It is said that in Japan customer service is one of the best in the world. The Japanologist and creator of Eating Japanese, Roger Ortuñoexplains that “Japanese hospitality or omotenashi permeates the entire society and is felt not only in the hotel industry, but even in a supermarket konbini (open 24 hours). Its meaning materializes when another person is treated with respect, with a good attitude, leaving them satisfied and without asking for anything in return. Ortuño says that its essence is based on the premise that collective well-being is always sought above one’s own. “For this reason, these courtesy and social norms are so important. And in its context, this extreme hospitality is not perceived as subservience, ”he reasons.
Although for Ortuño Japanese hospitality is at a stratospheric level, in Spanish rooms we see samples of hospitality typical of the culture they inhabit. It must be borne in mind that serving a room is not an easy task: anyone who has worked in the hospitality industry knows this well. “It’s just a matter of knowing how to carry a tray, put plates with food on the table and drinks in the glasses”, say many, but that’s not enough. The reality of managing a room is complex because the pace of the service is frantic, each client has their specific and throbbing needs and the establishments decide how they will personalize the attention they provide. And there is still much more. We explore how hospitality is practiced at a neighborhood bar, a coffee shop, a wine bar, and two restaurants.
in a neighborhood bar
Located in the flourishing neighborhood of Sants, the Buenavista (Carrer del Sant Crist, 23, Barcelona) is “an informal and cozy bar”, defines Jordi Beltrán, its owner and bartender. “The client transmits it to me like this: sometimes we say that we want them to feel at home, and that is what we are looking for, but it is true here: there are clients who have doubled their shift”. Beltrán does not refer to his room as such and says that it would be more accurate to call it “living room, because it is as if I were inviting people to my house, as if I were hosting, without forgetting the pertinent attentions of the bar, the professionalism that the hotel industry requires or what the client or the service needs”. He explains that he only has one waiter and that people understand that they must come to the bar to order “and if we are very full, they will come to the bar to pick up the order.”
His abundant loyal clientele doesn’t care. They value the context and what Buenavista offers them. And, also, the skill of Beltrán. “I never make any gesture that might show a certain hurry for them to vacate the table, such as taking away their empty glasses. I speak and shut up when it’s time and I almost never ask ‘do you want anything else? In the end, and based on a lot of field study, you develop an intuition of what is happening in the bar and what the client needs”. To round off the experience, the bartender explains that he consciously makes customers who come alone and don’t know each other strike up a conversation and even become friends: “I bring up a subject that I, knowing both of them, know they may have in common and from where they can pull the thread”.
In a coffee shop
Sometimes, hospitality is not at odds with comfort. A good example of this are the cafeterias, which although they are not the most comfortable room, have their own order of hospitality. From The Desired (José Abascal, 53, Madrid)Júlia Valls and Juan Ibiza describe it like this: “We do not expect our cafeteria to be as comfortable as a restaurant or it can be an office, since the activities that take place there cannot be carried out here”.
As in any working Mediterranean cafeteria, in La Deseada there is a high volume, both noise and people, especially at peak hours. “Despite everything, we promote good communication with the client and we consider it essential to be close and worry about getting to know, as far as possible, our regular clients in a somewhat more personal way.”
At La Deseada you order at the bar and the customer chooses the table where it will be served. This allows them to work in an orderly fashion and also get paid at the end, unlike other coffee shops in the city where payment before the first sip of coffee has been imposed. “It also helps us to be fast, which is something we put a lot of energy into. We are always attentive: if a regular client comes, as soon as he sees him, we are already preparing the coffee and the cookie that he always asks for ”.
in a wine bar
“The client wants to notice that you are doing something special for him,” explains Giuseppe La Porta, director and sommelier of Solera Winery (Còrsega, 339, Barcelona). “Serving a wine is not only pouring it into the glass, but presenting it well, both to the wine and to the producer, telling its story and, most importantly, explaining why that wine has been chosen for it.” La Porta points out that, regardless of how the establishment is, the time dedicated to it is what the client values the most. “It is what creates the bond between the customer and the person who has served them. The tip doesn’t matter, just ask your name. That means that you have done well, that you have given your all, that you have put all the love into each gesture. They will go out the door remembering you and they will come back, in part, for you. And if you are not there, they will ask for you. Because, in general, what the client appreciates the most is the attention you give them and the love you give them”.
