Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Challenges to the bar industry today : increased competition from a variety of entertainment sources,
Bar owners recognize that other establishments are providing a similar offering sometimes at lower prices .
This realization has brought about an increased focus the care of customers and their viewpoints .
Customers encounters: unhappy customers, encountering attitudes of indifference from staff and poor service .
Dissatisfied customers usually talk to others about their dissatisfaction and the negative effect of this outcome can paralyze, all your best pro-active customer and marketing efforts.
It costs, on average, five times as much to win a new customer as it does to keep an old one.
Bars put enormous efforts into winning new customers and very little into customer care and retention .

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Stone & Young (1993) argued that ‘ customer care is not a veneer to be applied to an organization to make it look good for customers ’.
It should be a core value and should be built in to the very fabric of your offering you should always seek to under promise and over deliver.
Seek to see ourselves as others see us in all our glory which includes all our faults.
What can we do to improve our customer care techniques which in turn help to improve business and profitability?
The answer : improve the quality of out service, we need job crafts, people-handling skills, a positive attitude, good business procedures, communication and teamwork and a commitment to continual learning.
Getting it right for your customer involves: knowing what to do, and to obtain the ability to do it in thoughtful, appropriate and efficient ways .

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
So much has been written and spoken about customer care, customer service, even customer delight, but what does it all mean to your bar.
Peter Drucker (1954) wrote ‘ there is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create and keep a customer ’.
 How your customers feel about you and supporting your establishment largely reflects how they think you feel about them.
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Passion and the ability to impact on your customers are the two major factors in the bar industry today.
Ability to convey your enthusiasm and to surround yourself with employees who buy into it .
If everything that you and your employees do sends a consistent message to customers that they are valued and respected your chances of retaining their business increase immeasurably.
Impress your customers through sincerity and enthusiasm and delighting them with your product and service.
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Customer care therefore does not work unless people are committed to it.
Customer expectations : service delivery levels are rising, increased demand on all staff to perform, everyone can make the difference.
Committing yourself, commit yourself to providing the highest levels of service in every aspect of your duties and responsibilities.
The hidden differences , the major hidden difference between people is of course their personalities, similarly the hidden difference between the many products and services offered in your bar is the employees who make, sell and serve them.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
A prospective customer will be won or lost by their first impressions of you and your bar.
You will usually have only one chance to make a first impression, so the initial impression is vital.
These first impressions can be vastly improved by adopting the following techniques;
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best practices (chapter 6 – p. 93).
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best practices (chapter 6 – p. 93).
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best practices (chapter 6
– p. 93).

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
(continued)
Grooming and Social Skills
It is crucial that the bartender’s image is always presented in harmony (professional) with the professional image that the bar wishes to portray to its customer’s.
The bartender must remember that they are always in the public eye and must therefore pay special attention to the following areas;
 workplace clothing : must be professional, clean and pressed
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 shoes : clean and polished hair: groomed or tied back make up and jewelry : worn discreetly name badges : if appropriate, worn at all times good standard of personal hygiene posture : alert and interested mannerisms : bad manners should be checked facial expressions : ssincere and welcoming keep a good eye contact : implies honesty and interest
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 listening and really hearing speech : your projection and volume is crucial, it’s not what you say it is how you say it.
Finally staying cheerful even when you are tired, agitated or in a bad mood, you must always try to not let your personal feelings and negative feelings affect how you deal with customers or work colleagues.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
The key to success for your bar in this competitive environment lies in the quality of the service offered ; this vital mechanism can be used to achieve a competitive advantage .
Quinn (2006) contends that ‘ customer driven people in companies always have to fight with people who have other priorities ’.
Carefully consider the following customer care scenarios carefully, discuss their implications.
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Scenario A: a party of three people has booked a table at a restaurant. When they arrive, the restaurant owner apologies and informs them that the table will be another twenty minutes. First ending , so would they mind waiting in the bar area. Second ending , he will understand if they wish to cancel the reservation but if not, perhaps they would care to enjoy a drink in the bar area with his compliments.
Scenario B: a man in a supermarket has bought a small number of very heavy items. At the checkout, an assistant operates, the till while the other assistant places the goods in a bag; First ending ensures that the heaviest items go at the bottom, fills the bag and hands it to the customer. Second ending before he begins packing, places one bag inside the other saying ‘We don’t want the bag to break in the car park’. He then packs the bags heaviest items first.
Scenario C: an engineer has just finished a routine service on the domestic central heating boiler of an elderly widow and informs her that; First ending , all is done, if you sign here I’ll be away, I’ve got a really busy day today!. Second ending OK, that’s all done, no problems there, it’s all in good condition. I also checked the pipe work out to the oil tank; that’s fine too. Oh, and by the way, the cupboard door was a bit loose so I tightened up the hinge. No problem, it only took a second.
Consider the first endings of each scenario, in what way did these businesses gain or lose?

