Food file - Craft talk

Craft Guild of Chefs member, David Dudley, owner and chef/patron of the George Inn, Great Oxendon, gives his tips on how to achieve good service.

With the rise of the gastro pub, eating out has become an experience that goes far beyond just good food. It's about offering quality service overall and that is vital if you want to develop a good reputation and guarantee repeat custom. Firstly, a happy and motivated front-of-house team with a good knowledge of the menu is essential, as this makes people feel relaxed and welcome and illustrates that the establishment is serious about its food. If you use local suppliers for fresh produce, then convey this to your customers either via the menu or the waiting staff.

Customers like to see that local produce is being used and it could provide you with variety and quality that others might lack. Good service isn't about offering food fast, it's about offering quality food. Having an orderto- plate time promise is not expected of an independent pub such as ours, but we try to ensure that the food is served without delay. Customers are aware that food is made fresh to order and are therefore generally willing to wait. Creating the right atmosphere and environment makes customers feel welcome and should further their enjoyment. We have a log fire in the winter that makes it very cosy, and beautiful gardens for people to sit out in and enjoy the sunshine in the summer.

Things can get overlooked on busy days, such as ensuring that glasses are collected and tables are cleaned properly, which is essential in providing a quality service. This can be overcome, however, by making sure staff communicate well and work together as a team. If there is ever a problem with any aspect of service, the best thing you can do is to go front of house, meet the customer to find out what the issue is and rectify it there and then. This could be the difference between a customer coming back or not. Word of mouth is powerful in a business such as this: ensuring customers are happy helps build up a good reputation.

I would recommend that chefs go front-ofhouse as much as they can, even if it's just to see how things are running. Customers don't always inform waiting staff if they have not fully enjoyed themselves, but by taking the time to talk to them, they may be more willing to pass comment. At the same time, if customers have paid a compliment about the food, go out and thank them as it develops a good rapport. Good communication improves quality of service. Once you've developed a reputation for offering good service it's important not to rest on your laurels.

Keep in touch with customers and let them know what you are doing. We've designed little cards that we put on each table with a picture of the George Inn. They have tearoff slips for customers to write their comments and details on. From this, we have created a database, which we use to mail out details of new menus, special occasions, meal deals and other activities. We used it recently to promote a cookery demo and over 40 people came along! For further information on the Craft Guild of Chefs, contact 020 8948 3870​ or visit www.craft-guild.org​