In a place where wine is of essential importance, such as Bodega Solera, getting the recommendation right is no mean feat. To work the magic, La Porta asks the right questions to discover the tastes of the clients and takes into account both the selection of dishes chosen and a price range with which the client never feels the pressure of an amount with which he is not comfortable.
in two restaurants
At the service of the Madrid restaurant Saddle (Amador de los Ríos, 6, Madrid) it is recognized as one of the most impeccable in the country. What is your secret? “Everything revolves around personalizing the experience of each client: if you come for a business lunch, you probably don’t want to hear all the details of a dish as much as if you come to enjoy it. We adapt the message, the rhythms and the number of interactions depending on the moment that the client has come to experience”, explains Isra Ramírez, their sommelier.
The structure of your room is like this: each range of tables has 8 tables, each of which is offered a service adapted to neither disturb nor be distant. Personalization is such that at Saddle they offer a more typical hotel service: concierge. “After the reservation, each client receives an email in which we make ourselves available for whatever they need, whether it is going to El Escorial or a Real Madrid match or getting a table in another restaurant. We are that friend in Madrid who helps you”.
Ramírez says that the motor of personalization that they practice is empathy, making the client feel heard and remembered. “If every day is the first day in a site that you have already visited more than once, if the treatment is always impersonal, customer loyalty is not generated”. What changes this is remembering special requests, be it the way you drink your coffee or even more personal details, and to be quicker than the client’s own wishes. Ramírez illustrates this with an example: “around October 2019, which was when we opened, every two weeks we received a visit from a family that came to have a drink at the bar. One of the days, the girl asked if she could take the pen that we give with the account because she collected them from her favorite places. Of course, we gave it to him, but we did much more. The person who attended to him noted the detail on her reservation sheet and, when they returned, we had changed our corporate pen. Arriving at the table, the girl saw a box wrapped in gift paper, with her bow and her name, which she rushed to open to find the new pen inside. The face she put on, with glassy eyes, made us understand in a second what this job is about: making people feel. And that only works if the personalization is really personal, genuine, selfless and from the heart”.
On the other hand, at Saddle they are technical: in full view of the customer, they debone, carve, flambé, prepare Dry Martinibottles are cut off, sauce is made, jarrea and teas are prepared according to the method gong fu. “It is a very nice aspect of our trade. It is not very popular because it involves a lot of staff and many hours of internal training (6 months of general training per employee and individualized training plan according to tasks)”. As Saddle’s motto is “By and for the client”, Ramírez does not conceive of subservience. “I have never felt that we are treated like this. It makes me very happy to make others happy, to find someone’s favorite wine and give it to them without asking for it, that by chance they can enjoy an off-label that they liked but that we no longer have, to adapt a menu in braille for people visually impaired or generate a letter only with what a person with allergies or intolerances can eat”.
Pere Monje, director and owner of the Barcelona restaurant Via Veneto (Ganduxer, 19, Barcelona), is clear that good service can be found both in a cafeteria and in a high-ticket restaurant. “That someone remembers your tastes, is a lot.” He describes the service in the restaurant he runs as a modern classic: “The setting and the service is classic, but our approach to the customer is current and modern.” He explains that the vocation of service is in the DNA of Via Veneto and that it agrees with the label that has often been attached to them: “We are a customer restaurant because we believe that the customer is the most important thing”.
In this way, diners return several times a year or even daily. “Our way of understanding service is a way of understanding life. It has not been created by spontaneous generation, but it is a whole company culture that my father transmitted to all the workers”. This mentality is materialized in many actions, from remembering where a customer sat and what they ate to preparing that dish that they only make for one (they have dozens of cases like this) going through other hospitable gestures that are fully part of what a concierge, such as looking for accommodation if dinner has been extended or picking up the car from the deposit if the tow truck has taken it so that the client, when he leaves, finds it in its proper place. “We go one step further,” Monje explains. “The important thing in this sector is to have the will to understand that we live from the customer and that the spirit of a restaurant continues to be the same as that of an inn from four centuries ago: hospitality with the person who visits you. And make him come back.”
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