Savvy service or slack standards?

Every outlet in the region is trying to eradicate it, but time and time again, poor service standards crop up as a key customer complaint. Caterer Middle East brought together a collection of experienced F&B customer service experts from across the region at YO! Sushi, Dubai Mall, to address and evaluate one of the major issues dominating discussions on the region’s hospitality scene

What do you make of the general standard of customer service in the Middle East?

Halima Anderson: Coming from a restaurant background, I can say it is a bit distressing at times. I have seen restaurants where the service is absolutely amazing and the bartenders can make an absolutely fantastic drink. On the other hand, I have seen the exact opposite where you have the wrong people in the wrong places. They could be working in an outlet with a beautiful atmosphere, but sometimes the service just seems to be in utter chaos.

Sunit Agale: The service level changes from restaurant to restaurant. The hospitality industry in the Middle East has grown a lot in recent years and we have experienced international chains entering the region, bringing with them a hiring process that has been both external and local. A lot of staff coming into the region do not find themselves confident enough or comfortable in terms of adjusting to the service level or the service requirements.

Joachim Textor: Basically, there is a lack of consistency. At Rotana we train staff for six months or one year but then often they will move on. We have had a lot of transfers and it’s a process that means we have to start all over again. Customer service training is effective, but it’s a process we have to keep restarting, over and over.

Subhash Chandra Kumar: I train my staff for six months, after which new hotels open up and half of my staff will leave. Training is very important, but maintaining a consistent service level in this region is challenging.

Every hotel trains its staff but every hotel has a different standard. And staff turnover in this region is simply higher than anywhere else, which affects customer service standards.

Waleed Haj Ali: In that case it is important to have a proper succession plan within the company and to fill vacancies from within the company. We often hire and promote people from within the company at Gourmet Gulf.

Mahmoud Harb: The standard of service in Dubai is simply not there. I come from Lebanon, where you will find a specific level of service you cannot find in Dubai. Unfortunately we have noticed that customers are accepting it, but I think everyone should definitely be looking at revising their service standards.

Textor: I would say customers are accepting it because what choice do they have?

Anderson: People are lowering their expectations; what’s important is to recruit the right people, as this is where bad standards start.

If you have a member of staff whose personality doesn’t lend itself to working in front-of-house, then maybe they’re better being placed in back-of-house. First of all, put the people in the right place and secondly take care of them — if they’re happy you’ll get longevity out of them and in the long run you can save on resources.

How important is customer service in regards to other operational aspects in an outlet — for example, is the quality of the food more important than the service?

Anderson: I’d say that food and service are equally important. I’m a lover of food and I’m very critical about the food I put in my mouth, but would you return to a restaurant if the service was poor?

Textor: For me, food is more important in an outlet; however it is important that the service complements the food.

Harb: I believe the food quality comes first. If you like the food at a restaurant but didn’t like the service, then the next time you can order take away. Sometimes the service can be bad, but people will be queuing up because the food is so good.

Agale: The best chef can serve the best food, but if the service is bad the customer will not come back; there should be a harmony between the food and the service.

Hospitality cannot be bought from a shop, so we need to continually train our staff. The food can be top class, but the service has to be in line with that.

Kumar: Service and hospitality has to go hand-in-hand. If anything from either side goes wrong then the customer will not come back to the outlet. If the service is slow, there’s a possibility they may no longer want their meal. The quality of the food is as important as the quality of the service, in my opinion.

Kevin Wills: Every outlet and menu we have is customised. In one outlet, service could be more important than the food and in another, the food could be more important. They are often so interlinked that they cannot be separated.

Service begins in the kitchen and it isn’t just about taking care of the guest: service is about everything from taking care of the server who’s taking care of the guest, to ensuring the steward in the kitchen has enough material to clean the dishes in the backroom.

Anderson: The floor manager should be able to feel the pulse of what’s going. They need to let the staff know that they can be open with each other and that a problem can be fixed before it leaks. If it can be solved, then there is a chance that the customer will return to the outlet. I think it’s important to let the staff know that if there is a problem it will be OK, and then to nip it in the bud before it becomes a bigger problem.

