If you have been attended to by Waiters
before, you would agree with me that working as a Waiter really appears more
tasking than working as a CEO. Certainly, this is a tough nut to track in your brain
right now, huh. However look at this
scenario, a guest visits a hotel checks in and in the course of his stay receives
poor treatment by some Waiters. The guest gets upset, leaves a complaint while
leaving the hotel and vows not to use the hotel again.
Now this guest actually led a team of over
a hundred tourists. What do you think happens to the hotel? The case may be
reported and the Waiter is sacked; yet the customer has gone with disparaging
comments about the hotel. Hotel loses regard among tourists. Hotel spends some
money on reputation repairs in order to restore battered image. You see that
before a CEO makes a mistake, there would have been other eyes and ears that
should have helped him avoid the error. Not so with the Waiter. The Waiter is
closest to the Customer and may not escape mistakes most of the time.
But what do Waiters do? They take
customers’ requests, serve them those requests, present the bill, receive
payment in some cases or direct customer where to make payments. The most
important part of their job is however is in taking the order and serving same
to customer courteously and timely, because this would guarantee payments.
Waiters are rated by their ability to take
orders and respond to those orders courteously within the acceptable time limit
of the customer. For instance, recently while attending a conference of an
alumni body I belong to, I stayed in a nearby hotel alongside other alumni and
in the night of the first conference day, I went to the restaurant and ordered
a meal. Not only that it took ages before I got the order served, it was also
poorly served. I paid for the meal, grumbling, because I felt I did not get
value for my money. That was of course the last time I ate in that restaurant
during the conference.
What has happened? Instead of the Waiters
to serve me and wait on me, I waited for them and paid them for waiting for
them, because the meal ended up not being of expected standard. So when a
Waiter works, he should bear in mind that the customer expects to receive
quality service within time. If for any reason the service takes more time than
required, the Waiter should politely apologize to the customer.
Let me expand the horizon of the
interpretation of a Waiter. Anyone that serves the public in shops, public
events, hotels, and the likes, is actually a Waiter also. They all should
recognize that whoever they are attending to is a customer or potential
customer. Service may or may not attract financial reward in the immediate, yet
reputation is critical, image is important. If your service to customers does
not increase revenue by increasing customer patronage and loyalty, you do not
deserve your pay in that organization. If your service falls below the
acceptable standard in your organization, you are practicing customer
disservice. Everyone serving or working in any organization, whose functions
interface directly with customers must realize that the growth of that
organization depends highly on how he manages customer service. The key is to
always be willing to please the customer.
In order to achieve excellent customer
service, Waiters should imbibe the character of patience. Patience is described
as good natured tolerance of delay or incompetence. It is also a courteous tolerance
of varying conducts. Customers are of varied characters and demands, a good
Waiter should learn to be patient in dealing with whatever character a customer
presents. This requires a Waiter to be humble, because some customers may even
be younger than the Waiter and that would not be a reason to disrespect them. If
a Waiter gets upset and takes it on the Customer, not only will the customer
likely leave angered, the Waiter’s job may equally be on the line if the case
is reported.
Small and big businesses, religious
organizations and event managers should invest in training those who interface
with customers. They should set a standard and ensure that such standards are
taught to every staff especially those who face customers.
Talks
Post a Comment