Service

Service That Absolutely Sucks: Let Me Ask the Chef!
by Peter Langlois

“My name is Suzie, and I’m your server tonight. What can I get for you?”

“What’s the soup of the day?”

“Let me ask the chef.”

“Can I get that made without butter, maybe use olive oil instead?”

“Let me ask the chef.”

“Can I substitute an extra veggie for those French fries?”

“Let me ask the chef.”

“What new wines do you have on your list?”

“I’ll have to ask the manager.”

“Suzie, just who let you out on the floor to wait on guests before you could answer any of these questions?”

If you haven’t had an experience like any of these, you’re simply living in a cave somewhere. With summer here, “Let me ask the chef” seems to ring out more than ever as we hit a few tourist spots staffed mostly by students making a little money during their break from school. Okay. I run into this year ‘round. So maybe this has more to do with management and poor training practices than with hiring temporary help during the summer.

Here’s the real deal: Restaurants are judged rarely by the best service that a guest receives but most often by the worst. Guests expect answers to those previous questions on the spot, so you don’t get extra credit for that. What you get is the blame when your staff cannot provide even this minimal level of service. When you let staff out on the floor before they are ready, you’re simply putting more bullets into the chamber of what I call your “service revolver.” Sooner or later, you’re going to at least shoot yourself in the foot, or even worse, in the head. Are you providing service that absolutely sucks? If your food is great but your service is lousy, you’re the loser. 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