Shut up & Listen!!

​Wayyyy to much talking & noise and not nearly enough listening.

The last few days I’ve seen Restaurants increased their attempted guest engagement numbers by frantically posting on social media with posts ranging anywhere from pleading for patronage to promoting dinner specials, and everything in between.

I have yet to see Posts asking how they could be a best service to the community and what they could do an offer to possibly secure their business.

Listening to the guest is critical especially in times of upheaval and confusion when what you think the guest wants quite possibly could be something completely different. If you were listening you would know chicken piccata à la cart is not top of mind, family style back to basic type meals is what people are clamoring for.

Imagine going to a dinner party and having everyone there talk about themselves. How long are you going to stay? Not long! Your business is about hospitality, not Walmart’s business or Target business. Restaurant guests have a much more immediate and direct and impactful say so in your daily operation than most any other business. 

Remember, you’re in the hospitality business. The hospitality business is all about listening to your guest and their lives, for the dual purpose of entertaining and taking care of their needs. At the same time you should be learning new information about their lives so that you can provide more hospitality.

What’s going on in the lives of your guests? That’s what you need to be talking about. What’s valuable to them? Is it valuable that you have a new seasonal menu out and have pumpkin spice on the menu? No! It gets old after a while, when everyone is talking about the exact same thing. If businesses are talking about the same stuff, then no one is listening.