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
Introduction - Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness
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The bar industry worldwide has been a major part of this amazing economic evolution, its customers and staff members originate from every continent in the world.
This diverse intercultural environment in the bar has brought about a significant impact on bar owners to provide intercultural awareness training for their staff members.
This training should address the following areas; the intercultural environment, cultural difference, dangers of stereotyping, sensitivity to racist attitudes, prejudice and discrimination, cross cultural communication and working in multi-cultural teams in the bar.
Rationale for Promoting Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Awareness
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Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness is the acceptance and promotion of a variety of human cultures and their different value systems in a given society (the society in this circumstance refers to the bar).
Promotion of cultural diversity, intercultural awareness and social acceptance of differences is also known as multiculturalism .
Cultural diversity and intercultural awareness in the bar industry recognises the importance of native languages, dress, traditions, and beliefs that govern self-identity . There is a compelling business case in the bar industry for the effective management of cultural diversity (CD) and intercultural awareness (IA) in every bar establishment;
CD and IA can help bar customers, pub groups and hospitality organizations to;
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 identify and capitalize on opportunities to improve their products and services attract, retain, motivate and utilise human resources effectively improve the quality of decision-making at all organisational levels reap the benefits from being perceived as a socially conscious and progressive business the pursuit of diversity in the bar industry is everyone’s concern.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
Understanding culture – Models of culture
Our ancestors created cultures to deal with the problems which concerned them.
Geert Hofstede, cultural onion model: The model consists of three layers around a core.
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The core stands for the values of a certain culture , it mostly remains the same, it still can subconsciously play a role in a modern society.
The first layer around the core is described as rituals . A ritual can be the way of personal hygiene (most Asians shower in the evening, Europeans in the morning). Those rituals are changing slowly.
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The second layer around the core is the heroes . A hero can be a fictive person, but has influence on the culture, also national heroes, photo-models or scientists
– all people, who play a role-model in that society.
The third layer is about the symbols . Nowadays most symbols appear as brands like BMW, Apple or Louis Vuitton.
Those symbols usually move according to the momentary fashion.
All three layers can be trained and learned through practices except for the core: the inner cultural values (Good vs. Bad, dirty vs. clean, ugly vs. beautiful, unnatural vs. natural, abnormal vs. normal, paradoxical vs. logical, irrational vs rational).
E. T Hall, iceberg model for understanding surface and deep culture : the iceberg model of culture lends itself to the idea of looking below the surface , or i nward . Your colleagues in the bar could see, it is a useful metaphor for locating one’s own culture because most of it is hidden from us and those elements that are below the surface are those that are most difficult for us to access and verbalize . We often find it easier to spot the foreign behaviours , but even when noticing them, we fail to get below the surface where the important cultural information lies.
Tip: You can obtain some excellent illustrations for training purposes of Geert Hofstedes (cultural onion model) and E.T Halls (iceberg model) for understanding culture from a simple google images search, but please be mindful of copyright.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Intercultural communication generally refers to face-to-face interactions among people of diverse cultures.
Barriers to intercultural communication
Learning all the norms of every culture and subgroup would be an impossible task. A more practical way is to understand six general barriers as suggested by Barna (1994) who developed a list of six such barriers to effective intercultural communication, which include;
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Anxiety: being anxious because of not knowing what you are expected to do, for example in a new job conscious of being new
– and out of place, therefore your focus of attention centres on this feeling which usually can cause common mistakes. Anxiety felt during normal everyday life is much higher than that of people living in their country of birth (Brislin & Yoshida, 1994).
Assuming similarity instead of difference: false assumptions bring unawareness of important differences between cultures, it’s better to assume differences and anticipate ways in which different languages and norms will affect communication (Jandt, 1995).
Ethnocentrism: this barrier to communication leads to a rejection of the richness and knowledge of other cultures.
Stereotypes: stereotyping impedes communication when it leads us to assume the stereotype is true of the group and of the individual and to explain an individual’s behaviour on the basis of the stereotype.
Prejudice: refers to suspicion or hatred of a group, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Racism is prejudice against individuals of a particular race. Hate crimes grow out of fear of difference and result in hostility toward those who are perceived as different on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
Although these barriers to intercultural communication may not provide prescription behaviour or concrete answers to ones dilemmas, they provide clues as to where the problems may lie, similar to the list of symptoms doctors use to diagnose an illness.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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(chapter 6 – p. 99).
(chapter 6 – p. 100).
(chapter 6 – pp. 100-101).
(chapter 6 – p. 100).
(chapter 6 – pp. 100-
101).
Further information:
Key issues and training (chapter 6 – pp. 99-101).

