How to be a professional waiter

1. Welcome to the waiter course: If you're watching this, you have taken the first step towards becoming a professional waiter. Congratulations in this video. I like toe. Welcome you and thank you for taking the course. I'm Vincent. I've been in hospitality all my life. I started waiting on people when I was 12. But I'm not going to bore you with my personal life. If you If you want to find out about me, I have a separate video for you to watch or to skip. So welcome to the course. It's been taken a whole lot of time to make this course on how to become a professional waiter. Yes, not just someone clearing plates from a table and bring him to a dishwashing area. No, this is to be on top of your game and make a wonderful career out of this. You will not believe where this profession can take you. Did you know, for example, that over 75% off Salman millionaires worked as a waiter at one stage of their early life? Most of them stated afterwards that the contact with the guests always help them later on in creating products and services and having that feel of hospitality? No. Let me quickly explain you how this scores is structured, how it's put together. First, we're going to talk about you, your personal presentation. It's a vital part of being a professional waiter. Everything from grooming toe wardrobe. Everything will be discussed. Next up is the guests is the center of your focus. We will have a look at what amazing service looks like, and it's not always what you think. It's always expensive. Also, we look at the different types of guests because they're all the same. Fortunately, we will see how you handle certain types of guests. For example, after this section, we will go into practical things, dressing the perfect table, taking an order on waiting at table. Obviously, now, um, I'm going to be explaining this in detail, and therefore you have, for example, the materials. The materials you work with are up next, and it's in a sort of a workshop kind of way. I filmed the class, which I talked to other students, and you can follow life now. Then we will learn to launch into food and beverages certain foods. You really have to know because allergies and diets, for example, are taken very seriously these days. And, of course, my favorite beverages. Do you know how they make champagne? Do you really? You know what wine really is, And you know how to serve it without spilling. Well, don't worry. We're all going to cover this. I've got some great techniques for you to learn now, of course, there are many more sections to the course, and I just made a brief summary for you to have a look. These are the topics off this training, but one more important one is getting the job. I will show you how to make your CV, how to present it to who? And I'll guarantee you to get a job at less than one week off the district. That is my guarantee. If you follow my advice now, if you want to hop around all the topics, if you want to skip some or watch them again, that's absolutely fine. But the most important is that you get really value from this training and gain new knowledge. So I hope you are excited to get started. I know I am. I can't wait to share my experience with you. Experience. I've built up over the years, working in Michelin star restaurants, hotels, casinos, you name it. In the next video, I'm going to answer three questions. Most people ask me about being a professional waiter, so I will see you in the next lesson. 2. 3 quick practical tips: 3. 3 quick questions for waiters: can you make a decent living as a waiter? Well, that's an excellent question to start with. Before I answer that, I would like to point out that whatever job you are doing, if you go to the top of that profession, you will always make great living. Don't forget. Many big singers started out as a backing vocal. Harrison Ford was a carpenter on became a Hollywood legend. So anywhere you go go to the top. So, yes, you can make a great living. Think about it. First you start out maybe just clearing tables, working full, lower salary at first. Then you become a full blown waiter. That is what the scores will help you with. One year later, a manager spots you doing the right things and you become a maitre d boom. Before you know it, you meet someone who did the same Well, let's say in the kitchen and became a great chef. You become partners, you start a restaurants. 10 years later, you own 20 restaurants. So, yes, you can make a decent living. Is it easy to find a job? Well, you have no i d. How many restaurants, hotels, bars, cruise lines resorts are looking for good people. If you follow the guidelines in this training, that's not that difficult. Take care of your personal presentation, your language on, of course, knowledge. You will find a job in less than a week. That is my guarantee. I will even show you how to make a great CV. So yes, you can easily find a job. A formal training is always a good idea, but I learned more after school than in school. As with anything, if your passion about it, you can start well. Steve Jobs didn't even know how to program and started the biggest computer business in history now. Same thing for me. When I left school, I saw where my interests were. For example, wines. I was obsessed with wines and to this day has been my specialty. 