Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I thought the dinosaurs were extinct!


Wow!!! Someone has finally said it. It has been forever since I have heard the saying, “the fish stinks from head.” Thank you David S. Reading it reminded me of some other words of my mentors, you know, the people who gave me the knowledge I have today.

Maybe the hospitality industry has forgotten that HOSPITALITY REQUIRES SERVICE.

Yes, we are all guilty of some ego. Most people have worked very hard to climb the ladder of success. I have to wonder though, which step on that ladder is it, what big management “title” causes some to forget the number one rule of this industry, SERVE THE CUSTOMER! We have all seen the butt kissers who believe that massaging the right management ego will get them a better job and the sad reality is it actually works in too many places. That is time, energy and money that could be spent on bettering service to the customer. BIG MANAGEMENT EGOS DO NOT TRANSLATE INTO BIG REVENUES FOR THE COMPANY.
Managers need to remember their responsibility to serve those who work FOR them. Their responsibility is to TRAIN and TEACH the art of SERVICE. To get REAL rewards from this industry, not just a big paycheck, a manager needs to exhibit some humility. In the old days, before micro management (another word for “it’s not MY fault”… just my opinion) the management had the ultimate responsibility to assure that the job was done well and that great service was executed at all cost. That meant wash dishes, peel shrimp, whatever it took. They worked hands on and SET THE EXAMPLE.

Too much is lost and over complicated by being “politically correct.” It has become a disservice to the up and comers, those people who really WANT to succeed. Instead of pouring countless hours and money into how we should spare feelings, inflate everyone’s ego and pat the a _ _ s of staff and management we should look from a different prospective: SERVE THE CUSTOMER! If you cannot or will not learn then MOVE OVER! EDUCATE OR AMPUTATE. Producing successful staff and management takes a lot of talent, good old-fashioned HARD WORK and pain, yes PAIN. Only then can we produce not only top quality products and services but top quality employees who go home EVERYDAY knowing that 1) they are good at what they do, 2) their contributions have made a REAL difference and 3) the customer knows it!

The hospitality gods have been good to me, I have been fortunate enough to have worked for some of the most impossible, slave driving, questionably abusive, insatiable, rude, know it all, tail kicking bosses that history has ever recorded. What a blessing! I am grateful now that they cared more about my career than my feelings. They instilled in me (more like CHISELED it into my …at that time… thick skull) that I am only as good as the people that work for me. Their success is my success and I had better pass it on. The icing on that cake is even sweeter. The people we teach take their training on to other jobs. They use that knowledge to better their own careers and the careers of others and the customer gets great service!

The bottom line is this: Happy customers WILL RETURN. A prideful staff is confident in their CUSTOMER SERVICE. Managers are OBLIGATED to train and teach, and everyone gets their egos massaged by the PRIDE OF A JOB WELL DONE instead of useless stuff like Skippy boy washing their cars on the weekend.

See you in the dish pit!

2 comments:

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  2. It's all rather strange, that suddenly without any warning in my research reading, I should fall upon a blog that encompasses the entire Magilla-Gorilla. A refreshing scribe that is void of any underlying pretext or euphemisms ~ how wonderful. No fancy footwork, just the plain unadulterated truth, for he is spot on and he knows it. Another extra word about it would diminish its purity.

    It is obvious to me as the reader, that Richard has worked the “gut wrenching grind” deep in the trenches. Someone, whom I surmise would never consciously uttered the words, “that’s not my job.” Which has become standard by line in the food industry.

    Once, I was able to catch my breath, Richard hit me with a broad side with the “politically correct” mindset that has castrated the industry. It’s as if the industry, from the top down is a small skiff trapped within the eye of a storm, and the sirens of political correctness are seducing it, so as to lure it onto the rocks, to be destroyed. The article stands on it’s own merit for he tells it, like it really is.

    I want to read more!
    Thank you for sharing,
    PT.

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