Good service makes the world of difference to your customers' enjoyment - and if you get it right, they'll return again and again. Mark Taylor reports
Celebrity chef Richard Corrigan certainly ruffled a few feathers recently when he claimed that the English make the world's worst waiters because they don't like to be "manservants".
Corrigan, who runs the Michelin-starred Lindsay House restaurant in London said:
"In England there is an urgency to get to the top without the skills. The waiter wants to be the manager at the age of 24 before he has learnt to open a bottle of wine. I am fed up with young, flash gits with their smart suits and expensive watches who take a job in a restaurant because they somehow think it is a quick way to make a fast buck."
Corrigan's comments were backed up by restaurant critic Michael Winner, who told the Daily Telegraph that waiting staff were also paid too much.
"The English are useless at service and have no idea how to be welcoming," he harrumphed. "People think they can be as
rude as they like. Their idea of a greeting in an English restaurant is asking someone if they have a reservation. That simply would not happen anywhere else in the world."
And so the thorny issue of service - good and bad - raised its head yet again in the national press. Of course service is a serious issue for the customers.
When asked what they expect when they eat out in pubs and
restaurants, consumers invariably cite good service as their main expectation.
This may come as something of a disappointment to chefs who always assumed it was the food on the plate, but the fact is that if the front-of-house service isn't up to scratch, then people will vote with their feet and look for another venue pretty sharpish.
Ben Jones is a partner in the Rutland Inn Company, which owns the Michelin starred Olive Branch at Clipsham in Rutland and the Red Lion at nearby Stathern.
He says that at the end of the day, good service is all about enabling customers to enjoy themselves and ensuring they have everything they require in order to do that.
"The customer isn't always right, but the skill is to make them feel that they're always right," Jones says.
"It's a difficult skill because we've had extreme occasions where we've served someone chicken and they tell us it isn't
chicken but pork!
On those rare occasions, it's very difficult to agree with them or convince them that they're wrong."
At the Olive Branch, Ben encourages each front-of-house member of staff to take responsibility for the particular job they're doing and then to communicate with others within the team to ensure the whole of the service runs smoothly.
"From a more technical point of view, we break the jobs down into separate sections and we'll train them on a specific section to do a specific job and to do that job particularly well.
"It's a very democratic system and we give our people responsibility and let them get on with it," he explains.
"The first thing we always get them to do is a bit of an in-at-the-deep-end shift, which we call 'the hotplate'.
"They take the plates of food from the kitchen to the customer, which gives them direct contact with the kitchen team and direct contact with the customers.
"It's not contact in which they have to explain dishes or menus to customers, but it's still an important contact with the customer and it also gives them an opportunity to learn about the food they're serving.
"We're a very food-based establishment so it's very important they have a knowledge of the menu and that gives
them the opportunity to see how the food is being served."
Ben and his team hold monthly staff menu tastings and regular wine tastings - all part and parcel of a structured training programme in place at both pubs.
He adds: "Everybody is trained to do one specific area and once they're trained, they move on to the next area and the
next.
"We also encourage our staff to keep an eye on tables for the whole service. Even if they're walking through the restaurant with plates, I want them to be monitoring each table. When they're clearing dirty glasses or plates, I want them to be looking to see if somebody needs another drink, or a knife and fork replaced."
One of the worst things for customers is a long, agonising wait for food, often with no explanation from waiting staff, so what should they do in such a situation?
"Always tell the customer what's happening," says Ben. "If it's between courses, and it's very busy, serve them a
complimentary intermediate course like a sorbet or a small salad just as a little something while they're waiting.
"Offering something like this takes 30 seconds to do for the kitchen, but it makes the customer realise that we are aware of the situation and that we're doing something about it.
"The worst thing you can do is ignore it and hope they won't notice. One of the most important things is being one step
ahead of the customer."
Service with a smile is something Alison Davy instills into her staff at the Rose and Crown at Romaldkirk, Durham, which was recently named as Pub of the Year in Michelin's Eating Out In Pubs Guide 2006.
"I think the atmosphere is created by the staff," says Davy. "If you've got happy, smiling staff, who look like they're enjoying their work, then the customers will automatically relax and enjoy themselves.
"We sometimes have customers who are a bit tense when they arrive and I tell the waiting staff to see them as a challenge and to be ultra charming.
We normally have them eating out of our hands by the end of
the evening! Of course, it does matter how good the food is, but if you have poor or unfriendly service, it can taint the evening more than if you have indifferent food and super service. People always remember bad, unsmiling service."
Peter Alcroft of the Blue Ball Inn, Triscombe, Somerset, says that good service is about achieving the right balance.
"Our emphasis is on being attentive without being overbearing and there's a fine line," he says.
"Our waiting staff check things once they've cleared the starter, then 10 minutes into the main course and finally they'll check when the desserts are clear, and I think that's enough.
"But they should always keep an eye on the wine, and ask if the customers want any more drinks, and make sure the plates
are cleared quickly. The worst thing from a customer's point of view is when they think they've been forgotten. If you keep them informed, they're usually all right about it.
"Most people don't like complaining and if they do complain there's normally a good reason. As long as it's dealt with
courteously and resolved quickly, people are usually OK about it."
At the Millstream in Marden, Wiltshire, Nicola Notton has made good service one of the selling points. "People dine out because it's a luxury and they want an experience," she says.
"It's all about consistency, from the minute they come in,
until the minute they leave. I consider a smile and a 'hello, would you like an aperitif' just as important as a 'goodbye, I hope you enjoyed your meal'."