4. Personal presentation and hygiene: when you visit restaurants, what is the first thing you see when you walk in? Exactly. The waiter welcoming you? Well, it should be. The old cliche still goes. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is very important to remember. Now you're probably thinking, Do I need a suit? Do I need to wear a tie? Not necessarily. Today there are a lot off concepts in the restaurant world, and they might have their own style. Let's say resorts, for example. You can have a waiter in a white linen shirt and white trousers, but you still need to look sharp. For example. Nicely irony. Scar men's clothes on the pride you have when wearing the uniform. What else is an essential part of uniform? Can you guess exactly your smile. You'll really have to learn to smile. It's exercise. The best people to run form our musical dancers. They have this down to an art. And speaking of uniforms, don't assume this is the responsibility off your employer. Now who pays for uniform or the dry cleaning is another matter, but it is up to you, the professional waiter, to make sure that you are always looking spotless. No excuses are acceptable to not look great at the start Off every shift you do now. Another part off your uniform is grooming. Hair should be need. Ladies, if you have long hair below the jaw line, please Put it out, Gentlemen, If you choose to have a beer, it trim it from time to time. Now let's have a look at this in more detail. The importance of personal hygiene. Now, why do you need to do this? Well, if you can't take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. So let me give you a few pointers. First of all, grooming is essential. So every time before you go to a shift, comb your hair. Brush your teet, etcetera. Of course, if you have, for example, an injury from a ship before, make sure that you cover it with a plaster or some medication. If you have keep. If you have long hair, just keep it tight back, especially for the ladies. Also, men with long hair, anything which has been loaded jawline should be put up nicely combed. Um, you should actually wash your hands when you enter and leave the kitchen? Obviously not every time, of course. But when you have been, for example, preparing the dining room than just before service, you might want to wash your hands. Wash your hands in the hands sink No, in the washing up sink. So northern a sink where everybody has been washing up pots and pans and have you normally . And these days, in most countries, it's, ah, mandatory that you have a separate thing toe. Wash your hands in for the ladies. Try to avoid nail varnish because it can chip. If you do wear nail varnish, I would really recommend transparent one. And be careful with strong smelling perfume because obviously you're gonna work very close to people. So you're gonna come close, for example, when you're serving soup, or you have to take away some some item from a table, and you're in a strange position where you very close to. For example, your guests. Be very careful with perfume that is too strong. What else? Liquid soap should be available. So talk to your employer. Talk to the restaurant owner of this shouldn't be the case. Try to use disposable towels because you know there's cotton towels. They could be used for anything. And you don't know where they've been. Um, used blue color plasters. Um, this is more the case. If you work, for example, behind the bar, maybe, but in the kitchen color plasters it's just to avoid that you won't wouldn't see them when they fall in the food. But obviously it doesn't look good when you're serving, so you have to make this a logical choice yourself. Prepare food wearing hygiene gloves even when waiting. You're cutting lemons. You're cutting limes oranges to prepare the bar. Whatever. If you're preparing food, make sure that you wear plastic gloves. Keep your fingers out of guests glasses, so don't put your fingers in. No, at any time. Even when you're clearing, take them as it should. Take them by the foot off the glass or just by the side of the glass. If a food or beverage item looks questionable in any way, do not serve it. I will repeat this a swell, but anything you think this is not all right, it doesn't smell good. Whatever the case, do not service. Do not serve it because, you know professional waiters will always have a look at that, so keep your fingers away from your mouth and other bubbly openings. People will spot it from afar when you're, for example, picking your nose so you shouldn't do it. Ensure that all hot food is served and kept hot on all cold food is served in cat cold. Now this might sound a bit stupid. Andi Simple. But it's not because variances in temperature can be very dangerous, for course contamination and people can get sick. So be careful. If you take ice from a nice machine, always use a scoop. Don't do it with your hands because your hands can be dirty. There can be assets if that asset is transferred to the ice and the ice gets into a whiskey can go wrong. Never allow staff to take food out of the restaurants to their home. So if you'd immediately, for example, all food should stay there. So you are fully in control of what happens to the food. Uniform should be for work on me. If you have a uniform, don't wear it on your days off and be careful with jewelry because jury is not only um, for example, if you're wearing a Rolex and you're serving people, they might get the wrong I d On top of that. It's also a matter of safety. Wedding rings, for example, are notoriously known for getting stuck in whatever or, you know, eso be very careful with jury as well. So there you haven't look the part and people will take you more seriously on. On top of that, it will build your self confidence. 