12,000 reasons for giving good service

Drinks distributor Sirocco is encouraging staff to promote its brands by offering bar teams across Dubai and the northern emirates a cash incentive.

The Sirocco Quality Awards is offering a series of cash prizes to bars that gather the most points, ranging from AED 12,000 (US $3,267) for whole teams and AED 3,000 (US $ 817) for individual managers, based on a scoring system that pits bars from across the emirate against each other in a league table.

Sirocco operations manager Shabana Khan, who has held dozens of training sessions for the awards programme across the emirates, explained: “Each month we come up with a new promotion — we are going to bars to tell staff that the entire team can be winners and that we are giving them prizes.

“We are here to make sure staff are serving the customer drinks properly — for instance by suggesting Sirocco brands to customers first and ensuring the service is complimented by correctly branded coasters and glasses,” added Khan following a recent training event at the Metropolitan Hotel Dubai’s iconic Red Lion.

Red Lion barman Wolfang Mendouca said he was confident his team would win the competition, which takes place over a two month period several times throughout the year.

Mendouca declared: “We are going to win this; we do all the things they are teaching us properly and we’re going to show this to everyone.

“There’s no pressure because it won’t be tough, it’ll be easy,” he added.

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The staff are subjected to visits by mystery shoppers who award them points depending on a checklist of Sirocco-based service objectives.

That’s no problem according to Mendouca, who added: “We try to mostly recommend Sirocco brands — that’s our focus at the moment.”

His bar colleague Cherry Jara however, claimed that it was not the money that spurred her on, but the ability to prove that service standards are meeting the grade.

Jara explained: “During the training session I learned a lot about Sirocco’s products and the competition, but I’m not inspired to win the money.

“What we need to focus on is gaining points while serving the guests, with items like coasters and branding in the right place — that is more important than the money.”