Transcript Lesson 6 - Customer Care in Bar Operations (revised)

Lesson 6
Customer Care in Bar
Operations
Seeing ourselves as
others see us
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
Lesson Overview
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6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
6.10
Introduction
Customer care
Making the difference
Creating first impressions
Customer care encounters
Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness
Understanding culture
Intercultural communications
Implementing an action plan for bars
Cultural influences on food offerings
Conclusion
References
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
Aims and Learning Outcomes of the Lesson
On completion of this lesson the learner will be
expected to be able to;
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Apply customer care techniques in the bar
Observe and anticipate customer requirements
Anticipate and respond to particular requirements
of customers’ children, elderly and disabled
persons
Explain the importance of culture and its
influence on food offerings in the bar
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.1
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Introduction
Challenges to the bar industry today: increased competition from a
variety of entertainment sources,
Bar owners recognize that other establishments are providing a
similar offering sometimes at lower prices.
This realization has brought about an increased focus the care of
customers and their viewpoints.
Customers encounters: unhappy customers, encountering attitudes of
indifference from staff and poor service.
Dissatisfied customers usually talk to others about their
dissatisfaction and the negative effect of this outcome can paralyze, all
your best pro-active customer and marketing efforts.
It costs, on average, five times as much to win a new customer as it
does to keep an old one.
Bars put enormous efforts into winning new customers and very little
into customer care and retention.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.2
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Customer Care
Stone & Young (1993) argued that ‘customer care is not a veneer to be
applied to an organization to make it look good for customers’.
It should be a core value and should be built in to the very fabric of
your offering you should always seek to under promise and over
deliver.
Seek to see ourselves as others see us in all our glory which
includes all our faults.
What can we do to improve our customer care techniques which in
turn help to improve business and profitability?
The answer: improve the quality of out service, we need job crafts,
people-handling skills, a positive attitude, good business procedures,
communication and teamwork and a commitment to continual learning.
Getting it right for your customer involves: knowing what to do, and to
obtain the ability to do it in thoughtful, appropriate and efficient
ways.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.3 Making the Difference
So much has been written and spoken about customer care, customer service, even
customer delight, but what does it all mean to your bar.
Peter Drucker (1954) wrote ‘there is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create and keep
a customer’.
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How your customers feel about you and supporting your establishment largely reflects how
they think you feel about them.
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Passion and the ability to impact on your customers are the two major factors in the bar
industry today.
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Ability to convey your enthusiasm and to surround yourself with employees who buy into it.
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If everything that you and your employees do sends a consistent message to customers that
they are valued and respected your chances of retaining their business increase immeasurably.
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Impress your customers through sincerity and enthusiasm and delighting them with your product
and service.
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Customer care therefore does not work unless people are committed to it.
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Customer expectations: service delivery levels are rising, increased demand on all staff to
perform, everyone can make the difference.
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Committing yourself, commit yourself to providing the highest levels of service in every aspect
of your duties and responsibilities.
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The hidden differences, the major hidden difference between people is of course their
personalities, similarly the hidden difference between the many products and services offered in
your bar is the employees who make, sell and serve them.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.4
Creating First Impressions
A prospective customer will be won or lost by their first impressions of you and your bar.
You will usually have only one chance to make a first impression, so the initial impression
is vital.
These first impressions can be vastly improved by adopting the following techniques;
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Creating a good (face to face) first impression – the
greeting process:
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best practices (chapter 6 – p. 93).
Creating a good first impression – over the telephone:
best practices (chapter 6 – p. 93).
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Improving on first impressions:
best practices (chapter 6 – p. 93).
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.4
Creating First Impressions
(continued)
Grooming and Social Skills
It is crucial that the bartender’s image is always presented in harmony (professional) with the
professional image that the bar wishes to portray to its customer’s.
