More than 500 members of Restaurants — all independent restaurant operators — responded to a recent survey on customer service.

The first question was: "On a 1 to 10 scale (10 being highest), how strongly do you believe that the level of customer service that takes place in your restaurant has a direct and significant impact on your success?" Not surprisingly, the average response was 9.49 out of 10.

While not as obvious or as easy to quantify or gauge as some other restaurant activities, without exception, independent operators recognize that the quality of the personal interactions between their employees and guests may very well be the single most important activity that takes place each day in their restaurants.

...really great hospitality is a culture and a family-type environment that must be nurtured every day.

In recent years, customer service in the restaurant industry has turned its focus on the timing, efficiency and the procedural aspects of getting customers what they want. This is driven perhaps by a preoccupation with the success of the corporate chains. If only all restaurants could achieve the operational benchmarks of the biggest and brightest concepts we would all be eating like kings.

Frankly, startup restaurateurs do stumble and fail due to the lack thereof; however, let us not forget that true hospitality is something quite different from memorized service steps and techniques. As one startup restaurateur put it, "You get service from a vending machine but only caring people can deliver hospitality."

Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, an author and an operator of several successful New York restaurants, wrote, "Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipients feel."

Hospitality is based on a server's ability to go beyond completing required tasks to connect on a personal, even emotional level with your guests. Connecting personally with another human being can take many forms but in the hospitality context it begins with servers who possess a sincere desire to do what is in the best interest of their guests. When guests sense that their servers are genuinely looking out for them, it sets the stage for good feelings to surface and a more positive dining experience to take place.

This article will examine some of the inherent advantages for having a more hospitality-oriented restaurant and provide some practical steps for enhancing the chances that more affirmative, meaningful interactions take place between your staff members and guests.

 Identifying and Hiring People Who Possess the 'Hospitality Gene'

Just as it's impossible to create five-star meals without exceptional ingredients, creating a service staff that takes exceptional care of guests requires identifying and hiring the right kind of people.

...take an interest in the lives of your employees and stop and thank them, ask how they are doing and let them know they are appreciated.

In a recent survey to readers of Restaurant Startup & Growth magazine and members of this web site, we asked operators to rate the quality of service taking place in their restaurants on a 1-to-10 scale (10 being highest). Sixty-seven operators rated their service a "9" or better. All but one of these said they screened for specific personality and customer service attributes during the selection process.

Here's a sampling of the most common characteristics operators tried to identify in job candidates:
 √ Genuine smiles and laughter.
 √ Eye contact.
 √ Maturity.
 √ Friendly, positive attitude.
 √ Outgoing personality.
 √ Poise and self-confidence.
 √ Eagerness.
 √ Ability to be articulate.
 √ Quick wit.
 √ Ability to think on one's feet.

Several said they look specifically for people who have a desire to serve others. They said they look for "people who want to go the extra mile to please our customers" and "people who love to serve others and feel good about doing so."

Looking for people with a built-in desire to serve others is a key to creating a hospitality-driven culture. These folks are natural caregivers; they were born with what I call "the hospitality gene." People who enjoy caring for others are energized and receive a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction and even joy when they're able to take care and do something special for other people.

One operator searches for people with "a heart for service." Then after hiring them, he shows how by taking exceptionally good care of customers, employees can provide themselves with a "psychic salary by making a difference in someone's life."

You've probably got at least one or two people with the hospitality gene on your staff right now. Imagine the level of hospitality your restaurant would deliver if your entire service staff were natural caregivers.

Here's a series of interview questions that can help identify the "hospitality gene" in job candidates:

Question: Do you enjoy serving and taking care of other people? Of course they'll know what you want to hear and will reply, "Yes." To see if this is really the case, immediately go to the follow-up questions.

First follow-up question: Describe one or two instances in which you served or cared for someone else that were particularly gratifying. If their response is genuine, they should be able to provide you with one or more specific instances in which they went out of their way to offer assistance or care to someone else. The more enthusiastic and animated they are the better. Unless they're a part-time actor and a very quick thinker, this one is tough to fake.