5. Art of conversation: the art of conversation. Talking to your customer talking to your clients is, of course, the heart of what we do. Now, let me tell you this. What is the most important in the first treatments? You get to know a new guest. Can you guess it? It's eye contact. I contact. You should do that in a split second's Make eye contact in any situation, whether it be somebody come to your office for the first time or your any waiter position or you're behind a desk doesn't matter. I'll tell you a true story. While ago I went to the Netherlands, I had to do a speech on I come into a hotel because that was where the speech waas and there was a lady behind the reception desk and I Come on, I have my truly with me. And she was standing like this on the reception because the computer was installed diagonal on the reception desk. There was nobody else behind the desk or in front of the desk, so only she and myself. So I woke up to her and she keeps staring at her computer. She doesn't look up on all of a sudden she starts talking to her screen. What I couldn't see because of the fact that she was standing like this, is that she had a ear piece and she was talking to somebody to make a room reservation. If she only would have looked up to me for a split second, I wouldn't know. Okay? She recognized me. She knows I'm here. I'll just wait. So those 1st 3 minutes are so hugely important now in any conversation, then you start. You start talking to people. Now, let me give you a few hints on having a good conversation. First of all, you have two ears and one mouth. What does that mean? That you have to listen more than you talk. You probably heard of the Dalai Lama and the dial. I lama always said When you talk, you repeat something you have learned. When you listen, you learn something new. And he was right. So you only have one mouth and you have two years. So listen more than you talk and you will learn new things in the conversation because there are other people talking about this. When you are in a meeting, for example, try to talk lost. Why? Because then you have the opinions off all the other people at the table, and then you can have your opinion based on what they think, what they feel Next. Advice I would give you in conversation. Ask open questions. Don't ask questions where people can answer with a yes or no. You could say, for example, do you like bananas? People answer yes or no. But if you ask, What do you think about those bananas? They cannot answer What, yes or no. That is what we call a open question, and that is how you will get information. The more data more information you get, the more information you get, the more you can elaborate on the conversation. Another thing I would say it's pause in between questions. Don't ask too many questions in two quick succession and make sure that the questions are related. Don't say, for example, you like football on. The next question would be Do you like bananas? They don't have anything to do with one another, so make sure that your questions are connecting and ask open questions. I talked to you about language in previous lecture. Now try to repeat the words off the customer in your conversations, but don't do it too obvious. You could use a sentence, for example. As you know, when they have given you some information, you could use that information and use it in combination with. As you know, I'll give you a real life example. I went and bought a car, and I just had my third child and I wanted a bigger car and I went up to the sales guy and I said, Listen, when I go on a holiday with my three Children, I got suitcases, I got trolleys. Where have you? I need a car with a big, big trunk and he said to me, So if I understand you correctly, you need more space for your family. When you have some leisure time, I said yes. Without realizing it, he repeated my words, and that is what you should do to get that acknowledgement from your customer. Now, when you go into a conversation, there are a few pitfalls. First of all, be very careful with drifting eyes. What do I mean by drifting ice? Drifting eyes is when you're not keeping eye contact with the person you are talking to, for example, the networking events. Let's say two gentlemen are talking and in the background there is a very nice lady passing by. Keep your eyes on the person you're talking to. Don't look at the lady because it's very, very in polite. Another thing you shouldn't do while talking is avoid certain topics, anything which has to do its intimacy. Politics, Money Be very careful also. Religion. Be very careful on how you talk about it. These are a few pitfalls you should avoid. Other pitfalls are titles. If you're using somebody's title like doctor or Baron or whatever, try to use them. What? Sorry, Not try. Used them correctly because you really don't want to call a barren