my team chose to visit. Being busy was simply not acceptable, especially if it meant putting guests at risk.
We were quite skilful in determining, after a few cursory checks, that these seemingly ‘one-off’ situations as claimed by the chef were infact representative of the daily norm. What was even more alarming was that this common practice grossly compromised the safety of the food being handled, cooked and served. All tales of hardship heard, was countered by posing the question “Does bacteria that can cause food poisoning react sympathetically to fluctuating staffing levels or during busy days?”
Last week, my wife and myself went to our favourite coffee lounge, which been quite popular is usually well frequented. Being the school holidays they were busier than normal – something that was not unexpected. We were both fine with that. What was not fine was when the coffee we ordered was served late, lukewarm and lacked the usual smiling and efficient service. When we commented that the coffees were near cold they were replaced, albeit a further delay. When leaving, we casually informed the manager about our experience.Looking distraught he immediately apologised saying “We’ve been very busy all of a sudden”.
Now, in my books, if you are in business, being busy is great for your botton line. So, when someone uses the ‘being busy’ line as an excuse, that person is letting his/her customers’ down.If your operation is being negatively affected by being busy - take the necessary steps to fix it. Another excuse I hear occasionally is “Sorry about that…we’re kinda understaffed today”. I have yet to come across a restaurant that gave discounts for providing less than the expected guest experience because they were understaffed.Being understaffed isn’t an excuse for bad customer service. Restaurateurs know it. And more importantly customers do too.
Another bad practice is where employees spend more time trying to justify why they cannot do something because of being short staffed, when they could have done it in the time they took to explain why they are ‘too busy’. I recall this happening while I was waiting to pay for my muffin and coffee at an airport, a man stepped up to the counter and requested the cashier to get some change. “Sorry I cannot do that now, I’m very busy to be giving out change. Just look around you. Can’t you see we’re short staffed”. The man went away. The cashier could easily have given him the change in less time than it took her to make excuses. By denying this simple service request, she left all of us standing in the queue with a negative impression – not least of all …letting all of us standing in the rather long line to pay , know that the operation was short staffed.
Ilzaf Keefahs– writes on hospitality-related matters that he is passionate about and likes to share with hoteliers and customers alike.
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