The bartender must remember that they are always in the public eye and must therefore pay special
attention to the following areas;
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workplace clothing: must be professional, clean and pressed
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shoes: clean and polished
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hair: groomed or tied back
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make up and jewelry: worn discreetly
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name badges: if appropriate, worn at all times
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good standard of personal hygiene
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posture: alert and interested
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mannerisms: bad manners should be checked
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facial expressions: ssincere and welcoming
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keep a good eye contact: implies honesty and interest
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listening and really hearing
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speech: your projection and volume is crucial, it’s not what you say it is how you say it.
Finally staying cheerful even when you are tired, agitated or in a bad mood, you must always try
to not let your personal feelings and negative feelings affect how you deal with customers or
work colleagues.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.5 Customer Care Encounters
The key to success for your bar in this competitive environment lies in the quality of the service
offered; this vital mechanism can be used to achieve a competitive advantage.
Quinn (2006) contends that ‘customer driven people in companies always have to fight with
people who have other priorities’.
Carefully consider the following customer care scenarios carefully, discuss their implications.
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Scenario A: a party of three people has booked a table at a restaurant. When they arrive, the restaurant
owner apologies and informs them that the table will be another twenty minutes. First ending, so would
they mind waiting in the bar area. Second ending, he will understand if they wish to cancel the reservation
but if not, perhaps they would care to enjoy a drink in the bar area with his compliments.
Scenario B: a man in a supermarket has bought a small number of very heavy items. At the checkout,
an assistant operates, the till while the other assistant places the goods in a bag; First ending ensures
that the heaviest items go at the bottom, fills the bag and hands it to the customer. Second ending before
he begins packing, places one bag inside the other saying ‘We don’t want the bag to break in the car
park’. He then packs the bags heaviest items first.
Scenario C: an engineer has just finished a routine service on the domestic central heating boiler of an
elderly widow and informs her that; First ending, all is done, if you sign here I’ll be away, I’ve got a really
busy day today!. Second ending OK, that’s all done, no problems there, it’s all in good condition. I also
checked the pipe work out to the oil tank; that’s fine too. Oh, and by the way, the cupboard door was a bit
loose so I tightened up the hinge. No problem, it only took a second.
Consider the first endings of each scenario, in what way did these businesses gain or lose?
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.6 Cultural diversity and intercultural
awareness
Introduction - Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness
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The bar industry worldwide has been a major part of this amazing economic evolution, its customers and staff
members originate from every continent in the world.
This diverse intercultural environment in the bar has brought about a significant impact on bar owners to provide
intercultural awareness training for their staff members.
This training should address the following areas; the intercultural environment, cultural difference, dangers of
stereotyping, sensitivity to racist attitudes, prejudice and discrimination, cross cultural communication and working
in multi-cultural teams in the bar.
Rationale for Promoting Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Awareness
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Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness is the acceptance and promotion of a variety of human cultures
and their different value systems in a given society (the society in this circumstance refers to the bar).
Promotion of cultural diversity, intercultural awareness and social acceptance of differences is also known as
multiculturalism.
Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness in the bar industry recognises the importance of native languages,
dress, traditions, and beliefs that govern self-identity. There is a compelling business case in the bar
industry for the effective management of cultural diversity (CD) and intercultural awareness (IA) in every bar
establishment;
CD and IA can help bar customers, pub groups and hospitality organizations to;
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identify and capitalize on opportunities to improve their products and services
attract, retain, motivate and utilise human resources effectively
improve the quality of decision-making at all organisational levels
reap the benefits from being perceived as a socially conscious and progressive business
the pursuit of diversity in the bar industry is everyone’s concern.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.7
Understanding culture
Understanding culture – Models of culture
Our ancestors created cultures to deal with the problems which concerned them.
Geert Hofstede, cultural onion model: The model consists of three layers around a core.
The core stands for the values of a certain culture, it mostly remains the same, it still can subconsciously play a
role in a modern society.
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The first layer around the core is described as rituals. A ritual can be the way of personal hygiene (most Asians
shower in the
evening, Europeans in the morning). Those rituals are changing slowly.
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The second layer around the core is the heroes. A hero can be a fictive person, but has influence on the culture,
also national heroes, photo-models or scientists – all people, who play a role-model in that society.
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The third layer is about the symbols. Nowadays most symbols appear as brands like BMW, Apple or Louis Vuitton.
Those symbols usually move according to the momentary fashion.
All three layers can be trained and learned through practices except for the core: the inner cultural values (Good vs. Bad,
dirty vs. clean, ugly vs. beautiful, unnatural vs. natural, abnormal vs. normal, paradoxical vs. logical, irrational vs rational).
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E. T Hall, iceberg model for understanding surface and deep culture: the iceberg model of culture lends
itself to the idea of looking below the surface, or inward. Your colleagues in the bar could see, it is a useful metaphor for
locating one’s own culture because most of it is hidden from us and those elements that are below the surface are those
that are most difficult for us to access and verbalize. We often find it easier to spot the foreign behaviours, but even
when noticing them, we fail to get below the surface where the important cultural information lies.
Tip: You can obtain some excellent illustrations for training purposes of Geert Hofstedes (cultural onion model) and E.T Halls (iceberg model) for
understanding culture from a simple google images search, but please be mindful of copyright.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.8
Intercultural communications
Intercultural communication generally refers to face-to-face interactions among people of diverse cultures.
Barriers to intercultural communication
Learning all the norms of every culture and subgroup would be an impossible task. A more practical way is to
understand six general barriers as suggested by Barna (1994) who developed a list of six such barriers to
effective intercultural communication, which include;
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Anxiety: being anxious because of not knowing what you are expected to do, for example in a new job conscious of
being new – and out of place, therefore your focus of attention centres on this feeling which usually can cause
common mistakes. Anxiety felt during normal everyday life is much higher than that of people living in their country of
birth (Brislin & Yoshida, 1994).
Assuming similarity instead of difference: false assumptions bring unawareness of important differences between
cultures, it’s better to assume differences and anticipate ways in which different languages and norms will affect
communication (Jandt, 1995).
Ethnocentrism: this barrier to communication leads to a rejection of the richness and knowledge of other cultures.
Stereotypes: stereotyping impedes communication when it leads us to assume the stereotype is true of the group
and of the individual and to explain an individual’s behaviour on the basis of the stereotype.
Prejudice: refers to suspicion or hatred of a group, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Racism is prejudice against
individuals of a particular race. Hate crimes grow out of fear of difference and result in hostility toward those who are
perceived as different on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
Although these barriers to intercultural communication may not provide prescription behaviour or concrete answers to
ones dilemmas, they provide clues as to where the problems may lie, similar to the list of symptoms doctors use to
diagnose an illness.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.9 Implementing an action plan for bars
The bars action plan must address some key practices to
promote a cultural diverse workplace, these include;
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Providing induction training to non-nationals (chapter 6 – p. 99).
Making cultural allowances (chapter 6 – p. 100).
Changing the attitudes of the majority through diversity and
intercultural awareness training (chapter 6 – pp. 100-101).
Changing rules and procedures (chapter 6 – p. 100).
Active recruitment and promotion: (job applications, improving
employability of job applicants, selection procedures) (chapter 6 – pp. 100101).
Further information:
Key issues and training (chapter 6 – pp. 99-101).
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
6.10 Cultural Influences on Food Offerings
The bars customers represent a great variety of cultures each with their own ways of cooking and enjoying
food, it is therefore essential that you understand and cater for these cultural influences in their food
offerings.
The influence of Religions
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Buddhist: strict Buddhists are vegetarians and their dishes vary, Vesak in May is the festival to celebrate the life of
the Buddha
Christians: eating habits are not affected- though some will be vegetarians, usually for moral reasons, many
Christians refrain from eating certain foods during Lent usually something they like very much.
Hindu: most Hindus do not eat meat (strict Hindus are vegetarians) and none eat beef since the cow is sacred to
them. Holi is the Festival which celebrates the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Samosas (triangles of pastry
containing vegetables) , banana fudge and vegetable dishes of all kinds, as well as favourite foods, are eaten to
celebrate.
Judaism: the religion of the Jews has strict dietary laws. Shellfish, pork and birds of prey are forbidden. Acceptable
foods are fish with scales and fins, animal that have ‘cloven hoof’ and birds killed according to the law. Strict Jews
eat only meat that has been specially slaughtered known as kosher meat. Milk and meat must neither be used
together in cooking nor served at the same meal, and three hours should elapse between eating food containing
milk and food containing meat.
Muslims: Muslims celebrate the birth of Mohammed at the end of February or early in March. Alcohol and pork are
traditionally forbidden in their diet. Only meat that has been prepared according to Muslim custom by a halal butcher
is permitted. During Ramadan, which lasts for one month and is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, Muslims do
not eat or drink anything from dawn to sunset.
Sikh: Sikhs do not have strict rules regarding food but many are vegetarians. Baisakhi day in April celebrates the
New Year and is the day Sikhs are baptised into their faith
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
Conclusion
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Customer care training is not an optional extra but an essential part of all bar establishment’s
business strategy.
The success of any bar depends on the minute-by-minute performance of its staff members.
To successfully managing customer care staff members must know what to do and have the ability to
do it in thoughtful, appropriate and efficient ways to please the customer because each encounter is
different.
The care begins with creating and improving on the first impressions, which includes the bartenders
grooming, appearance and social skills.
Bars must constantly examine their layout in relation to their products and services to establish the
key features of what your customer really wants in relation to their budget, time allowance, food and
beverage requirements.
Globalisation and international travel has brought international customers and multinational business
operators to all parts of the world to our bars.
The impact of these changes added to economic changes has brought significant amounts of all
nationalities working outside their home country.
Unfortunately a lack of understanding of different cultures and nationalities has lead in the past to
ineffective management techniques in directing and motivating these staff members.
Particularly in older, traditional businesses with a homogeneous workforce.
The challenge today is clear, that bars must implement action pans to stimulate cultural awareness,
value workplace diversity and encourage a welcoming atmosphere for their new diversified staff
members and customers.
Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
References
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Barna, L, M. (1994) ‘Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication.’ In L.A Samovar & R. E. Porter (Eds), Intercultural communication: A
reader, 7th edn, Wadsworth: Belmont, CA.
Brislin, R. W and Yoshida, T. (1994a) Improving intercultural interactions: Modules for cross-cultural training programs, Thousand Oaks,
Sage: CA. Drucker, P, F. (1954) The Practice of Management, Harper & Brothers: New York.
Escoffier, G, A. (1921) Le Guide culinaire, 4th edn, Flammarion: France.
Hall, E.T. (1952) The Silent Language, Fawcett: Greenwich, CT..
Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. (1990) Understanding Cultural Differences, Intercultural Press, Yarmouth.
Hofstede, G. (1984) Culture’s Consequences, Sage: London.
Jandt, E, F. (1995) Intercultural Communication – An Introduction, Sage Publications: UK.
NCCRI .(2004) Managing Diversity in the Workplace available www.nccri.ie [accessed 10/05/12].
Murphy, J. (2007) ‘Promoting a Cultural Diverse Workforce’, Licensing World, January issue, Jemma Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2010) ‘Improving Customer service through mystery shopping’, Licensing World, Jemma Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2009) ‘Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Licensed Trade Industry’, Licensing World, March Issue, Jemma
Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2013) Principles and Practices of Bar and Beverage Management, Goodfellow Publishing Ltd, Oxford: England.
Murphy, J. (2013) Principles and Practices of Bar and Beverage Management – The Drinks Handbook, Goodfellow Publishing Ltd, Oxford:
England.
Quinn, F. (2006). Crowning the Customer: How to Become Customer-Driven, Dublin: O’Brien Press Ltd.
Stone, M. and Young, L. (1993) Competitive Customer Care, Croner: London.
Web resources
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http://ezinearticles.com/?Customer-Care-Strategy&id=317986 Customer Care articles and helpful advice
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http://www.intercultural.org/tools.php Intercultural training and assessment tools.
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http://www.sietareu.org /
Society for intercultural training, education and research.
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http://www.yale.edu/hraf/index.html
Human relations areas files Yale University.
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http://laofutze.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/303/ Intercultural models