Soul to Serve

When my friend moved to retail industry from hotel he said Ibu Ade when I left hotel industry and moved back to retail, my wife cried.  She was very sad as she loved the people in hotel industry who are very caring and friendly.

Gustave, the legendary concierge of the movie, the Grand Budapest Hotel, taught his protégé Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy, that his job is only to make the guest happy.  Zero did many unusual things to meet the guest expectations.

Breakfast on the Hill by Novotel Lombok team

A conversation with my two hoteliers friends about the services in hotel industry today, ended up with a story of the attitude of the new 5 star hotel in Jakarta.  They ordered three same prawns dishes.  When the 1^st prawn was cut, it was green inside.  He called the waitress.  She said the green one is wasabi.  He explained that the 2^nd prawn was not green inside.  The waitress just took the plate and changed it with the new prawn, without apologizing.  No Manager came to apologize either.

Every time I have my once a week therapy, the girl in Starbuck of Siloam MRCCC Hospital, said tall hot chai tea latte mam?  Only one out of 3 girls remembers my preference.

I watched a feature of Kamakura in channel Japan recently, where I learned about Kozen restaurant.  Kozen is very famous in Kamakura for its 200 years Inari Sushi recipe. Today, Kozen only serve take away, because the owner, an old lady, cannot afford to pay for the service staff salary.  When tourists come to Kozen, she has to explain that she no longer serves dine in and sell only Inari Sushi.

A senior Director of Operation told me about his experiences in India.  He explained the challenge of recruitment over there.  A candidate came for applying a waitress position and said Sir, I want to apply as waitress but I don’t want to serve.

A premium watch retailer sent a birthday note 23 days after my birthday and addressed me as “Sir” at the end of their message.
Is serving customer or delighting guests today difficult? Expensive yes. But difficult? 

My previous CEO always beliefs that any hoteliers should have service attitude within.  The service attitude should not only extend to the guests in hotel but to the colleagues and community.
What I belief? Service is an attitude that required common sense, genuineness and curiosity. 

Common sense: Upon arrival in the airport, the airport representative asked me how was your flight, mam?  Then, upon checked in, the Front Desk attendant asked me how was your flight, mam? A guest relation officer took me to the room, then asked me how was your flight, mam? Guess, what will be the question if I met the room attendant?
Sequence of service in a hotel or restaurant is created to give a guideline for the employees in order to serve the guests well, not to change the employees into robots who do not have common sense.
Common sense in serving the guests is not a scientific thing to do. We just need to put ourselves in the guests shoes, we will then understand what the guests expect.

Genuineness: The waitress with the “wasabi prawn” was very defensive.  If she has passion to serve others, she should have been happily took away the prawn and said that she will check and find the solution. And of course, said sorry.
I saw many times either in Airport lounge, Coffee Shops or restaurants today that the staffs prefer to talk with each other rather than to talk to the guests and check whether the guests are happy with the menu or needs help.  They are employed to serve and pay attention to the guests.

Guests can sense whether the services extended are genuine or just a lip service. Indonesians are born as friendly people, who likes to smile, live in harmony and very helpful. Therefore, to welcome and help guests happily should be easy.
 
Curiosity: Hotel system has what it called “guest history” where all guest preferences are stored.  The same like loyalty program in airlines that is able to store guest preferences of their menus and favorite seats.  It means to understand a customer or guests well, we need a curiosity to know our customers or guests.

I met a General Manager of Mercure Jakarta Sabang on Thursday, who has met my assistant prior to my arrival.  When I came, he said Ibu Ade congratulations for your new company.  Your web site looks very good. 
I went to Grand Panghegar Hotel in Bandung for the first time last Wednesday, when I want to order for my tea in the Lounge, the waitress said would you like to have Earl Grey Tea? What a very nice surprise, the team tried to find information about my preferences and has successfully impressed me.

Imagine if your restaurants, hotels, Food & Beverage outlets, or airlines can maximize the use of their guest history system and always train the staffs to be curios in terms of guest preferences, you will have a bunch of happy customers who will recommend you to their friends, who will write you in their blogs, who will put your place’s photos in their instagrams or facebooks. You create a new loyal customer or curious customers who can’t wait to experience your services.

Service is a never ending process and needs persistency to maintain its standard.  It required People to do it. Not just a normal people.  People who have soul to serve, people who have common sense, genuineness and curiosity.  ade noerwenda