Do You Show That You Care About People?

What I want to talk about today might push a few buttons. But it is noteworthy to mention that customers expect more from businesses nowadays, especially post-COVID. In other words, they’re looking for something beyond just the service or product that they are buying.

When it comes down to it, the fundamentals of a restaurant are food and people . What I observe most of the time is that people work extremely hard on their food, which is totally understandable. But they fail to understand the needs of their customers. People now expect more from you as a business owner. It is most likely that your customers will ask, “What else can you offer me besides the exchange of money for your product or service?"

For instance, we were having a dinner party with a bunch of friends over the weekend and decided to order an Indian banquet. So we put in our order at midday, and we went to their website to get a phone number. But when we tried calling them, nobody answered the phone. We tried calling them again at about three o'clock, thinking it'd be the end of service, yet there was still no answer.

So we went to their online ordering service, and it was turned off. But there was a form where we could leave a message. We wrote exactly what we wanted to order and how much we wanted to spend, which was a lot of money, and asked them to get in touch with us. However, there was no response again.

By five o'clock, we decided to try again. This time when we rang we got through.  We told them exactly what dishes we wanted and had them delivered to our house. They said that they couldn't deliver till 7:30 pm. But our guests wouldn’t arrive until about 7.00pm, so I thought 7:30 pm was fine.

At 6.00pm there was a knock on the door and the food arrived. We were completely baffled, and we told the delivery guy that the food wasn’t supposed to be here until 7:30 pm. He just shrugged and looked at the bags and dockets. He told us that there was nothing on here about 7:30 pm and he turned to walk away.

I said, "Hold on a minute. We just paid a lot of money for this. What are we supposed to do with it since our guests won’t arrive until 7:30 pm?" He said, "Oh, I'll ring the restaurant and they'll get back to you," and he walked away. We picked up the bags, decanted them into all the food in various containers, and placed them in the oven to keep warm. When the guests arrived, we ate the food, which was a little dry and the nan breads were overcooked.

You can imagine it wasn't exactly what we wanted, but the food was still good. It's a good restaurant. However, it was not up to the standard that we had hoped for and had paid for. So it's now a few days later. And, of course, we haven't received a message, a phone call, or anything from the restaurant.

Now, I'm not the type of guy who will go on TripAdvisor or any of those sites and give them a one-star rating. That is simply not what I do. I also wonder why I should bother calling them if they're only going to be defensive. They might apologize, but they are not going to do anything about it. But I have the impression that these people don't care.

As I mentioned earlier, our industry is fundamentally about food, people, and the execution of what they do. They delivered the food, which was delicious, but it arrived at the wrong time. They didn’t follow up after I complained to their staff member or he didn’t communicate my complaint to them.  To me it clearly showed that they don't care about me as a person.

And remember these days I am looking for more, not less. I'm looking for more proof that they genuinely care about me.

So ask yourself, “Why you are in the business?”  If you only want to make food to make money. Then this level of ‘transaction is ok.

But if you’ve values such as caring for other people, being a team player, being honest, and, showing up for others then you would be aware within yourself that something went wrong. Then you would say, "Hmm, I didn't do a great job there, so I need to fix this."

However, if your values are only about money, I will get the impression as a client that you don't care about me as a person and that your standards for caring about people aren't that high.

To summarize, first of all, the fundamentals are food and people. Secondly, are you living up to the values that you hold dear to yourself? Do you care about people? Do you come from a place of love? Do you come from a community where sharing and doing a good job are high values for you?

If you'd like to be coached to provide a much better service or even raise your standards from the great service you’ve got, then please book a no-obligation chat with me by clicking the button below.

Remember people nowadays are looking for businesses that have high standards, high values, and care about them as a customer.  It is worth bearing in mind that this might push a few buttons. I'm sure that some people will jump to conclusions and say, "Oh, they were really busy, and so on…" But that doesn't really matter when it comes to having a great business and also feeling great about yourself as a business owner.

Want to know more about marketing your restaurant? Book in for a quick, no-obligation chat with Howard by clicking the button below.