You’ve just settled in your hotel room when you realise that the air conditioner in the room is faulty and the room that looked so invitingly nice when you arrived, is beginning to feel stuffy.You then call the hotel’s telephone operator and ask that it be rectified immediately. The operator informs you that he will report it to the Engineering department and have someone take care of it ‘in a few minutes’.
You wait and the minutes tick by whilst your patience takes a dive. One room service story making the rounds involves a guest who called to complain that his breakfast was 20 minutes late. The order-taker apologized and promised that it would arrive within 5 minutes. It did not, and when the guest called room service again, he was told that his breakfast was ‘on the way’. The guest checked out of the hotel and drove for 30 minutes to another hotel. From his new room there, he called back to the first hotel and asked the order taker why his breakfast had still not arrived. ‘Sorry, Sir,’ said the order taker. ‘It would be there any minute now’. So, how long is ‘a few minutes’ in the hospitality industry?
Waiting is a complicated experience to which guests often react emotionally. When it consumes a great deal of time - it can cause annoyance leading to anger. Think of the countless hours you spent during the past year in check out lines in hotels or when waiting to be served in a restaurant or how restless you got when waiting to settle your bill. Usually, most delays in the service delivery process are caused by the inability to produce or do something without wasting time, energy or materials.
However, waiting in some situations is seemingly unavoidable. For example, restaurant customers do not arrive at equal interval order of times but rather in a less predictable manner. Another situation that cannot be controlled by managers is where some customers monopolise service time more than others. Yet, even in these situations, a ‘knowledgeable’ service provider may be able to mitigate the negative effects of such delays if he or she understands the myriad situational factors that influence customers’ reactions to delay.
A visit to a restaurant is like going to a cinema to watch a trilogy of the ‘Godfather’ films. The Godfather is a film series consisting of three feature-length crime films (Part 1,2 & 3), based upon the novel by Italian American author Mario Puzo.A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. Likewise, a customer’s visit to a restaurant can be separated into three comparatively distinct episodes: an initial process episode from a customer’s arrival at the restaurant until he or she orders the meal; a mid- process episode that includes placing orders and having the meal, and an end-process episode from paying the bill until the customer leaves the restaurant.
The scenario: It is Friday evening. You and your wife have decided to have drinks and dinner with another couple. Having selected a chic restaurant serving Italian cuisine you have made reservations for 8.30 p.m. The four of you arrive at the restaurant at 8.30 p.m.
Scenario 1:- The initial process episode: The hostess Renuka greets you, acknowledges your reservation, then informs you that your table would be ready ‘in a few minutes’ and asks you to have a seat in a nice waiting area. You expect the wait to be minimal. After 10 minutes you walk up to Renuka who informs you that your table will not be available for another 10 minutes. After 15 minutes, she returns to tell you that your table is ready. By now you have been subjected to an ‘uncertain’ and ‘unexplained’ wait – turning your smile into a scowl.
Now imagine had this happened. The hostess Devika greets you, acknowledges your reservation and apologetically ushers you into a nice waiting area whilst explaining that your table will not be ready for another 20 minutes, because, some guests are dining beyond the anticipated duration and the staff do not want to make them feel ‘rushed’. Devika asks you if you would like to have a drink or wine and also offers to take your meal orders so that your food could be served no sooner you are seated at your table.
You accept both offers. 20 minutes later, Devika returns to tell you that your table is ready and the evening continues to proceed pleasantly. Unlike Renuka who kept you waiting in uncertainty and without explaining the cause of the delay, Devika let you know the reason for the delay and she indicated a ‘finite’ wait time, giving you the opportunity to make an informed decision re. having drinks, whilst waiting and saving time, by placing your meal orders in advance.
Scenario 2:- The mid-process episode: The hostess Devika greets you and acknowledges your reservation. She then walks you to your table and presents you with your menus. By now the restaurant is full and busy.Ravi, the waiter comes to take your order about 10 minutes later. You order a bottle of wine which you wish to have served with the main course.You expect your appetisers to be served within the next 20 minutes, but after 20 minutes you still have to wait. After another 10 minutes Ravi returns to serve the appetisers.
Upon enquiry for the delay, he merely apologises without providing any reason. Before serving the main course, he pours the wine ignoring the ‘ladies first’ rule. Overall, the evening proceeds pleasantly; the food and the wine are excellent although the service was appreciably way below the industry service norm. The waiter Ravi’s inability to anticipate when you needed re-filling your glasses with wine and to get a sense of when you were ready for the next courses showed that he was oblivious to the needs of his guests.Let’s now re-run this episode:- Waiter Anton comes along to take your order. He advises you that the appetisers will take around 25 minutes to prepare since the kitchen is very busy.
You order a bottle of wine which is quickly presented to you for the first taste, after which, Anton moving clockwise around the table, poured the wine for the ladies first and finally to the person who’d ordered the bottle, you. Twenty five minutes later the appetisers are served and the main course follows after the usual ‘intermission’ that you expect to encounter in-between courses. In the meantime you have ordered a second bottle of wine.
The evening proceeds enjoyably; the food and the wine are excellent, complemented by impeccable and well-paced service from Anton who shows up always at the right time and ‘reads the table’exceptionally well.
Scenario 3 - The end-process episode: You have finished your meal, dessert and coffee and you ask your waiter Ravi for your bill. He nods and goes inside. You expect to receive the bill within a few minutes, but after 15 minutes you still have to wait. You struggle to catch the attention of Ravi who is scurrying to and fro attending to diners at nearby tables.
Eventually you succeed and Ravi bolts back inside to return 5 minutes later with your bill. You observe that you have been billed for 3 bottles of wine instead of the 2 bottles you actually ordered. You bring this to Ravi’s notice. He looks surprised and scuttles away with the bill. A corrected bill is presented 3 minutes later with no apology- just the explanation that it was a computer error. You pay and leave the restaurant somewhat disgruntled with the experience.
Let’s imagine how Waiter Anton deals with the end-process episode. You have finished your meal, dessert and coffee and Anton gently prompts you ‘Is there anything else I can get you, Sir?’(In all likelihood he is trying to elicit the request for the bill and determine who will receive it).
You ask him to bring the bill. Anton returns after 10 minutes, apologises for the delay due to having mistakenly billed you for 3 bottles of wine instead of 2, and, which has been corrected on your bill. You quickly verify it, pay and leave the restaurant – but not before thanking Anton for his wonderful service and complimenting the staff for making it a memorable dining experience.Caring or sharing? It is hard to remain focused at work when there are problems at home. Like Renuka or Ravi, most employees cannot keep the chaos in their personal lives - be it a failing relationship or financial worries firmly behind, when at work.
What usually then happens is that these unhappy emotions follow them from home to work. The stage is now set for Renuka or Ravi to consciously or unconsciously transfer some of this misery, when interacting with customers. That’s when the ‘caring for my guest’ is hijacked with ‘sharing my misery’. Sadly, there are many in the service industry who are ‘serial killers of time’ where ‘a few minutes can take longer than the 8 minutes and 18 seconds it takes the sun’s light, travelling a near 93 million miles to reach earth.
