Why Your Server is Always Smiling
On a recent vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, my friends and I decided to have dinner one night in a secluded restaurant away from the large crowds called The Best Italian (of Elk Plaza). Shortly after I wrote a review on the establishment where I grave praise to their food and atmosphere and how it has claimed a spot as one of my favorite restaurants. However, after rereading it a few times I noticed I had subconsciously mentioned the friendliness of the waitress taking care of us on three or four occasions. After a brief reflection I realized that their superb customer service was a third reason for why I loved my experience there and why I continue looking forward to returning for another visit.
I kept rolling with this idea and tried to think back on other times where the service was exceptional. Recently I had turned twenty one and chose to have my birthday dinner at Malone’s, a four star steak house in Lexington, Kentucky. While their food is to die for, the spicy tuna roll and prime cut sirloin being among my favorites, their waiting staff is also top notch; always there at a moment’s notice and exceedingly knowledgeable about their menu.
It occurred to me that customer service is just as important to me as the food when it comes to how much I like a given restaurant.
I know I am not some genius intellectual who has just come up with the idea that people like to be treated well by those who they are paying. I’m just saying I can’t be the only one, which means we all expect great customer service wherever we go. And businesses, especially restaurants know this.
In the United States alone, the additional money we pay the restaurant staff known as tips, account for around forty two billion dollars annually in the food industry. This almost unbelievably vast sum of money is seen as an incentive to work hard and provide quality customer service for both businesses and employees for different reasons.
For many employees, the tips patrons leave behind at the end of their meal serves as the bulk of their pay. In the United States restaurants are legally allowed to pay their serves below minimum wage because it is expected and assumed that they will also be bringing in tips which will make up for that withheld amount. As a result, it can be argued that a server must take it upon themselves to provide excellent service so that they don’t make somewhere from three to five dollars on the hour. That fact really made me think about how the Hooters waitresses always laugh at my jokes.
On the other side of the coin lies the incentives for the businesses themselves. For starters, that forty two billion dollars we consumers pay in tips is forty two billion less dollars those businesses have to fork over to their employees. This is why restaurants are always training their staff to be friendly and helpful. The Employee of the Month fad is also a tool they use to incentivize their workers even though becoming an employee of the month may have no tangible value whatsoever.
When it comes to money made from customer service, it’s difficult to argue that a business venture has more at stake than their employees who individually rely on that income. But in the food industry, customer service can easily make or break a business especially in it is a small operation. And unfortunately for said businesses, a subpar visit experienced by a customer may extend beyond the doors. With the ever-increasing popularity of the internet, social media, and the fact that anyone’s opinion can be shared and seen by countless others, restaurants are under pressure now more than ever to provide the best experience possible for their customers, service included.
For many years past, professional restaurant critics held much of the final say on how well both high class and every day establishments performed financially. Now, everyone’s a critic. Online websites such as Yelp and Consumer Reports give an open platform for anyone and everyone to express their opinion center stage.
Think about it. Would you rather go to a restaurant voted two stars by it’s customers or one with four stars? As much as some of us deny it, we care about other peoples’ opinions. That’s a reason for why restaurants strive for a Certificate of Excellence every year. The Certificate of Excellence is awarded to restaurants or businesses in general who deliver a quality customer service experience. It offers validation to potential consumers that they’ll leave at least satisfied with the service and there’s proof to back it up. Restaurants with the award statistically have a larger number and proportion of positive reviews. In turn, these reviews attract more customers which leads to an increase of net profits and how much customers spend per visit.
Another figure which is important to all businesses is customer retention. Customer retention is basically customer loyalty. It’s how many customers continuously return to a business within a given period. This figure is notably important to restaurants because their product, food, carries a highly flexible consumer demand meaning that there are many alternatives and competition is abundant in the industry. If they can keep customers coming back to their one eatery, that means their business is booming. One simple and easy way to set themselves apart or above the rest is through customer service and experience. It’s for this reason you may see restaurants with a gimmick such as the servers line dancing in a Texas Roadhouse.
Customer service is a powerful tool. Often it can distract us from a restaurant’s shortcomings and leave us only with memories of pleasant social interaction. Even so we have accepted its ways and customs and it even convinces us to spill more money out of our pockets. It alters our, the consumers’, employees, and business behavior to suit each others’ needs and wants. Even when we become aware of these driving forces we probably won’t change. We all like being treated like we’re someone important. That’s really what keeps us coming back.