Second follow-up question: How did doing that make you feel? Listen for positive feelings created through the act of taking care or doing something special for someone else. Not only is it important to recruit people with a basic desire to treat people well, it's equally important for potential staff members to click with existing employees. Many operators in the survey indicated they involve their staff in meetings and interacting with prospective employees, and even give them a say in who is hired.

One operator said, "We do what we call a 'working interview' where the candidate comes in and works with one of our experienced servers. We see how they treat customers and potential fellow employees. It's not me that hires an employee, it's my staff."

Creating a Culture of Exceptional Service

While bringing quality, hospitality-oriented people into your restaurant is crucial, exceptional customer service still doesn't happen consistently day after day on its own.

Creating outstanding service also requires a well-coordinated, systematic approach to introducing staff to your restaurant's hospitality and service expectations and then constantly reinforcing these principles. To take hold and flourish, your service expectations also need the daily support, involvement and ongoing commitment of management as well. As they say about children and politicians, you get what you inspect, not what you expect.

Our aforementioned survey reveals that restaurants delivering high levels of customer service had owners and managers who placed a significant and constant emphasis on ongoing customer service training, communicating their companies' core values and treating their staff members exceptionally well.

Training. There's no substitute for having a thorough, systematic customer service training program in place. Operators who were most satisfied with their level of customer service used a variety of training methods and indicated that training was a continuous process for all of their servers, not just new hires.

The most common form of training new employees, according to the survey, was "on the job" or "one on one" in which the new hire was assigned to a senior server to learn the basic mechanics and function of the job. The vast majority of operators also said they used other modes of training, including videos, group sessions, and employee training manuals, employee handbooks and role-playing. Several said they regularly used role-playing exercises as a means of fine-tuning and reinforcing their service standards with all their employees.

One owner reported significant progress through the use of role-playing exercises. "About twice a month at our pre-service meeting we set up a table and do some role-playing to go over situations we have recently encountered and openly involve everyone in a discussion on how to do it better. It has helped a lot since starting this exercise about three months ago. We've noticed a huge difference."

Many survey respondents indicated using feedback from customer comment cards and shopper reports as a helpful way to identify lapses in service and areas in need of improvement. For example, "Every day we discuss the customer feedback we get from comment cards as a measure of how our customers perceive our service."

Values. Clarifying and communicating your organization's values won't, by itself, make your restaurant a success; but I've observed something interesting over the past several years. From my vantage point, there appears to be a direct and even profound correlation in the level of importance a restaurant places on its core values and its level of financial success. Those restaurants whose operators place the most emphasis on defining, communicating and then living their values appear to be enjoying much more success than those restaurant organizations that don't.

Communicating your values appears to affect an organization on several levels. First, it tells job prospects what you're about, what's important in your company and what you're focused on accomplishing. This can be a good way to attract the people you want and repel those you don't; it's a win-win either way.

One survey respondent told us they communicate their core values to job prospects even before they complete an application. "We have a cover letter on our application form that states our vision and values. We invite them to complete the application only if they agree with these values. Each quarter we also measure how the owners, management and staff are living these values."

Having a high-profile mission statement and/or set of values that truly reflects how your business is run can instill a sense of purpose and pride in your staff. Good people want to work for good companies and that means operating with a commitment to integrity, trust and high standards that is stated in words, but more importantly reflected in actions as well.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, known for its customer service, begins its mission or values statement, called "The Credo," like this: "The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission."

Nearly every one of our survey respondents said communicating their organization's core values was very important. Several stated that their mission/values statement is the driving force behind their restaurant's outstanding customer service. One example: "We are an organic, destination restaurant and are very environmentally conscientious. If an employee doesn't have an interest in these values they won't fit in with what we are doing. I find that we are being sought out by like-minded individuals."

One operator I met with recently, in additional to having a high-profile mission statement, has identified 20 values that his company seeks to live by and works to ingrain into his managers and staff. They include trust, honesty, respect, enthusiasm, teamwork and excellence. Each week a different value is highlighted. It's written in big letters on a kitchen whiteboard and is a topic of discussion in each pre-shift meeting and staff meeting throughout the week. This restaurant, by the way, is very profitable and has very little employee turnover.

