Turn customers into guests

Related tags Morning advertiser Customer service Customer Bartender

Licensees at the Morning Advertiser's latest free training day were shown how to transform their customer service. Nigel Huddleston reports At the...

Licensees at the Morning Advertiser's latest free training day were shown how to transform their customer service.

Nigel Huddleston reports

At the latest BS=BP training day, held earlier this month at the Ibis Hotel, Earls Court in London, licensees were treated to a masterclass in guest relations from bar consultant and cocktail guru Angus Winchester.

As a basic guiding principle, Winchester said, venues should be treating the people coming through their doors as guests rather than customers. 'Marks & Spencer and the Body Shop have customers,' he said, 'bars and restaurants have guests.'

Making them feel at home is a question of going beyond just their minimum expectations.

'You have to look at someone you are serving and for those 45 seconds they are the most important people in the world,' he said. 'You should accommodate all the needs of the guest. Too many people who work behind a bar think their job is just pouring drinks, but equally it can be finding them a space to eat or getting them a cab.'

Staff should be presentable at all times. 'People will wonder whether you care about the drinks you're serving, if you don't even care about yourself.' He said research showed that dressing distinctively (with a flower in the hair or fancy cufflinks, for example) had been proven to increase tips by 17%.

It also helps to notice what the guest was wearing. 'If they're wearing a tie, comment on what a nice tie it is. People feel like they're a human being, that they're being noticed for being an individual.'

Winchester said bar workers should work on product knowledge as a way of suggestive selling. 'Unless you know about the products you sell you can't possibly know what questions to ask a guest or be able to guide them into making a choice. If they ask for a gin and tonic ask them which gin. It sends out the message that the bartender knows what they're doing.'

Bar staff should also try to provide guests with stress-free service wherever possible, which means leaving your own problems at the door. 'People treat going to work like an extension of home and if they've had a bad day at home they bring it into work. No one wants to see an unhappy bartender. If there is something wrong, a good manager will take the member of staff to one side, find out what's wrong and see if they can help.'

Winchester added that repeating the order back to a customer can increase tips by 30% and give the opportunity of upselling.

As well as good customer service by staff, Winchester also looked at how to get the right staff in the first place.

'People tend to run a hiring process rather than a selection process. You shouldn't have to train people to smile or look confident. If they don't you shouldn't have hired them in the first place. The best staff are the ones who don't have to be told to look people in the eye.'

'Don't get blinded by CVs and qualifications. Find the person and fit the right job to them.'

Winchester said he thought recruitment shouldn't be something that's just done at times of real need. 'When I was at Trailer Happiness we had a full complement of bartenders but I was still interviewing twice a week because I didn't know if the next person who walked in the door was going to be the best bartender in the world.'

All applicants for jobs should have a proper interview, with a standard application form, something no licensee in the audience currently had. 'There should be an interview form, so that everyone is asked the same questions and a leaving interview form so you can find out why people are leaving. I always ask people to drop a CV off and then arrange for them to come back at another time for an interview to see if they're on time and how seriously they take things. No one takes someone on straight away unless they're desperate for staff.'

The interview should include some 'integrity questions', such as whether they had ever shoplifted, even when they were a child. 'It doesn't mean you're a bad person if you stole a couple of Bazooka Joe's from the shop when you were a kid, but it will enable me to find out how honest they are. Most people did things like that when they were children, but are they going to admit it?'

Finally, Winchester said: 'I judge bartenders not by the drinks they're making or how many they're serving, but what they're making in tips. If they get a lot of tips it means they are turning customers into guests.'

What is BS=BP?

Better Service = Better Profit is the Morning Advertiser's major project to help readers enhance their customer service and raise standards in the on-trade.

Its aim is to increase pubs' profits by providing free training at a venue near you - helping you to make more money at no extra cost.

'Merchandising advice will really pay off'

At the other end of the scale from Ian Moore (see box on opposite page), is Dean Charles, who's aiming to open his first on-trade venture in December.

Bar 132 will be in Balham High Street in south London, and will aim to be the area's first quality lounge bar, replicating the atmosphere and service of more established bars in nearby Brixton and Clapham.

'I've done some bartending but my background's in marketing,' said Charles, 'and I own an off-licence. A bar is something I've always wanted to do, because of the profit margins if I'm honest. I sell a drink in an off-licence for 99p and in a bar it will be £3.'

As a result of the Better Service = Better Profit day he said merchandising would become a key issue.

'I have an idea of where I want to place things,' Charles added, 'but coming here has made it a little bit clearer. I can see the layout in my mind much better. I'll be doing white spirits to the right of the till and dark spirits to the left and then replicating it around the second till.

'It's also going to be beneficial for our cocktails and wine sections because we're still putting things together. To be honest, everything they've said today will be beneficial - all of it. It's also good to meet other people here who've been doing it for 15 years and are taking in the same information as me, and still learning, which gives me confidence. It can't be a bad start.'

'Recruitment tips were especially beneficial'

Despite 33 years in the pub trade, Ian Moore was keen to learn more when he came along to the training day.

Moore is the licensee of the White Swan near Charlton Athletic football ground, and the General Napier in nearby Forest Hill.

'I saw the ad in the Morning Advertiser and thought I might pick something up, but I've also brought a manager with me. It's going to help me to train the other staff in the business.'

He thought Angus Winchester's recruitment tips would especially benefit his business. 'I've never had an interview schedule beforehand. I've always just done it off the top of my head, but if you ask the same set of questions to everyone you're going to be making like-for-like comparisons. I think that's going to be an advantage.

'They've also got to be the right person for the place both in terms of personality and product knowledge. The trendy bars are all going to have younger people working in them, but I'm serving older people so it's no good having a young girl who's 20 or so, who doesn't know anything about real ale.'

Despite his pubs' product bias towards ale, Ian said a training section on cocktails was 'very impressive'.

'I've never had a bar that does cocktails, but the way the market is going now, even at 53, I'm considering whether I should, because that's the way the market is going. If I do, anything I pick up here will be an advantage. Obviously the staff have to be trained correctly, because it would be easy to get them wrong. I'd say every member of staff should come on one of these courses. I thought it was really worthwhile coming to it.'

Future course dates

25 October 2005 Coventry - Coventry City FC

29 November 2005 Edinburgh - Edinburgh Grosvenor

13 December 2005 Nottingham - Nottingham Forest FC

24 January 2006 Manchester - Best Western Willowbank H

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