account and the other way around also never interrupt people while they are talking. I know it could be difficult, but don't don't interrupt them last but not least, don't dominate the conversation. For example, name dropping. A lot of people will use name dropping through BRAC to dominate the conversation, but name dropping can be very, very dangerous because you've heard this fairy tale where people said you're only seven people in between. The president of the United States or the president of France, and that might be true. So be very careful when you are name dropping, some people will know the person you're talking about. When you're going into a conversation, you can present yourself off course with people that don't know you already. First of all, when you present yourself or somebody presents them to you, make sure you give your full attention. Why? Because of their name. If they have a difficult name, you have to listen really carefully. But when you introduce yourself, try to exchange names. So what? I mean, is there name for your name? Because that is a valuable piece of information. So you could say hello. My name is Vincent from Mylan, and you are, and they will tell you their name. Then you have to listen very carefully because certain cultures have very difficult names to pronounce. So these are my tips for a good conversation. Most important tip. Listen more than you talk 6. Know your product: I once went to a restaurant on waiter coming in on welcoming us. He was absolutely charming. He was friendly, He was warm. He guided us to our table and, you know, he talked about how they had been. Etcetera is just warm, warm welcome. That was Sit down and we get enough very TV and sum's canopies And what have you and all of a sudden he gives us the menu. So we look at it and I asked him a question. So there was meat on the menu. It was like like beef. And I asked him, Is this locally sourced meat? Um, I don't know. Was his answer all informed with the chef Great reaction. So I would have gotten that information a few minutes later and that was actually the case . So we explained me that wasn't locally, but anyway, it tastes great, etcetera. So I ordered the meat on and there was a source with that, and it was like I never creamy sauce on When I started eating. I sense that was something special, something very nice in the source that has a great taste. But there was like, a very special element. I couldn't really place on my palette, and I called him over and said What's in the sauce? And he said, Cream, I thought to myself that that's a bit off a short answer I said, Yeah, but it's like a distinct taste in there and I couldn't really place it because I have eaten in 100 times and sometimes you know you can place it now. He couldn't tell me what it waas, but more wife could, and she said, It's rosemary. On the moment, she said, Rosemary, I said, Yeah, it's after That's what it iss The fact of the matter is, if you are a professional waiter, you should know everything you are serving every little ingredients, everything you can see on a plate, anything you can taste on the plate, you have to know it all. And where can you get that information? Yes, the chef. Now, before you put down anything, you have to dissect it, whether it be a small can obey, whether it be the bread, what's in the bread? The butter is the bottle, for example, sold it. Is it not sold? It doesn't come from what's I don't know who made it. What was the color of the T shirt when they made it? I'm just exaggerating, but you should know all of this information that shows that you're a professional waiter and that you care. And not only that. It's also that if you have, for example, people with allergies and they haven't told you up front, it's good for you to know what's in there and what's not. So in short, no, what you're serving and not only with food, also with wines, will talk about wines much later. May have to know your wines. Hey, hold on. I don't know anything about wines. It takes years for me to learn. Yes, but you can do the effort off research before going to a table. You can at least have a look at the bottle. You can look it up online, can use an app. Whatever you want. You have to know. At least you have to know at least what the grape waas when the year Waas who made it where it was made. It goes with this and this dish, whatever you have that responsibility as a professional waiter toe perfectly know what you serve. Trust me, it will stand you out from the crowd 7. Open and serve wine: 8. Theory dining room setup edit: dining room set up. Great. Now what's the first thing before we start dressing? The table was the first time you were going to. Do you know before that before that? Yes, but even before that, it's before that. What is the before? That it's for that cleaning the room. Cleaning the room is the first thing. So the less things you have at that moment, the better. It's what we call low dusting. Yes, now what is low dusting? How low dusting means that you check a room on eye level and below lo dusting. Hi. Dusting is obviously the bigger work, and that would be incorporated in your housekeeping. So you should rely on your housekeepers that everything else is done. Light bulbs are changed and, for example, on top of that beam, etcetera, etcetera. Good. Now, low