The 'Personality Principle' in customer service
Restaurants that offer only a buffet during mealtimes primarily persuade customers to serve themselves and when the customer is responsible for much of the labour and has some control of the service environment, it behoves the management to provide the right labour, at the right moment to create an experience that goes beyond the product. The product is not just the food, it’s the relationship we have with our guests, the environment, the music, the entire setting. It’s not to merely increase covers; it’s to increase the experience in the restaurant.
Sometime ago, I recall dining at the Coffee shop of a 5 star hotel in Colombo, The buffet on offer had a pleasantly surprising choice of three soups (unlike most buffets which settle for the maximum two), an excellent selection of cold cuts and salads, a range of main dishes, including several Sri Lankan and Indian curries with assorted condiments, with chefs behind action stations preparing pasta and shwarma ‘a la minute’, and according to one’s choice. A delightful and hard to resist array of desserts rounded off a flavoursome and extremely satisfying culinary adventure.
This was the ‘high point’ of the evening, and I could hardly fault the quality of the food. If I did have an issue, it would probably be on the lack of any creative flair to present the food in a more inviting way. One has to keep up with the times and the trends, where chefs in the rest of the world, are forgoing the traditional chafing dishes in favour of a new array of tableware from innovative china manufactures and coloured glassware to stainless steel, traditional Asian spoons - even bamboo, to make the food presentation more contemporary and to bring visual excitement at the buffet table.
What disappointed me enormously however, was what I experienced in the area of guest service. Yes, my re-fill of drinking water was done without having to draw the attention of the server. Yes, the plates were cleared promptly. But, it was all robotic service to the very end. There was no, ‘May I clear your plate?’ Nor any; ‘is everything okay?’ (Although, I find the question one that is more appropriate at a crime scene).
Even the Sri Lankan smile, considered by many in the industry as a cure for haemorrhaging service wasn’t on show. Not a single word did our server utter and the service expectation sank below zero - when calculating the ‘Personality Principle’- where Rs. = 1/P+C.
In general, the amount of personality (P) on display from the waiting staff will be inversely proportional to the amount of money you’re spending, not including a basic level of cordiality (C).
What the Chef and his kitchen brigade accomplished was put to the sword by the restaurant staff. Mind you, I counted three floor managers, smarty attired in dark suit/tie, roaming the place, desperately trying to look important, although they seemed to find comfort in each other’s company, rather than seek any interaction with the thirty or so guests who were in the music-less, restaurant at the time.
Go on check it out, especially in local restaurants that serve buffets. You fork out a significant amount itemised as ‘Service Charge’, merely for having your beverage (which you will pay for), served to the table, for pouring drinking water into your glass tumbler, for clearing your plate and for being presented the bill, (incidentally, that night, my credit card was swiped out of my sight), – oh, and lest I forget...for bringing the set of toothpicks, one invariably is forced to ask for.
In today’s fiercely competitive restaurant market-place, restaurant guests certainly possess a heightened expectation in the area of guest service where “dead language” and satisfactory service is no longer good enough – even if the food served exceeds expectations.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka’, Consultant, Trainer, Ex- hotelier
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