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Service
Service Starts in the Kitchen!
by Peter Langlois
It may seem paradoxical, but perhaps the most important
skill in the kitchen has nothing to do with cooking and everything to do
with service attitude. Take the following scenario.
A couple has ordered their meal and is relaxing,
conversing. The server brings their entrees (which are hot) to the table
and lets the guests know not to touch those oh so hot plates. But rather
than taste their food immediately, they continue chatting. After ten
minutes they decide to taste their food, which is now cool, not hot. The
server is called over to the table to remedy the situation and proceeds to
the kitchen to get the entrees heated up.
In the kitchen, the chef-cook maintains that he/she did
everything right and why should he redo this order? After all, the cooking
times were met, degrees of doneness were right, and the food was picked up
from the Expo station right on time. Certainly the cook is not to blame.
But neither is the server. The simple fact is that nobody
is wrong. Service problems like these are not about assigning blame but
rather about being engaged in the overall service experience of our shared
guests. If you’re kitchen staff is on the defensive rather than being
proactive in resolving customer issues you need to revise your training.
The number one priority must be guest service, and it must absolutely
permeate your entire staff.
Survey after survey shows guests are more forgiving of
food issues than service problems. They may give you another chance to
improve the food, but once you mess up the service, even great food will
not carry the day.
Perhaps the bottom line is for kitchen staff to
understand they shouldn’t shoot the messengers. Servers are simply agents
or brokers who act as intermediaries for guests. Imagine the reaction of
kitchen staff if guests themselves brought their own cold food back to the
kitchen to complain. Standing face-to-face, would your staff cheerfully
handle a guest or get defensive? Then why bitch at the server?
A chef-cook with the right service attitude saves the
day, while one with the wrong attitude continues to spread the “us versus
them” virus between service staff and kitchen. How can guests or a
business win in that case? It’s food for thought.
Bio:
Peter Langlois is founder of
www.RestaurantU.com: Tools of the
Trade for Business, for School, for Free!, co-editor of Weekly Restaurant
Connections (e-Newsletter):
www.wrcnewsletter.com, Instructor, The Art Institute of
Houston-Culinary, and Management, Marketing and e-business Facilitator at
The University of Phoenix (Houston). Langlois is also a Malcolm Baldrige
2004 Examiner. He has a Political Science degree from Michigan State
University (Modern International Chinese Relations) and an M.B.A from the
University of Houston (Marketing and Business Strategies). A detailed CV
outlining his hospitality career is available on both web sites.
Contact information: 832.860.5595 or
peter@wt.net
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