dusting has a certain way of doing that. And how do you do it? How do you check a room that is also a specific technique? I'm going to show you what's the next thing we do? Excuse me. No, we're still in the room. It's called dining room set up. So dining. So table dressing. It's part of dining room set up. So what we would do, for example, it's check the temperature. Is it to Cole? Is it too hot in here? That's the first thing. Second thing lighting. Is it adjusted to the atmosphere? Too much, too few. Aiken, make it stronger. Lighter, whatever. So, in essence, music is another one. In essence, you're using your senses. So smell. Does that smell good in here? I can use my house perfume. Yes. I feel any crumbs I feel. See Taste. That will be the food or the drinks. And here here, it or the music. Too soft. Too loud. Use your senses to prepare that room. That is the start of dining room set up. Right. You rather your life? Yes. Yes, of course. Of course. Yes, yes. The atmosphere would be set shortly before dinner. Absolutely. Yes. You would have work lights and you would have Absolutely Yes. Now next. What's the next thing we're going to do now? We can move towards the table. Remove the chairs. Let's do that right. You you remove them against the wall. I'm not against the wall, but yes. Yeah, someone. Right now. What's the next thing, Mr Sharma? stand over there, Mrs four year. Go to the back off that room and stand in front of the phone towards us. I look at the table. What do you see? I'm asking mrs for yet it's not straight. But what you should do now is look at your table structure. So that means the table has to be in the middle of the room so you can hear easily. Do that with the channel years and with the beam. Yes, so you should put it in the middle of the room. That being said, you should also use your logical sense. Lets say this room has a fireplace here. You wouldn't put it in the middle because this person would be too close to the fireplace. You kind of cheat the table and push it a bit that way. So you have to use your logical sense as well. Don't go to a shallow and Switzerland put it close to the for your place and say, Mr Berlin said that the table had to be in the middle. Yes, usually logical sense. So let's put that table in the middle. Let's go, guys. This Motome waas especially made for this table. And as I told you, it's made a flannel flannel. Oh, can you show me like these? You for a good Mrs Young? Kill the crooked police. Thank you. No. This Shipman, as you can see, Mrs Sharp mares experienced in restaurant hospitality. That's why she immediately did this. This is how you have been trained s rights. Now, a professional butler would use this to see if it's the same on both ends on on both sides excites. So ask your partner in crime to assist to. I need world peace. 40 to who? Five meters. But, you know, you just pulled it in the middle of so make sure that the sides are you. Yes, right. We'll accept it for now. I thought it's gonna take too long. Right now I have here a tablecloth. Yes. Again. This tablecloth has been especially made for the stable for our school. As you will see, there is a golden line in here which has the same stitching as the napkins. The napkins have our logo in the middle. Now what? I never want to see iss taking this tablecloth. And then it's not making up a bed. So the first thing you do is you put on your gloves. That's the first thing. Because if your hands are dirty, you're going to make sure that this is dirty. So we don't do that. If you have two people in the house, even if it is the gardener, I don't care who it iss. You do this with two people if you have. If you are alone, what you do is you open it as much as you can and as gently as you can. So, in this case, for example, you could put it here and then open it. Now, fortunately, there's more than two people here. So, Mrs Brady, Mr Toyoda, put on the table cloth. Mr. Harriman's can you plug in the lower store, please? Mrs. Food here. Can you take on extension court on one, Off the hold on. It's this one. This was it. Yeah. What are you going to do? Open it completely. Yes. Hello. Hold on. No. What is the correct site? So this is down. You take you two fingers like this. Two fingers and you open it. Turn Mrs Prettier every and put it on the table. Put it gently down. Yes. Now the trick is to do the same as we did with the Morton. Ready? No, no, it is it. Is it? Positions? Mr. Harriman's never Iran with your hands. Never do this. It's way too dangerous, rights. Now we're ready to Iran. Yes. How are we going to Iran? Well, first of all, we're gonna know Onley Iran the top. We're also gonna hire in the sights, So I have two sorts off pirating solutions. Excuse me. The 1st 1 is a portable Laura star. As you can see, it's still heating up. So wait for a minutes. There is a, uh, protection, if you will, where you can put it on? Yes. Now, once this tablecloth is on, actually, I need a table toe song. Don't put it on the chair. But once this tablecloth is on, you never ever put anything on it. The only thing you're gonna put on it is what needs to be on it. So once this is Iran's and you put down a plate, you put it immediately on the right spot. You don't say. Oh, I've got my, uh, books off Congaree. I'm gonna put it here. No, we're gonna I run it on? The