Hospitality: The secret ingredient for restaurant success
We say that we’re in the hospitality business – that’s kind of the shorthand for it – but it always struck me that the thing that was most missing in the hospitality industry was hospitality,” said The Restaurant Doctor™, Bill Marvin, a prolific author, speaker and long-time industry consultant. “You can get a decent meal and be reasonably well-served in most restaurants, but there aren’t a lot of places where you come away with a real warm, fuzzy feeling like it actually mattered to somebody that you showed up. The industry desperately needs to re-discover hospitality, but it doesn’t know it yet because it thinks it already has it.”
While most restaurant operators have the best of intentions, many struggle with how to help their staff to “get it” about the mindset of caring. Marvin is convinced that they’re frequently getting it all wrong when it comes to hospitality.
“It’s about how you are with people. Everything else is just mechanics. Hospitality is a feeling others get when they are with you.”
“It starts by treating your staff the same way you want them to treat your guests,”
he said.“Never do or say anything to your staff you wouldn’t say or do to a paying guest. What they see is what you will get. If you want your crew to listen, you must listen to them. If you want them to dress neatly, dress neatly. Want them to show up on time? Show up on time. You are the role model whether you want the job or not and hospitality begets hospitality. (Marvin's theory).