A rotten apple can keep your customers away
We’ve all heard the saying “ one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch”. Yes, it does happen with some fruit like apples . As they ripen apples produce a gaseous hormone called ethylene, which is among other things, a ripening agent.When they are stored together, the ethylene each fruit emits prods the others around it to ripen further, and vici versa. When left unattended, given the right conditions and enough time, one apple can push all the other apples around it to ripen – and eventually rot. Additionally,an apple that is infested with mold will contaminate other fruit stored with as the mold seeks additional food sources and spreads. In both cases, it actually does take one single apple (if not removed in time), to start a domino chain that ruins the rest of the lot.
One might ask “ What have apples to do with hospitality?”. Before answering that question, let me ask you another question.How many of you have experienced the frustration of seeing an employee you hired, trained and groomed… change from being a potentially good prospect to a disruptive member of staff? Or where that employee, with a once ‘eager to please’ and ‘can do’ attitude turns into a sassy employee ready to complain and whine about everything.
I bet you this has happened to most of us at some time or another. You are at work and things are moving along well. You look around and realise you have a great team of employees working hard. Customers are happy and keep returning. Then it happens. Usually, without the slightest warning. A star employee, maybe even your best employee, like the ripe apple, has gone bad.When star performers go bad, they can, like the over-ripe apple, push all the other to eventually go rotton. Your worse nightmare is when the star employee had previously been a formal / informal leader, and others in the team were used to following his/her lead. So, when such an employee is leading staff into a downward spiral of poor morale and low productivity, everyone follows. And before you know it, your customers are gone...for good.
I bet you again,that this has happened to many of us at some time or another.You are greeted upon entering a hotel or restaurant by an unfriendly and churlish member of staff – a doorman lets say.However, despite the initial setback, the evening went well since the rest of the staff were exceptionally nice. That unpleasant doorman was the exception. He was the ‘bad apple’ in a barrel of good ones and in this case, the doorman (bad apple) should be rmoved or relocated with those that recognise the value and interest of paying guests.
Hoteliers, how many bad apples do you have? How do you identify and address employees who fail to deliver exceptional or even satisfactory service? Should they be thrown out from the lot or is there some remedial action that can be taken to manage better performance?
This is where one can draw an analogy between apples and hospitality. Weak or toxic employees must be identified before they influence fellow employees and turn away guests. One way is to rate staff on service attitude and recognise those who are role models for other employees to emulate.It’s like choosing apples ; one usually picks up those that are firm, shiny, brightly coloured and smooth.
You may also need to address issues of soured attitudes from any long-serving employee who may be disgruntled and has lost interest in the job. How often have such individuals gone on to damage the rest of the crop of employees as well as guests? Talk to the person – tell him or her to ‘shape up or ship out’. Again,when buying apples, would you pick up a bruised, soft or shriveled apple?
Unfortunately,bad employees unlike bad apples are hard to immediately spot. On the surface these disengaged employees look and act the same as everyone else.They manage to come to work on time, they do what’s asked of them. But…when you are not around things get missed.They do the minimum expected.They will never go that extra mile nor go out of their way to support others and they manage to avoid doing those jobs everyone hates. they are like the bad apples ; If you don’t identify them soon enough they will infect the others in the team.
It only takes one negative or obstructive person to get in the way and undo all your efforts. These ‘bad apples’ can have a massive impact onemployee engagement, the team’s performance and ultimately on your customer service levels.
Do you have any rotten apples in your business?
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, consultant, Trainer, Ex-hotelier
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