only thing we're going to put on it. It's everything we need on the right spot immediately. It could defer a few millimeters of centimeters, but we'll come to that rights now. How do we I run First of all, take the corner, please. Fold it over traits like this. Lovely. When you're hiring not only tablecloths, but also clothing. There's two things to respect. Put your fabric flat completely flat. So you don't wanna have anything like this. So it has to be completely flats and you respect the shape you respect the shape off the fabric and off the irony em writes. Now, how are we going to Iran? Imagine this is 1/17 century table. We never gonna put a 200 degrees irony on 1/17 century table. Even more than that, this could be 100 year old lace, which is in the family for five generations. And you put a Nyron on it. It's ruins, but you're fired. So we always gonna put a protection on it. Mr. Hartman's Can you get me a napkin, please? Without a logo, you'll find it in the linen cupboards. Thank you. so much. Now what you must know about this one about the Laura star? It's quite powerful. It's good for your cold. Yes. So be very careful. It is very interesting for the sites. Could be It's up to you to figure that out. I won't tell you everything. Next we have this one which is a normal Iran. What you shouldn't do. It's put water in it. Because when you put water in it and you have steam like that one, what will happiness put it on here, sir? Thank you. No fee. What will happen is when you have steam and you put it and you steam, it will obviously turn back into water. The Morton will absorb it with another enough and it will stain onto the table. What we can use is this. Yes. So this bottle would be filled with distilled water and we would gently sprayed onto the tablecloth but never spray like this because that's too concentrated. We always pray like this. So it's kind of Ah, missed, if you know what I mean. Once you sprayed it, you put it on and you can choose to use that one or that one up to you. I'll let you have fun. I'll just have you have now, once this is done. Oh, sorry. I forgot something to mention. Now, when you're Byron and you fold over the sites don't go over the fold. Because when you go over the folds, obviously this will make a crease. Yes. Just so you know, nobody now put it back. And we do the same with these sites and those sites. So we have a nice the iron side. Once we have, um, done, the sites were going to do the top. The top usually goes pretty fast. Yes. What? You should be aware off iss if you Byron start by the site. Because when you fold it over, you will always have a small Cari's here. When you when you irony you always Iran from the middle to decide. Because what happens is that we have just right. I'm gonna do it without so you can see. Look what happens. I got a bubble. You see this bubble on its dropping off my table? Yes. Now, during this training, you have to use this to protect it. It will take forever. Trust me, if you can I run this table in an hour, you'll be quick. So in certain times, if you are more confidence, you can do this without but it's completely your judgment. Exactly. Here. Next up, if this is dressed, we're going to dress the table with the materials. Before we put on the materials were gonna polish everything. Let me explain how we gonna set this table. Now I'm gonna show you with a rectangular table, because in fact, this is a rectangular table. The only difference is you have to have around things at the end. Yes, what we're going to do. First s put what on the table. What are we gonna put on the table? What's the first thing we put on the table Place, Max. There's a table book. Yes. The first thing we would do is we would start from the middle and start with the decoration . But we're gonna not do that today because baby steps? Yes, but you would work from the middle because if you first put everything up, you have to reach over it. There's a risk rights, but we're going to do that today. Um, so we're going to start with measuring the table. Now, if this is, for example, a table, it's an example. So you understand. It's 140 centimeters is the complete length of the table. Here. You can measure it from the big ending off the rounding to the other ending of that rounding. That would be yes. We're going to put down the plates. Are we going to make our calculation from the middle off the plate with How do we get there ? Well, I'll show you. Let's say we want in between the plates. 60 centimeters. Mr. Toyoda, Go get me four plates, please. I'm just gonna put them casual on the table just for the sake of exercise. Yes. Put no what we have to calculate or the intervals. So the intervals are This is an interval. So how many intervals we have? Mr Harmon's three. Not for Don't count the plates. Count the intervals rights. So I would like, for example, 60 centimeter as an interval. Good. No. What I need to know is, where do I start? With my first plate. Where do I put down my first plate? So I need to know what the distance is from the side. of the table to the first middle of the plate. And I'll show you. I've got a table of 140 centimeters and I'll go back one. How many intervals do I have, Mr Toyoda? How many intervals? One. Only one. If I would have to intervals, this would be 1 20 You understands. So the length