Agale: As a manager, time management is important, as are table revisits. You need to be aware of your business times and when you’re going to get busy. Make sure you know your business inside out and pass this information onto your staff. Be a role player to your staff.

Haj Ali: It’s important to get customer feedback from complaint forms or from a table visit by the store manager. Then analyse that data; we have a special team that is doing this in collaboration with the marketing team. We explain to our staff that it is important to apologise to the customer and thank them for coming to the outlet.

Harb: From my point of view, it is very important to make sure everything is ready for the customer rush during the shift. You have to remind your staff about the shift’s target and how much they have achieved throughout. You need to thank staff for the good job they have done, thank them for achieving the target and push them if necessary.

As for the customer’s point-of-view, mistakes will happen. It’s the manager’s problem to take care of this, but the staff should also take some responsible action. We train our staff and support them in taking decisions before going to the managers. Table visits are the most important thing and anyone running the shift should be very specific in asking questions to find out if anything went wrong.

Does the lack of a tipping culture affect standards?

Anderson: In the US market, you have career waiters and bartenders who have taken care of their families and put their children through college, thanks to the great money and great tips they earn. They are encouraged to up-sell and they want to push the bill higher, as it will improve their tips. In the US tips work out at a minimum of 15% of the final check and in the current culture it’s about 20%. It’s an incentive to up-sell and to give impeccable service.

In this region, there is no tipping culture whatsoever. If there was, it would take some pressure off an organisation, because you would be able to pay a lower salary and because staff would be taking home better tips — it would be a win-win situation.

Kumar: The US system is similar to the one in South Korea. I was working in a restaurant there and we would expect a 10% tip. Although we only had eight staff, we knew we would be able to share the tips and take more money home. In a coffee shop or a casual dining outlet however, you are not getting any tips so you have to live off your salary. In this region, tipping is simply not as strong.

Wills: There’s no recognition with tips. It’s pooled together and the worst employee will often get the same as the best. It’s the same with salary; if the guest is not recognising staff members for their service, then the employer should recognise them for their efforts.

Wills: I think the personalities are probably there, but with English in many cases a second or third language it can be difficult for someone to convey their emotions, personality and character to the customer. They have to choose their words wisely when describing a dish and sometimes staff will read from scripts; then they start sounding like robots, even if they don’t mean to.

Kumar: We have a Thai restaurant with some very good staff from Thailand, but it can be very difficult for them to communicate with the customers. Therefore I have put staff from different nationalities on the floor so they can communicate with different categories of guests.

We also insist on teaching staff Arabic and English. It’s important they know English 100%, but if we want to capitalise on the Middle East market we need staff to be able to converse in Arabic too.

Haj Ali: This is important — we are in an Arabic country, after all. In Dubai, Arabic has to be involved in everything and therefore we have to put translations on the menu, for example. Arabic speakers are also in high demand and we’ve placed more emphasis on that with our staff.

Anderson: The language barrier is definitely an issue, but my feeling is that smiles and body language are universal. If you smile you can hear it over the phone and if I smile at you, you will feel my sincerity. These types of things can be addressed at the start of employment, before addressing the language issue.

Would customer service improve if staff from more established hospitality markets such as Western Europe were encouraged to join Middle Eastern outlets?

Halima Anderson: I think a new set of problems would arise, different to the issues we currently face. I believe there would be minor issues and a lot of frustration, but generally I think service would improve. We would, however, have to pay them the same as they get in Europe to get them here.

Sunit Agale: It’s about give and take: you would have to give these staff the right packages. If you give them training and mentor them, in return you will get a quality service.

Would employing more local staff improve the standard of service across the region?

Kevin Wills: All those little nuances you have, for example placing knives and forks on the correct side, would benefit by at least having somebody on the floor that understands the guests better than anyone else. This would actually improve the service level and help the other associates who can learn from this experience.

Joachim Textor: It would be an option, but not many Emiratis want to work in kitchens. We have five nationals working in the hotel, but they’re in different departments, not in the kitchen.