Monday, April 07, 2008

Can A Restaurant Hostess Cause Bankruptcy?

Great post from Simplenomics—

I went to pick up our lunches and the hostess was, how shall we put this …. stupid ? An idiot ? Worthless ? I asked her if I could pick up a couple of sandwiches to go and she said she would try to find someone to take my order, but ” … they all are real good at hiding out in their places and I have trouble finding them, but when I hide, they find me. “

About 15 minutes into my ordeal, a mother and son came in. The boy looked to be 14 to 16. The hostess with the leastess says to the young man, ” Why ain’t you in school ? “ Not Hi, not welcome to XXX, not anything that you’d expect from a hostess.

The young man said, ” I’m homeschooled. ”

So The Brain says, ” Oh, that means you get to play hooky and eat lunch. “

I myself went to a public school and ate lunch every day, so I don’t know where she went or if she actually went.

So here’s the questions I have:

Will that mother and son ever eat there again ?
Will the management ever find out that she’s a complete and finely tuned utter fool ?
Can she and will she affect the repeat business ?

Posted by jcohen in • Restaurant Marketing
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  1. The only way the management will find out about the hostess’s actions is if someone tells him/her.  If the observer of this activity likes this restaurant and want it to stay around, a report would definitely be in order.

    The host/hostess is the first person a customer sees and the interaction with, or lack thereof, can definitely affect the overall volume of business.

     on  04/07  at  08:06 AM

  2. I believe there are some restaurants that definitely take the role of the host/hostess for granted. Focus is placed on the usual daily tasks (i.e. handling calls promptly, taking reservations and seating guests)while little training is placed on the importance of overall presentation and service. The first person in contact with a customer is the host/hostess. How that person interacts with the customer is crucial to the business.  A host/hostess poor service leads to a bad first impression and may result in a negative dining experience.  Good management should be on top of everything that goes on in their restaurant.  Overall, it comes down to effective staff training.

    The Restaurant Blogger  on  04/07  at  07:27 PM
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