Students remind us: show heartfelt hospitality, listen to customers’ desire for change

I just spent a day with 12 teams of aspiring high school students competing for national recognition in restaurant management.  I had two big takeaways:

1.  Show true, heartfelt hospitality even when you distracted with handling your business.

2.  Take advantage of what’s not working.

The best business people are always thinking about their customers and are enthusiastic about making changes, small and large, to make their customers happier.

Once again this year, I volunteered to judge critical-thinking ability at the Regional Texas ProStart  Competition.  The January 23 event was sponsored by the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation at the Hurst  Convention Center.  High school culinary and restaurant management teams competed to go to the state finals coming up in Waco in March,  in pursuit of a berth at the National Restaurant Association Education Foundations’ National Pro Start Invitational in Baltimore in April.

ProStart is a two-year high school curriculum designed by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) to develop culinary and management  talent for the future of the restaurant industry.  It is a timely effort, as a whole generation is captivated by the food, chefs, concepts, and managers they see every day on their media screens.  Restaurants are cool.  There was a time when the attitude was “If I can’t get a job anywhere else, I can always work in a restaurant.”  That has changed.  Now, for a large group of younger people, it is “I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get a job in a restaurant.”  ProStart is a big part of that.

This event is the most fun you can have on a work day.  In my opinion, ProStart and the work of the Education Foundation are the best things that the Texas Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association do.

As a critical-thinking judge, I got to quiz these teams of students about knowledge of their concept.  Other judges on the panel focused on marketing, customer service, and workplace safety.  The students were excited, knowledgeable, and some of them were so strong I would have hired them on the spot if they were of age.

Sure, many of these students were nervous as they sat in an imposing board room probably for the first time in their lives, feeling like contestants on Shark Tank.  It’s natural that many compensated by being all-business and whatever version of “professional” is in the mind of a teenager.  So one of the things I talked about in the feedback sessions was the art of showing true hospitality. It’s  a lesson we can all learn and we can all improve upon.  Even while under the pressure of business goals and tight operations, restaurant people do better to always remember the warmth and sincerity that breeds good hospitality.  This applies to any business where, through no fault of their own, the customer or guest can become an afterthought.

In order to prevent them from losing sight of that concept, I have coached one of my clients to finish every statement with

“and the benefit to the guest is . . . ”

The judges panel heaped mass amounts of praise onto the high school teams for their very impressive accomplishments, team work, and presentations.  In addition, I suggested to a few groups that they strive to show how much they care that the guests and associates are having great experiences.   That’s a much more compelling inspiration than simply presenting themselves as whiz kids with good business ideas.

Another issue I talked about with the students was how to stay flexible so their imaginary businesses would stand the test of time, weather inherent changes and respond well to customer feedback.  More than one team did not think that was going to be a problem: their concept was great, their offerings were timeless, and everyone would enjoy them forever.

Here is what I was thinking:  When you hit 20 you think you know everything. By the time you get to 30, you realize you know nothing.  And these contestants had not even hit 20 yet!

Most of the work we do in improving restaurants is by taking good and great restaurants and making them even better. Once in a while we do take on a well-capitalized  turnaround or an underperforming property. Things start to happen after listening very carefully to the guest about what they like, don’t like, and would prefer.

In the past I have advocated such radical change as switching a name, changing service from fast casual to full service, replacing an entire menu, or remodeling a beautiful brand new restaurant because it was not working. At other times we have made smaller shifts like changing uniforms, training, marketing or web sites.

No matter how much you believe in something, if it is not working, and the guest tells you so through their thoughts or actions, changes small or large are called for.  Some people get so tied up in their creativity and supporting their old decisions that they tend to think like many of the high school teams did,  “No, really, this is going to work and my vision will be validated by an adoring public.  Just you wait!”

I am sure that the 12 high school management teams we worked with will be thinking about all these things, whether they made the cut and are headed to the state finals or they did not and will be plotting to get their next year.  Last year, one of the teams I judged became national champions, so anything is possible.