of the table you subtract the total intervals you divide that results by two . That gives me 40. So to explain, I got 3 40 from the site. That is the first middle off my first plate. And then I got my interval of 60. That's my second middle of my plates. And of course, 40 is left. Yes, very logical. Good. Now, of course, that will total the complete length off the table, and then I can do the same at the other side. Lovely. Now, where is it? Where's the measure of tape? You okay? Sure. You need something now? What you need to do is is calculates what this rectangular side is. So if you lift the cloth, you see this so you could measure from here to the other one? Yes, because this is where they put it in doing? Yeah, of course. But wait, wait. I want to explain something. So Mr Harriman's What is the length? Pull it. Pull its What is the length, sir? Meter. Excuse me. Two meter, 32 meter 30. When you work in the household, you will get to know this. You will not have to do this every single time. Yes. Now we have 2 30 I want 60 centimeters in between my plates. No. Tell me what is my first distance to my first middle of my plate? Who can tell me? Excuse me? You say 25. Who says something else? No one, is it? 25? Mr. Animals, how did you come to 25? I want IHS 1 80 These That leaves 50. Very good. So you got it now? It's very simple. Through best book. My plate 25 from the side. Now What? Is Mr Lopez doing wrong? He hasn't even started yet. But he does something wrong. No, no gloves. When you have published this, you don't wanna So you have a look for the 25 from the side is you start there. Yes. I'll put my finger here like the fall, Trump. Lovely. So 25 is the first medal off my plates? Yes. Kitsch. Now I need the 2nd 1 to be at 60. How? Your measuring tape is too small. Yeah, take it away so we could have put this one in the middle. And can somebody put this one out 60? Yeah. I'll do the rest. 60 from the middle of the plate to the next middle of the plate. Should be 60 again. A sister, Mr Lopez. Next, Let me jump, huh? The extraction you can to enough and put on the often Maybe. Yes. Now, Mr Lumbar, this is 25 from the side. 60 in between. How much is left? Exactly? Should be s now, the next thing we need to do. Obviously we do that side and down on the heads or whatever. Yes, we knew. Toe. Have the plates at the same distance. This is where this comes in. It's a mark. Engage s a mark. Engage. You can set it as you like, so you can determine the site. The distance. So when I put it against the table and I do this and I do it with all of them go, they will be perfectly aligned. We have a 2nd 1 for the cutlery, So this could be a different distance. Yes. Good. No. Normally, it's about one inch from the side. But it's too your liking, first of all seconds. Principles like in the first of all. Second, your liking. Third the width of the table. If this is, for example, a bigger table, you could put a bit more forward. What happens? This? We have this on video as well. You will be dressing. This table will take you three hours and the first thing people do when they sit down its push everything forward. That's the first thing they will do. Trust me. Everybody does it. It's a It's a habit. It's a human habits. Yes. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Have a look. Looks good. Yes. I don't remember by now the table called. Hasn't been. I knew in Ireland yet. Right now we have this. We have our plates on the table. No. Next our players on the table. The first thing we're going to do is put down our cutlery. On The first item is the knife. The knife will be the guide for the rest of the off the table dressing. You come in with your tray and you have your knives. You always put down your knife with your right hands on the fork with your left hands. Because if I put down the knife with my left hands, you see what happens, right? So the fork where he left hands of knife with your right hands and of course, the spoon also. But it depends. Could be That could be that the fork is at the right as well on certain exceptions. So obviously you do that with your right hands and we continue. We put the rest of the cutlery and we always align it at the bottom. Never put cutlery up. That's completely wrong. It's always a line at the bottom. Next we have the forks, and then we're gonna put down our glass. The first glass is at the tip off the main course knife in this case, So the main course nice. Um, kind of cuts through the middle of the glass, so the first glass is kind of cuts by that main course knife. It could be a wine glass, but it could be like a water glass, which is low as well. It depends on the set up, but we'll talk about that later. Yes, and then we're gonna put up the glasses and a 45 angle degree again. It depends on the table, if you like, have a square table in the corner. It could be that you cannot do that and that maybe have to put it into a triangle. But we'll do that, Leaders. Well, baby steps. When that is done, we put our breath plates. The breath plate. The top of the bread plate has the same height as a top of the plates. So here s good. Then we have the What's this? Never say bread knife Because Brett may never be cuts. It's broken. Yes. Now you can put it next to it. You can put on it however you like, but we'll discuss that later as well. And we have the napkin for this exercise. Mr. Headlines, go get me one napkin, please. The logo. Yes. For this exercise, we're gonna do a very, very simple fault. And to be honest, this is It's actually always this hold. I didn't even know why I said that. Thank you. so very simple. 