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In the hospitality business the guest is always right-right? I’ve been playing restaurant everyday since 1984 and the act of referring to our customers as guests is a practice that predates my plebe year by about a century. According to Dr. Carl Braunlich of the UNLV Harrah Hotel College, the phrase "the guest is always right" was used in the 1800’s referring to how the lower class should treat royalty and it was certainly the phrase used when he was a young student at Cornell in the 1970’s. But what does being a guest mean?
Most everyone in this business gets the obvious about treating guests with graciousness and an aim to please approach. But my kids are of the age where we are teaching them how to be a guest in other peoples' homes and it got me thinking about the difference. I have taught them to do the following as a guest; not ask for anything and wait to be offered, eat what is put in front of them, be polite and always say thank you. In general go with the flow and be an easy guest. Yet none of these things are rules or expectations to be a guest in the too-many-to-count restaurants I have been involved with. As a matter of fact, much of our success and the success of many is from taking care of guests who don’t do any of these things. Actually, in restaurants we teach our staff, who are the hosts, to behave in many of the ways I want my children to behave when they are guests. Be gracious, polite and respectful, among other things.
I grew up in Bethesda and was surrounded by Marriott people. The daughter of the great Winthrop"Bud" Grice who was on the cover of Time with JW and still has HSMAI Lifetime Achievement award in his name taught me how to wait tables the day I turned 18. (Thanks again Diane) One of the retired Marriott executives I knew said this to me long ago, “Some say treat customers like guests in your home. Well I’ve never given a guest in my home a bill after their visit. A customer is a customer and don’t ever forget it.” Good point.
Perhaps “guest” is an attitude and approach and "customer" reminds us of the fiscal responsibility of the transaction. I am certainly proud of the distinction of calling customers guests our industry has. But, I also like the reminder of perform for pay that “customer” has. We were recently concerned that our customers were only coming in for their favorite item (like a Famous Chicken Salad) and going to our competitors for other choices such as an Asian Salmon dish because they had not been exposed to our version (Citrus Soy Glazed). We developed a program to broaden our customers’ knowledge of our menu and hopefully increase customer visits. We call it “Guest Menu Knowledge.”
Here are the Wikipedia definitions for customer and guest? Please leave your thoughts below with a comment.
Bobby Fitzgerald is the author of "Smile or You're Fired...Seven Lessons for Managers of Service" available at amazon.com
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