What does your customer see?

Friday, November 15, 2024

      I have a bit of a running joke with my staff where I ask them if anyone saw the dead moose in the vestibule of the restaurant. They all ask in shock “is there really a dead moose in the vestibule?” I would reply, no, but how would you know? The entire staff comes in the back door to the kitchen and they don’t see what the customer sees.

      It is important for you and your managers to arrive at work and do what the customer does. Look at it through the customer's eyes. What do they see when they look at your business when they get out of the car? One of my restaurants was in a strip center where the natural wind currents blew all of the trash from the other businesses right to my front door and patio. Every day I had to pick up the trash and clean up in front. The staff didn’t bother because they weren’t looking through the customer's eyes. But you need to. Is there trash and food in the parking lot? Are the doors to the restaurant smeared and smudged or are they clean and inviting? Are the umbrellas on the patio up and are the tables clean and wiped? Are the patio lights and the entrance lights working or are some of them out and missing? Is your signage out and looking sharp? Are the posters and promotions neatly stacked and in order? When they come into the restaurant, is the host stand clean and organized? Are the items inside dusted and in their proper place? Are the menus wiped and clean or are they greasy and dirty? Finally, is the staff dressed and looking sharp?

      If I walk up to a restaurant that has trash everywhere and has a look that people don’t care, will I go in and take a chance on the food and drink knowing that the staff doesn’t care about the rest of the business? First impressions are only made once. You get one chance. You need to look at what the customer sees and make sure that they are excited about coming into your well-groomed and clean business.

      And that goes for the staff as well. When we interviewed potential staff we looked at how they came to the interview. If they were dressed sharply and groomed, that meant that we could probably depend on them to look like that when they came to work. If they looked like they don’t care, they won’t care about how they look when they are on staff. My sister, a Master of Hospitality in her own right, was famous for running a West Coast chain restaurant that was rated 95th in the chain and in a year she had it in their top ten. When she would ask the interview how the restaurant looked and they would look around and say “Pretty Good”. She would then say, “Thanks for coming in”. But when she asked and someone said “Well, the windows could use cleaning and there is some stuff under that far booth and the napkins are scattered” they were hired and scheduled on the spot. Find people and be a person who looks at their business as a place that is attractive to the customer before they ever order anything. And watch out for the dead moose in the vestibule.

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