How May I Help You?

 “If my best wines mislike thy taste, And my best service win thy frown, Then tarry not, I bid thee haste; There's many another Inn in town.” –Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Working in the Hospitality Industry I have come to form a strong opinion on what exactly hospitality means. I believe that most people perceive this word as just what the title says -an industry. This industry can encompass places such as restaurants, hotels, or some sort of club. It’s almost as if it has nothing to do with the people working there but rather the place alone.

            However, how can a hospitality industry run if not without its people? Which brings me to my definition of hospitality: Hospitality is the generosity, amenities, and services rendered within a place of business. Notice I did not specify the type of business because I believe all businesses support some type of service. My point of defining hospitality in this way is some people’s attitude in a defined Hospitality Industry such as that restaurant, hotel, or club. It’s almost as if some people totally forget that they are even interacting with another human being.

            Have you ever walked into a restaurant without a reservation and been told that it will be a fifty minute wait? Do you then get mad and yell at the host/ess, or do you simply just say “no thanks” and find a different place to enjoy your meal? It always amazes me that people who take the route of yelling forget that they somehow too probably deal with some sort of customer in their day to day life. How would they feel if something was not their fault, but yet they had to take blame for it because that’s what part of customer service is? Would you like to seat that angry person right away, or would you like to seat the nice couple who stayed quiet and understood that they had not made a reservation so they were going to have to wait?

            Why do some people think that they are supreme the minute that they are receiving a service? It’s as if they forget that they just had to deal with that same awful type of person the day before. Do we not all deserve a little human courtesy?

However, there is something to be said about taking ownership of one’s mistakes as well. If you made a mistake then you should apologize and try to fix it to help that customer, otherwise your business could sink in bad reviews.

I had a moment at work where a guest was upset. I took the guest aside and sat them down and listened to their complaints while noting down the key points of their issues. As they finished telling me why they were angry I addressed each issue that they had been upset about. I apologized on the things that shouldn’t have even happened in the first place and let them know how we would deal with these situations moving forward so that we could better ourselves.

Side bar: I should also mention that this person had made a huge scene earlier in the day and had bruised a fellow manager by snake biting them (placing two hands on another person’s arm while pulling in the opposite direction). The only reason they had been allowed to stay on the premise was because it was his child’s birthday and we didn’t want this child’s birthday to be ruined by her father’s poor behavior. With a promise that he would behave, we let them stay.

So, when I had talked to this man I was the second manager he had spoken with (the first was the snake bitten manager). He thought my calm tone was demeaning and started swearing at me. I let him know he needed to stop swearing at me to continue the conversation. He did not stop swearing and so I asked him to leave. He then told me that he was going to sue the entire facility and fire everyone who worked there. It was quite the temper tantrum. His occupation you may ask? The owner of a small town pizzeria. It made me wonder if that’s how he spoke to his own guests.

So, as retired news-anchor Denny Anderson always would say at the end of his broadcasts, “Good night and be kind.”