Bar Service and Business

The Seven Elements of Perfect Bar Service and How You can Relate It to Business – Part 1

I’m a guy who has many jobs and participated in many careers. I’ll be the first to admit it – I’ve been a nomad. Let’s look at a few things I’ve done; picked vegetables in Market Gardens; painted fishing boats in the UK; cleaned up blood and guts on the slaughter-board in a meat works… amongst many other attempts at long-term employment. Let’s face it, even I was wondering if I’d ever find that thing that would keep me in one place for longer than a nanosecond.

I have found it though – I am firmly entrenched in the world of finance and, happy to say, I’m loving it. But previous to this, my 2 other flirtations with anything resembling a “career” were in the fields of Broadcasting and Hospitality – 6 years in the former and too many in the latter.

I was taught bar work by the best. Not surprisingly my first foray into supplying the good stuff to patrons was in London, where my boss – a stroppy little man from Newcastle – made it very clear that the Customer was King/Queen. Any sort of shenanigans behind the bar with other staff (something I see a lot these days, usually to the detriment of service levels) sent him into fits of blind rage, and rightly so I now think.

Come forward many years, and I found myself behind the bar of a lovely little pub in Taupo doing the odd casual shift. The owner of the pub and the bar manager, who are still very good friends of mine to this day, taught me “The Seven Elements of Perfect Bar Service”. Interestingly enough though, all this list did was formalise what I already knew, but made it a little more digestible and easier to convey on to subsequent staff I employed.

What does this have to do with Business?

Plenty I think. These “elements” I believe can relate to all businesses – not just Hospitality. What I intend to do here is show you how, and to keep it brief and hopefully more interesting, I’ll describe one element each week. The one very important thing to remember is that these are listed in order of PRIORITY. So let’s start with the 1st and most important element…

1. SERVE THE CUSTOMER!!

Sounds logical right? But how many times have you been in a store, a bar/restaurant, a mechanic’s workshop, a dental clinic… wherever, and you’ve been standing there wondering if anyone can even see you? I bet your answer is “many”. If someone walks into your place of business, drop what you are doing and find out what you can do to help them. If you are in Sales and someone gives you a lead, call them. If an existing client needs something altered or improved, tend to it. No excuses.

Here’s the bit that always gets me – if you are already serving a customer/tending to a client request and someone else walks in, OR on the rare occasion you actually can’t put down what you’re doing, ACKNOWLEDGE the person who has walked in! Don’t just leave them standing there feeling like they are out of place. People like to ‘belong’ or feel welcome, so a simple “I’m just tending to this right now, but I’ll be with you next…” makes ALL the difference. If it’s a regular customer find out their first name and use it. If they told you their name on the phone before they came down to your premises, remember it and USE IT. You are giving the customer a sense of belonging where they are – the chance of that person walking out the door and going to your opposition has minimised hugely.

Next week we’ll explore the second element – Keep the Customer Area Clean.