Treating staff. "How you treat your staff is the way they will treat your guests." We've heard this saying so much it's become a cliché. But it's true. While treating your people well is no guarantee that all of them will pour out exceptional service to your guests, just exhibit a little disrespect and condescension their way and see what you get. It's not only unreasonable, but also dangerous for restaurant operators to ignore or pay little attention to how their employees feel they're being treated. The working climate management creates has a huge effect on the level of care your guests receive.

When the restaurant's working climate is positive and employees know that they're respected and valued, they're much more likely to feel secure, content and gracious. Having a service staff that is confident and feels good about their jobs is a prerequisite to creating highly positive connections and experiences with your guests.

Our survey participants could not agree more. While a few operators disliked the "sloganeering" of "treating your staff like guests" they all agreed that treating employees well was absolutely necessary in achieving a high level of service in their restaurant.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of responses we receive on the importance of treating employees well: √ Everything starts at the top. We teach everyone the upside-down triangle, showing the guests at the top, then the servers, cooks, dishwashers, then managers, then owners. Clearly the guests must be No. 1 but our job is taking care of the people who take care of our guests. We can go days or weeks without an owner around but we cannot go one shift without a dishwasher. We believe really great hospitality is a culture and a family-type environment that must be nurtured every day.

√ I make my employees feel important by involving them in decision making; rewarding them for ideas implemented that make a difference; treating them with respect and courtesy and being interested in their personal lives.

√ We have a very senior staff and exceptionally low turnover. I believe this is so because we all treat each other with kindness, loyalty and respect. These 35 people are truly a team.

√ We communicate to our employees that the customer is important, but how we treat our fellow employees is far more important.

√ We don't tolerate anything but respect for one another and caring for each other as human beings first. We take an interest in the lives of our employees and stop and take a moment to thank them, inquire how they are doing and let them know they are appreciated. This goes so far in developing loyalty, which is then demonstrated in genuine caring for our guest's experience.

Practical Ways to Jump-start Your Hospitality Standards

In addition to the foundational aspects of creating a more hospitality-oriented environment that we discussed above, here are some random practices that may help your staff with delivering a more personal level of service. We selected these particular items because as we've observed, most restaurants do many of these things poorly or so mechanically that they miss golden opportunities to positively connect with their guests on a personal level.

The contact between a server and the guest has an immediate and potentially permanent influence on whether customers will be predisposed to return to a particular restaurant more often, less often or not ever again. The quality of this interaction also bears heavily on what a guest says to their family and friends about their dining experience at your restaurant as well.

When guests get a sense that their server is warm, friendly and demonstrates a genuine interest in taking care of them, the potential for a positive dining experience is greatly enhanced. We've all heard it said that great service can make up for bad food but great food can never make up for bad service and that's what hospitality or the human side of service is all about.

Eye contact and smiles. While this is so basic to the hospitality industry, eye contact and smiles from hosts, hostesses, servers and bartenders toward their guests is often nowhere to be seen. Constantly remind and role-play on the importance of this. Building positive hospitality experiences is next to impossible without them.

Seating. When other tables are available, guests may appreciate the host or hostess asking if the table they're presented is all right. If not, offer one that is more to their liking. Your servers start out at a disadvantage if, for whatever reason, someone wishes they had been seated at another table.

Server introduction. Never let servers approach a new table of guests with something like, "Hi, my name is Suzy and I'll be your server tonight." It's boring, overused and it puts the focus of attention on the server, not where it should be, which is on the guest.

Last year while on a business trip in Baltimore my server approached the table, looked me squarely in the eyes with a big smile and said something like, "Hi, welcome to (restaurant name), thank you for joining us tonight. Is this your first visit to our restaurant?"

Notice that the conversation was totally directed at me, the guest. When a guest is seated they really don't care about the server or their name. Rather, they want to feel welcome and know that they are going to be taken care of in a friendly and responsive manner.

After a little small talk and an offer to get me a beverage, my server started to turn but paused and said, "Oh, by the way, my name is Rachel. I'll be back in just a minute with your beverage." Her timing was perfect. Now I wanted to know her name because she had made me feel welcome and in our short conversation gave me a sense that I had made a good restaurant choice and she was there to take good care of me. Her introduction set the stage for a very enjoyable meal.

Upselling. Yes, servers are there to sell but first and foremost they should be focused on taking care of your customers and doing whatever they can to turn them into loyal, repeat guests. The National Restaurant Association tells us that around 60 percent of sales in fine dining restaurants come from repeat business and in casual restaurants it's even more, up to 80 percent. Your single, most important goal should be to turn casual customers into regular, repeat guests.

The problem with steeping servers in suggestive selling training and techniques is that it can come across as impersonal and even manipulative. Today, restaurant guests are not easily fooled. They sense when servers care more for what's in their wallet than in providing them a great dining experience. While servers should be knowledgeable of what's on the menu and be able to guide guests' decisions, don't put a lot of pressure on servers to sell. That which looks like an easy way to boost sales today may not be the best way to ensure a large number of loyal, repeat guests tomorrow.

Make sure your staff understands job one: Do whatever it takes to bring 'em back again, and again.

How's everything? We've all heard it and experienced it more times than we care to recall. The server has just completed the tough work, then approaches the table only to ask the mindless question, "How's everything?" only to receive a meaningless reply, like "OK" or "Fine." Asking "How's everything?" is impersonal and won't convince anyone that your servers actually care if your guests are really enjoying their meals.

After the main course is delivered, encourage servers to approach each table with specific, personal questions that demonstrate they have minds that are engaged and they truly care about the responses. This can be nothing more complicated than, "Is your tuna cooked the way you like it?" or "Your filet looks real tender, is it?" It displays a level of caring and personal interest that most restaurants will never pick up on.

Connect with the kids. Having kids myself, I know just how much parents appreciate servers who take a sincere interest in their kids. We've had servers go out of their way to learn our kids' names, show them the fish tank up close and get them something special from the kitchen. Train your people to recognize the kids. Have them ask parents if the little one needs their food quicker or if you could bring them something to nibble on first. Parents will love it and the kids may just start recommending your restaurant the next time the family is deciding where to eat.

Be on the guest's side. Servers should always convey that they're looking out for their guest's best interest. When servers go to bat for the guest, they notice. Recently, while dining with my family, our server took our order and suggested changing two separate dinners to a combination and some sides that saved us a few dollars. The money wasn't the issue; the fact that she was looking out for us made a huge impression. I ended up leaving a much bigger tip, we made her our new favorite server and we plan on asking for her section the next time we visit.

Goodbyes. Remind servers to impart a sincere thank-you to guests as they get ready to leave. In addition to showing appreciation for their patronage, tell guests what a pleasure it was to serve them and be sure servers always ask them to return. As in the server's introduction, sincere smiles and direct eye contact is crucial or it will be interpreted as mere empty words.

Any staff member, be they another server, hostess, busser or manager, who passes by guests leaving the restaurant should also be ready with a smile and friendly thank-you. Hosts and hostesses should be especially on notice. It's a slight downer when the hostess who was so warm and friendly when you arrived doesn't even look up when you pass by the hostess stand to leave.

Programmed in the Right Direction

Maybe someday scientists will narrow the issue down to a genetic predisposition for customer service in the same way salmon are programmed to return to the stream of their birth to spawn. In the meantime, our goal is to highlight a few fundamental, although essential service issues common to nearly all restaurants. Our objective is to provide the impetus that would cause operators to step back and critically look at the quality of service and interaction that's taking place between their service staff and guests.

Are your service levels where you want them or where they need to be? Are your servers trying to interact with your guests or just going through the motions? We hope you've received a few useful ideas that drive you and your staff — whether by nature or nurture — in the direction of creating a more hospitality-driven culture in your restaurant.