It was guests that fed back to me that they had been warned that the recession had made itself felt in South Africa, in that service levels in general, and in restaurants particularly, had declined. Making recent calls for restaurant reservations made me think about what they had said, and restaurant reservation experiences appear to support their observation as far as bookings go.
The telephone is the first connection that the guest has with the restaurant, and this is where the image damage is most severe, to the detriment of the restaurant, no matter how good the chef is. One top restaurant has an automated answering telephone system, that requests the caller to press a code for different departments. However, when the restaurant is busy, its staff do not answer the phone. We have experienced one of two results – it just rings and rings and rings, or it picks up an automated message, requesting one to leave a message, so that one can have the call returned ‘as soon as possible’, but it is most likely to be the following day only. No e-mail address is offered and no pre-recorded message about the restaurant availability for that day or the next day is provided on the answering machine message. The slow response time is a bad reflection on the guest house manager, whose guests are eager to hear that the booking has been made, so that they can plan the rest of their restaurant programme for their stay in the Winelands. Often this restaurant is fully booked anyway, and then all the frustration has been for nothing. Another large wine estate also has an automated telephone system, that is not answered on weekend days, and calls are returned after the time that one wanted to eat there!
Another top restaurant has a waitress answering the phone, and she showed more irritation than appreciation for the reservation call, and called across the restaurant to a colleague to find out which time slot was still available for the dinner booking, without asking the caller at what time the guests would like to come for dinner. The owner of the best country-style restaurant is a photographer on weekdays, and he takes bookings via his cellphone. However, when he is on a shoot, he does not have his restaurant bookings book with him, and cannot commit to a booking when one calls, having to call back at the end of the day. Another once-top restaurant provides a booking reference number, which is an irritation and creates extra admin, when they could just take the guest surname.
The top restaurant in Cape Town takes bookings via its hotel switchboard, and asks one to call back when they cannot get through to the restaurant! A property with two restaurants does not recommend the second restaurant when the better known one is fully booked. One restaurant has three staff members with very similar sounding names, but the switchboard operator does not ask for a surname when one asks for one of these staff members, meaning that one is guaranteed to be put through to the wrong person.
Interesting is the management reaction to feedback provided about the frustration of making restaurant reservations, ranging from gratitude expressed for the feedback with information about how the problem will be fixed in future, to no response at all, or an acknowledgement of the feedback received but no changes are made. If the feedback makes the booking service better, and we can see changes made, we will book the restaurant again. If attempts to book continue without any improvement, we will recommend alternative restaurants.
In our opinion a restaurant cannot afford to neglect its telephone answering service. It would be ideal to have a full-time staff member answering the phone, and for the phone line to be diverted to a cellphone after hours, so that bookings can continue to be taken, and that one can see missed calls for bookings, and call back. Guest houses are an important source of restaurant bookings, and staying in touch with them would enhance bookings if restaurants informed guest houses of the days that they are fully booked, so that one does not even recommend the restaurant to guests on those days, and does not have to go through the frustrating reservation process. One Franschhoek restaurant used to reserve a table for each of the larger guest houses every day, guaranteeing them a lot of business.
Restaurants on wine estates suffer a further problem with the often poor and slow service of outsourced security staff. Haute Cabriere, Maison, Buitenverwachting, Overture, Sofia’s at Morgenster, Jordan Restaurant, Cuvée at Simonsig, and Tokara have no boom, and appear more welcoming; Grande Provence and Allèe Bleue allow one to just drive in through the boom; La Motte, Laborie, Rust en Vrede, Delaire Graff, and Holden Manz have improved their boom service; while the service at the Grande Roche Hotel boom must be the worst in the Cape, with that of the Cellars-Hohenhort and Steenberg hotels not being much better.
It will be no surprise if aspirant restaurants do not make the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant list, when their telephone service is so poor. A professional telephone service reflects the professionalism of the restaurant.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
