Comment: Finding the right F&B personality

Creating a restaurant brand is a mammoth task — having to think of absolutely everything from concept and brand offering to staffing and operations.

Although the initial thought when investing in restaurants is that you’re getting into the food business, my biggest piece of advice before stepping into the industry, is to remember that you’re actually investing in the people business, for both your internal and external customers.

The customer is always right, and this is no truer than when applied to any service-based industry, especially restaurants. Even if you do not personally agree with the customer, everything they say has to be taken as true.

If your service or front-of-house staff start arguing with, or talking back to, customers, this is when issues arise and your sales and customer loyalty starts to drop.

Therefore, getting the right staff is, in my opinion, one of the most important factors in running a successful restaurant, and differentiates your business from that of your competitors. Unfortunately in the UAE, and the Middle East in general, we have become accustomed to a very robotic way of service, with the service staff acting as order takers rather than order makers.

Staff should have character, be allowed to show their personalities where appropriate, and reflect the brand of the restaurant.

If you have a mid-range, quirky brand, why not employ staff with their own quirky characters? Staff need to act as brand ambassadors, which should communicate and portray your brand attributes and personality. In my opinion, employing staff with a difference will enhance the way people view your restaurant and give back that personal touch that is lacking in the UAE F&B industry today.

However, always remember that your staff should reflect the tone of your brand. Having a waiter with an outgoing, loud personality serving customers in a high-end restaurant is not really suitable; neither is a formal silver-service waiter in a quick grab-and-go outlet.

You need to balance all of this up and understand exactly what you want your brand and concept to convey before you start the hiring process.

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Having the right staff on board can really give your brand the competitive edge and set you apart from others in the market.

Being in the people industry, investment needs to be made into staff, not only in their training, development and skills, but also in their benefits and employee satisfaction.

A happy employee is worth his or her own weight in gold, as it means they will feel part of the brand family and really do their very best to help it succeed.

An employee who feels under-valued will reflect their negative impressions of the business on to its customers, as their style of working will lack passion and flair, which will negatively affect your sales and loyalty.

Every decision that is made when creating an F&B brand should be focused on pleasing the market, and that means pleasing stakeholders both internally and externally.

From designing an original outlet to innovative food options and a good atmosphere, people should always be at the forefront of your mind.

Focusing on getting in loyal customers drives both revenue and repeat business and with friendly and happy staff on board these customers will keep coming back time and time again.

Nicholas Couvaras is the founder and managing director of recently launched Kroma, a dedicated F&B advisory consultancy, which offers the entire ‘kitchen sink’ of services, from new concept development to optimising existing portfolios, as well as assisting international brands successfully localise their concepts to suit the Middle East market.

For more information, visit: www.kroma-me.com