The Art of Making People Feel Valued.
It’s a Tuesday evening in central London, the sun is slowly sinking behind the horizon, and I fancy going for dinner. Where should I go?
Let’s be honest, I have an overwhelming amount of options. The first step is working out what food I fancy...? OK got it. But that still leaves me quite a few places to choose from. The next, and defining step, is all about my memories of places. Think about a restaurant you’ve been to recently. Got one? Ok good. What did you think of it? Would you go there again? Would you recommend it to a friend? The thought process you’ve just been through is a pretty complex one. You will have conjured up images of the place, sound, textures and will now have an emotional response to it. And it is this emotional response, which is a mixture of all those senses stored in our memory, that influences our decision to return or not.
Our emotional attachment to a restaurant, both good and bad, is essentially a recollection of how we were made to feel. How you make your guests feel is the determining factor as to whether or not they return.
Make each of your guests feel valued and you will have a successful business. Part of that is the food, of course. That’s the foundation of any restaurant. People want to feel like they are getting value for their pounds. That doesn’t have to mean cheap. People will happily pay a lot for a plate of food, but they need to feel that the plate of food is worth it.
“Our emotional attachment to a restaurant, both good and bad, is essentially a recollection of how we were made to feel. How you make your guests feel is the determining factor as to whether or not they return. ”
If your guests don’t feel that they’re getting their money’s worth they certainly won’t feel valued. If you don’t get this right you’ve fallen at the first hurdle.
But let’s say you do get this right. The next phase is all about your staff. Your staff need to make each and every guest feel valued. Your servers are your brand. They represent you, and you need to invest in them as such.
Easier said than done. Don’t forget every guest is different and they all want to be treated differently. What might make one guest feel valued might be over-the-top for another. Also don’t get complacent; regular guests can be in different moods on different days and will want different levels of service.
A good friend of mine is head waiter at an iconic London restaurant. His regulars will behave, and require, completely different styles of service depending on who they are with. If you really want to learn how to adjust service on-the-fly, book one of our courses, but in the mean time, here are the basics...
Listen to them. Actively listen to everything they say. Don’t be too keen to fix and interrupt them. Hosts do this all the time, in a rush to seat their guests, they forget to take the time to properly welcome them. I hear things like
“Good Evening. How are you? Table for two?”
Don't ask a question and then not wait for the answer! If you ask someone how they are at least have the courtesy to wait for the response. Running questions together with no concern for the answers comes across as scripted, generic, and soulless.
Always make your guests feel like you have time for them. No matter how busy you are. Whenever you are at a table your focus should just be on that table. Open body language, no tension, good eye contact - soft, gentle tone, and a good pace of speech at a good volume (your voice should be audible enough for the guest to easily hear but, not loud enough to push past them to any other tables).
Do not approach tables too often. There’s nothing more annoying then getting three check-backs during a meal, or being interrupted mid-conversation. This happens because the server is lacking awareness. You should never interrupt a table more than is absolutely necessary. Again, book on one of our courses to learn how to deliver great attentive service from afar.
Finally give a genuine goodbye. One of my massive bug bears is when three different people say goodbye and not one of them has meant it. Screaming goodbye at me, with no eye contact, means nothing.
A good goodbye, is soft, gentle, warm, and genuine. I only need one of those.
Managers you should value your staff as equally as you value your guests. Listen to them, have time for them, when you’re speaking to them, they should feel like they have your full attention. If you can make them feel valued they in turn will find it much easier to make your guests feel valued.
“A good goodbye, is soft, gentle, warm, and genuine. I only need one of those.”
It’s all about making people feel good. If you make someone feel good, that makes you feel good. The more you can cultivate this win win scenario the more successful your business will be and the more likely I, and the rest of London, will be to pop in on a Tuesday night.
