Customer Service:

Recall the worst customer service experience in your life. Is the image clear, is your pulse quickened, is your breathing becoming labored, is the anger welling up within you? Good, your goal as a restaurateur is never to have your guests feel that way. Pundits have pontificated, far better than I on the abysmal state of customer service. It is a pandemic in the service industry.

When you invite a guest into your restaurant, the guest should not have to hear about the waitress’s flat tire, the chef burning the special, the purveyor delivering the wrong product, the hostess’ romantic tiff with the doorman, the waiter needing next Wednesday off for a court date, or the fact that the carpet cleaners scratched the wall. The guest is not there to resolve your issues, you are there to solve theirs.

When you invite a guest into your restaurant, never, never, never lie to them. If the wait is going to be an hour, tell them it will be an hour. If you are out of something, tell them. A guest is placing an order at Joe’s Café and asked for a special sandwich, the counter person says, “we don’t do that here”, the guest responds “My friend got that special sandwich here yesterday straight away”, the counter person responds, “ok we can make it, however it will take longer because there is another special order ahead of you”. You have just lied to that guest. Why would anybody do that? You have just lost that guest forever. The guest will never forgive or forget being lied to.