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
The bars customers represent a great variety of cultures each with their own ways of cooking and enjoying food, it is therefore essential that you understand and cater for these cultural influences in their food offerings.
The influence of Religions
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Buddhist: strict Buddhists are vegetarians and their dishes vary, Vesak in May is the festival to celebrate the life of the Buddha
Christians: eating habits are not affected- though some will be vegetarians, usually for moral reasons, many
Christians refrain from eating certain foods during Lent usually something they like very much.
Hindu: most Hindus do not eat meat (strict Hindus are vegetarians) and none eat beef since the cow is sacred to them. Holi is the Festival which celebrates the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Samosas (triangles of pastry containing vegetables) , banana fudge and vegetable dishes of all kinds, as well as favourite foods, are eaten to celebrate.
Judaism: the religion of the Jews has strict dietary laws. Shellfish, pork and birds of prey are forbidden. Acceptable foods are fish with scales and fins, animal that have ‘cloven hoof’ and birds killed according to the law. Strict Jews eat only meat that has been specially slaughtered known as kosher meat. Milk and meat must neither be used together in cooking nor served at the same meal, and three hours should elapse between eating food containing milk and food containing meat.
Muslims: Muslims celebrate the birth of Mohammed at the end of February or early in March. Alcohol and pork are traditionally forbidden in their diet. Only meat that has been prepared according to Muslim custom by a halal butcher is permitted. During Ramadan, which lasts for one month and is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, Muslims do not eat or drink anything from dawn to sunset.
Sikh: Sikhs do not have strict rules regarding food but many are vegetarians. Baisakhi day in April celebrates the
New Year and is the day Sikhs are baptised into their faith

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Customer care training is not an optional extra but an essential part of all bar establishment’s business strategy.
The success of any bar depends on the minute-by-minute performance of its staff members.
To successfully managing customer care staff members must know what to do and have the ability to do it in thoughtful, appropriate and efficient ways to please the customer because each encounter is different.
The care begins with creating and improving on the first impressions, which includes the bartenders grooming, appearance and social skills.
Bars must constantly examine their layout in relation to their products and services to establish the key features of what your customer really wants in relation to their budget, time allowance, food and beverage requirements.
Globalisation and international travel has brought international customers and multinational business operators to all parts of the world to our bars.
The impact of these changes added to economic changes has brought significant amounts of all nationalities working outside their home country.
Unfortunately a lack of understanding of different cultures and nationalities has lead in the past to ineffective management techniques in directing and motivating these staff members.
Particularly in older, traditional businesses with a homogeneous workforce.
The challenge today is clear, that bars must implement action pans to stimulate cultural awareness, value workplace diversity and encourage a welcoming atmosphere for their new diversified staff members and customers.

Lesson 6: Customer Care in Bar Operations
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Barna, L, M. (1994) ‘Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication.’ In L.A Samovar & R. E. Porter (Eds), Intercultural communication: A reader , 7th edn, Wadsworth: Belmont, CA.
Brislin, R. W and Yoshida, T. (1994a) Improving intercultural interactions: Modules for cross-cultural training programs , Thousand Oaks,
Sage: CA. Drucker, P, F. (1954) The Practice of Management, Harper & Brothers: New York.
Escoffier, G, A. (1921) Le Guide culinaire , 4th edn, Flammarion: France.
Hall, E.T. (1952) The Silent Language , Fawcett: Greenwich, CT..
Hall, E.T. and Hall, M.R. (1990) Understanding Cultural Differences, Intercultural Press, Yarmouth.
Hofstede, G. (1984) Culture’s Consequences , Sage: London.
Jandt, E, F. (1995) Intercultural Communication – An Introduction , Sage Publications: UK.
NCCRI .(2004) Managing Diversity in the Workplace available www.nccri.ie [accessed 10/05/12].
Murphy, J. (2007) ‘Promoting a Cultural Diverse Workforce’, Licensing World , January issue, Jemma Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2010) ‘Improving Customer service through mystery shopping’, Licensing World , Jemma Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2009) ‘Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Licensed Trade Industry’, Licensing World, March Issue, Jemma
Publications Ltd: Dublin.
Murphy, J. (2013) Principles and Practices of Bar and Beverage Management, Goodfellow Publishing Ltd, Oxford: England.
Murphy, J. (2013) Principles and Practices of Bar and Beverage Management – The Drinks Handbook, Goodfellow Publishing Ltd, Oxford:
England.
Quinn, F. (2006). Crowning the Customer: How to Become CustomerDriven, Dublin: O’Brien Press Ltd.
Stone, M. and Young, L. (1993) Competitive Customer Care , Croner: London.
Web resources
 http://ezinearticles.com/?Customer-Care-Strategy&id=317986 Customer Care articles and helpful advice
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 http://www.intercultural.org/tools.php
Intercultural training and assessment tools. http://www.sietareu.org
/ Society for intercultural training, education and research.
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 http://www.yale.edu/hraf/index.html
Human relations areas files Yale University. http://laofutze.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/303/ Intercultural models