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Hospitality Tip #1 - NZHM

Wednesday 9 September 2009, 6:53AM

By Kevin Johnson - Tourism Properties

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Back to Basics

We all know it easy at times to get complacent and comfortable with were we are in business, and we’ve all heard the saying

“You will always get the same results, if you always do the same things”.

When was the last time you looked at your Bar or Restaurant as a customer? (with fresh eyes). I try to do this at least every month. I look for and fix things like:

Faded paint or holes in walls, damaged lighting and/ or equipment, staples etc

They may seem like small things but your customers will see this as scruffy and that no one cares. In my last bar (even though it was a rustic style venue), I always made sure that paint was touched up, and keep things tidy and functional. My Locals really appreciated this too and always commented that they like to see the up keep. Another trick is to at least weekly, replace blown lights, it is always easier to do this weekly rather than monthly etc, and it is also a good way to evaluate your venues condition.

A good thing to remember to is that people believe that if you keep your toilet areas clean and tidy your kitchen and work areas are too.

Some of the most common mistakes that I see in venues are, stacked chairs or not setting up the whole bar area for service on quite days (ie covered bottles/ chillers and lights off etc). When this is done it tells the Customer that you don’t expect to be busy or care about their Custom and they will start to wonder why. You could always put up a sign saying “Sorry this area is unattended at present, Please go to …..”.

Make sure your staff are wearing some kind of uniform, suppliers are normally happy to supply branded tops and again this shows your customers that you have pride in the business.

Well that’s it for this blog; I look forward to your comments.

Kevin Johnson, NZHM

the Hospo Broker