Thailand continues being known for its wonderful cuisine. It is mindboggling that hospitality owners, investors and creators of hotels, restaurants and bars, and even catering and event companies, are not training their staff properly.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, food tourism can generate literally billions of dollars in revenue for the countries involved. In Thailand, international visitors spend about 20 percent of their travel budget taking advantage of the country's gastronomical delights. With tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2019 already at 10.8 million persons, the amount of money being spent for dining is astounding. Yet it is the quality of the service provided by restaurant's and bar's service staff that plays a major role in determining whether that establishment shares in this tsunami of tourist spending.
This has huge ramifications and is undoubtedly a tremendous source of potential income within the tourism industry for Thailand. Well, it already is. But for hotels, restaurants and bars to seriously share in this opportunity, it is vital that Front-of-House staff are properly and professionally trained to be capable of foreseeing and appropriately responding to the many needs and wants of Thailand's gastronomic visitors, while also being able to professionally deliver the amazing creations made by the various chefs at the level that is expected by these visitors.
It is a given that gastronomic visitors (often called "foodies") are willing to spend big money for memorable dining experiences. Owners within the hotels, restaurants and bars industry should be aware that it is not only about the food anymore; it is also the quality of the service that has a profound impact on the entire experience. It is known that you can have average food but if coupled with excellent service, people will come back. You can have incredible food with unprofessional service, and people will not return due to the fact that the overall experience did not meet their expectations. Then there are those memorable places that combine incredible food with excellent service. This not only provides visitors with a delightful experience due to their expectations being surpassed; it also results in the visitors perceiving the hotel, restaurant or bar as having that illusive X-Factor that raises it above the competition. So just what does it take for an establishment to achieve that X-Factor when it comes to service?
The X-Factor
Achieving the X-Factor in service begins with staff being trained in attention to detail – this means that the staff must be fully informed about anything that the visitor can order within the establishment. This includes full menu knowledge down to the last ingredient of all food and beverage items. Take wine for instance. With wine, all of the staff will need to have at least basic wine knowledge which includes knowledge of the wine list, wine and food pairings, what the wine is, where it is from, the grapes from which it is made, the major characteristics of the wine and the temperature at which it should be served. Staff should be well versed in how to present the wine, how to open the wine, how to pour the wine, which wine glass belongs to which wine, the amount of wine that should be poured. As you can see, just with wine, there are many elements that can enhance the experience when done correctly – and detract from the experience if done poorly. It is important for each visitor that the staff are trained to perform at a level where they are capable of guiding the guest through a memorable experience, the memory of which will last a life-time, and keep them talking about it and coming back for more.
Research supports the notion that not many places train their staff in these intricate details on product knowledge that should be the foundation to further enhance the value of hotel, restaurant and bar establishments to the guests who choose to visit. Statistics indicate that 86% of hospitality providers give less than 10 hours of training and most of that in the worst manner possible: unstructured (and often poorly supervised) on-the-job training. This provides little opportunity for the front of the house staff to learn the behaviours, skills and knowledge necessary to create an X-Factor experience.
The Importance of Grooming and Personal Hygiene
The first impression a guest receives is always based on how staff present themselves, both in physical form and in personality. Staff require a clean uniform and personal hygiene has to be immaculate. For example, hair needs to be away from the face, there should be no jewellery, no perfume or aftershave, clean nails and very little makeup. In terms of personality, the staff need to be friendly, extremely attentive and trained to foresee and attend to guests' every need, all the while wearing a warm and friendly smile. There is nothing worse than for a visitor to be approached by staff members who are unprofessional and not hygienic. These simple grooming elements can easily be obtained through quarterly training sessions and daily checks to see that the standards are being upheld.
Good training in grooming, product knowledge, technical skills and behaviours and proper guest interactions all pay major dividends. This training instils a sense of pride in the employee and helps to foster a good work ethic. Their self-confidence builds as they become ever more proficient in delivering an experience that delights the ones that they serve. Poor or no training does just the opposite; resulting in lack of pride in their work product, lower self-esteem and poor self-confidence – which will ultimately have a bad effect on whoever they're attending to. Statistics indicate that 39% of front-of-house employees who are poorly trained will leave their job in the first 90 days, resulting in added staffing costs, not to mention on-going low levels of service quality.
Never forget that staff members are the face, the heart and the soul of any hotel, restaurant or bar business. They are the ones with whom the customers interact. They are the core of the business. Without front-of-house employees properly trained, the likelihood of any business staying competitive drops markedly. As Warren Buffett once said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently." Think. Train. Provide an X-Factor experience and reap the benefits.
Author: Claus Enghave, COO & Co-Founder, Kingsmen Hospitality Services, a leading advisory and training organisation for the hospitality industry can be reached at cenghave@kingsmenhospitality.com
Series Editor: Christopher F. Bruton, Executive Director, Dataconsult Ltd, chris@dataconsult.co.th. Dataconsult's Thailand Regional Forum provides seminars and extensive documentation to update business on future trends in Thailand and in the Mekong Region.