The service

Ernesto recently wrote to me, a stubborn eater, a demanding client, to complain about the terrible service received in a hollow whose name I prefer not to mention, on Chimborazo street. He is not the first to write to me for exactly the same reason. That is why I cannot ignore reflecting on this topic.

To generate consumer loyalty, you have to make your food memorable. That is, it becomes an experience. Otherwise, a good dinner can be offered, but it will be one of many, and the restaurant owner will compete with thousands of similar places. However, if it is possible to generate an experience, it will be at the top, reaching the “top of mind” the client’s. This undoubtedly entails an effort that goes far beyond the quality of the food served, although this is the first and perhaps the most important pillar of such an experience.

Others, which make a meal an experience, are undoubtedly the environment that it manages to produce, with decoration, music, lighting, and other tools; In addition to the price-quality ratio. The fourth key factor in this equation is service, the weakest and weakest pillar of our country’s offer. We Ecuadorians tend to forget the basics. Approximately 50 years ago, before the technology we have today, a five-star hotel in Hong Kong used to pay a tip to taxi drivers who transported passengers from the Airport to their premises and ask if it was the first time they had stayed. there, just so that they could give the bellboy the information, so that, at the registration table, whoever received the guest could say “Welcome Back Mr. X, thank you for staying at our hotel again.”

Cities like Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca have improved academically in terms of training kitchen professionals. Today, we have Institutes and Universities of a good level, which prepare professionals who even stand out outside our country. However, there is a great gap in terms of professionalizing the service in our salons. I would dare to say that 80% of the people who attend, that is, those who offer the services of a restaurant to the diner, those who face the client, who are face to face in the “Moments of truth”, never has received appropriate training to offer an experience.

It is difficult to find a good training program in the market for service personnel, and it is also very difficult to convince a restaurant owner to invest in training their staff in these arts, and others. This being the case, we should not ask ourselves why neighboring countries, such as Colombia and Peru, perhaps with a less rich portfolio in terms of their basket of products, have better-ranked restaurants than ours.

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