123 And then again before they like this. Unlike this. And we have the logo in the middle. Yes, with the side closed towards the entrance. Very simple to start with, probably. So once you've set up this, you must know that you need about 24 inches or 60 centimeters per cover. Where does that come from? It's actually shoulder to shoulder with the average person. So shoulder to shoulder is about 60 centimeters. You need to be comfortable. Yes, that's about yes. No. What? When you put all of this on you need a control system. Yes. When you have perfectly laid that table, you will always work on two axis. So this is an access, and this is one. So you can check your glasses and you can check your cutlery, for example. This knife should be perfectly in front of this fork. Here to everyone. Humphrey. Now what we going to do is the following You have Prepare to glasses. Yes. Two glasses. Forget now. What? I'd like ISS. I would like a fork, a knife, a spoon, a Brett plates, a butter knife, two glasses and a napkin. And I would like this table to be dressed. So I running, polishing, setting up Who will lead this exercise? Our head. Butler. Let's do it. 9. Personal presentation and hygiene: when you visit restaurants, what is the first thing you see when you walk in? Exactly. The waiter welcoming you? Well, it should be. The old cliche still goes. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is very important to remember. Now you're probably thinking, Do I need a suit? Do I need to wear a tie? Not necessarily. Today there are a lot off concepts in the restaurant world, and they might have their own style. Let's say resorts, for example. You can have a waiter in a white linen shirt and white trousers, but you still need to look sharp. For example. Nicely irony. Scar men's clothes on the pride you have when wearing the uniform. What else is an essential part of uniform? Can you guess exactly your smile. You'll really have to learn to smile. It's exercise. The best people to run form our musical dancers. They have this down to an art. And speaking of uniforms, don't assume this is the responsibility off your employer. Now who pays for uniform or the dry cleaning is another matter, but it is up to you, the professional waiter, to make sure that you are always looking spotless. No excuses are acceptable to not look great at the start Off every shift you do now. Another part off your uniform is grooming. Hair should be need. Ladies, if you have long hair below the jaw line, please Put it out, Gentlemen, If you choose to have a beer, it trim it from time to time. Now let's have a look at this in more detail. The importance of personal hygiene. Now, why do you need to do this? Well, if you can't take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. So let me give you a few pointers. First of all, grooming is essential. So every time before you go to a shift, comb your hair. Brush your teet, etcetera. Of course, if you have, for example, an injury from a ship before, make sure that you cover it with a plaster or some medication. If you have keep. If you have long hair, just keep it tight back, especially for the ladies. Also, men with long hair, anything which has been loaded jawline should be put up nicely combed. Um, you should actually wash your hands when you enter and leave the kitchen? Obviously not every time, of course. But when you have been, for example, preparing the dining room than just before service, you might want to wash your hands. Wash your hands in the hands sink No, in the washing up sink. So northern a sink where everybody has been washing up pots and pans and have you normally . And these days, in most countries, it's, ah, mandatory that you have a separate thing toe. Wash your hands in for the ladies. Try to avoid nail varnish because it can chip. If you do wear nail varnish, I would really recommend transparent one. And be careful with strong smelling perfume because obviously you're gonna work very close to people. So you're gonna come close, for example, when you're serving soup, or you have to take away some some item from a table, and you're in a strange position where you very close to. For example, your guests. Be very careful with perfume that is too strong. What else? Liquid soap should be available. So talk to your employer. Talk to the restaurant owner of this shouldn't be the case. Try to use disposable towels because you know there's cotton towels. They could be used for anything. And you don't know where they've been. Um, used blue color plasters. Um, this is more the case. If you work, for example, behind the bar, maybe, but in the kitchen color plasters it's just to avoid that you won't wouldn't see them when they fall in the food. But obviously it doesn't look good when you're serving, so you have to make this a logical choice yourself. Prepare food wearing hygiene gloves even when waiting. You're cutting lemons. You're cutting limes oranges to prepare the bar. Whatever. If you're preparing food, make sure that you wear plastic gloves. