Ian McKerracher is owner of the Helyar Arms in East Coker, near Yeovil, Somerset, a former Egon Ronay inspector and former chief executive of the Restaurant Association. Here he offers advice on how to handle reviewers.
Okay, so you've had a fantastic few trading weeks over the Christmas and New Year period, the cash-flow situation is a bit healthier, the place has been buzzing with lots of contented, happy punters, and now you're wondering whether you can keep up the momentum. It is likely that you can't, and the next few months are going to be a bit slow by comparison. But hey, everyone loved what you were doing in December, and all that goodwill must carry you through - right?
Well, let's hope so.The two things that are going to determine whether or not your customers are going to keep coming back, and tell others, are consistency and attention to detail. Not surprisingly, these two essentials are the hardest disciplines to maintain in business, but they are absolutely the key factors that will set your establishment apart from the competition. If one, or both, of these elements are missing, you can be sure that these are what your harshest critics will pounce on. So who are these critics, and do their opinions matter anyway? Well, yes. You see, everyone is a critic; it's just that some are better than others.The best get paid to do it, the rest pay you.
Every time you put a plate of food in front of someone, they are con-sciously, or unconsciously, judging you on how good you are. It's no good saying, "it was an off night", or "our supplier let us down". If you are charging full whack for that plate of food, your customer has every right to expect it to be as good as you can possibly achieve. That's where the consistency thing comes in. It's a concept many of us in the catering industry struggle with, but if you translate it to another industry or discipline, say, theatre or hairdressing, it's another matter, and I suspect we would be the first ones to complain and demand redress if we were the recipient of a bad experience.
All of which poses the question: do publicans/ restaurateurs deserve to be judged in the same way as other creative arts - eg, ballet, cinema, fine art? I guess one can only answer the question having decided whether cooking is an art or, as Jonathan Meades, the former restaurant critic of The Times, would have it, a craft. He argues, the difference is that an artist strives to make every work individual, unique, whereas a craftsman strives to ensure every item is produced time-andagain to an exact standard. Both end products can be exceptionally good.Whatever your view, the moral of this paragraph is: ensure your staff understand that every customer is a critic, not just those that write for a newspaper or guide.
As for those who do get paid to criticise, do they wield disproportionate power? Last year the press was full of the suicide of triple-Michelin-star chef Bernard Loiseau, who shot himself, apparently as a result of a downgrading in a major French gastronomic guide. There are undoubtedly legions of businesses that have failed as a result of a pasting in the press, just as there have been plenty of shows that have closed on Broadway for similar reasons. However, it is difficult to understand why one person's opinion should destroy another's livelihood. The trouble is, that's life, or rather, business.
All businesses succeed or fail as a result of how good they are at what they do. If a business is robust, with exacting standards and rigorous controls, one person's opinion should not dent its reputation. That's not to say that there is not a great deal of irresponsible criticism, often handed out in the name of entertainment. One can't help but wonder whether some critics give a second thought as to how their casual, witty remarks at the expense of an otherwise excellent employee might impact on their target's career or livelihood. The secret is, learn to read between the lines of a review. It is often the case that what critics don't say is more important than what they do.And for goodness sake, if you do spot a well-known critic in your establishment, learn not to react disproportionately.
There can be nothing more irritating or ridiculous than to witness sudden overblown generosity of ingredients and decoration on a plate in comparison to everyone else's, or to suddenly discover that a table is surrounded by fawning staff while the rest of the room is being ignored. In my experience, if you know a VIP is out there, you invariably try too hard, and stuff it up. I make it a rule never to tell staff when a critic is in.After all, every customer is a critic. Why should one get better service than another? A final word of advice. Understand the difference between a guide entry and a review. A guide entry - sometimes paid for, although the most worthwhile are not - is intended as exactly that; a guide. Generally entries are only positive, with the content simply guiding a reader to an establishment that suits their needs. A review, however, can be good or bad, and is usually written to entertain as well as inform.
So, the golden rule is, if you are in a guide, assume you have achieved certain criteria that warrant inclusion in the publication. If you receive a review, all it means is that you have been noticed, and you may not like what you read. Finally, decide whether the opinion of others is important to you or not. You may feel what other people think doesn't matter. If, however, you want my advice, ignore them at your peril.