Invest in people, not buildings

Invest in people, not in buildings. How can a region that strives for excellence throughout every department of the hospitality industry allow such slack service standards to continue?

I have had enough; I am sick to the back teeth; I am utterly hacked off.

I’ve heard every excuse, seen every squirm and felt every awkward shuffle. I’ve been issued every apology, given every assurance and promised the earth.

This venting of my spleen is, of course, in reference to the number-one issue across the whole of the region; the one issue that lights everybody’s wick, that stirs the frustrations of every single person: service (or indeed the lack of it).

Everything else in this region gets better with time and experience. Slowly but very surely, the Middle East is surging into world focus, through sheer determination, spirit and a swashbuckling ability to trade the rocks off anyone who wants to play.
 
This is a region that, in little more than the lifetime of your average over-worked businessman, built a nation of dreams.

The leaders of the UAE, for example, have turned fantasy into reality, making everything that little bit bigger, longer, wider or faster than anyone dared to before - while attracting a great many businesses, investors and ex-pat workers to their shores.

An incredible feat when you consider that 100 years ago you’d be lucky to bump into a goat-herder in Dubai.

So why is it that the people who brought you all of that simply cannot deliver a drink or a plate of food to anybody without it being either subservient, aggressive or late?

It is amazing isn’t it? I was sitting in a branch of Starbucks the other day and for a minute I could have been in Manhattan; fast, hip young people buzzing about, looking good, acting busy, phones to ears.

It was a truly international moment — until IT happened.

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The IT I am talking about is the irritating waiter that was trying to serve me. Indeed, the same one that always seems to serve me: over-apologetic with a fixed smile and totally unable to help me with anything at all.

He must have served you too, a thousand times, whether in the shape of the waiter, barman, concierge, accountant or cabbie.

I don’t, indeed can’t, knock their work ethic. This special group of staff are always there and always willing — they just never seem to be able to deal with anything.

Having been annoyed by this sub-standard service for years, I have come up with an idea to cure it. I have a suggestion that will help to really bring about the change needed and which fits the current trends too.

And here it is: INVEST IN PEOPLE, NOT BUILDINGS!

I have long propounded the theory that if two identical twins were to open restaurants, in identical buildings, with identical menus, but one invested his money in the building — getting the look just right — and the other investing an identical amount just in his people and really empowering them, then the latter twin would undoubtedly win.

For the sanity of every resident and visitor to the region, let’s make sure the people we keep on during this difficult time are the people who can serve, who can converse, who have initiative.

Before I end, don’t get me wrong about the people we have now; the shoddy standards are not their fault.

We cannot expect someone to deliver top-notch service if we are holing them up in a glorified work camp in the middle of nowhere every night, paying them the minimum wage and not offering them any training or career progression.

They need to see, smell and taste the lifestyle they are meant to be serving up.

 

Aidan Keane is the founder of specialist leisure and retail design firm Keane: www.keanebrands.com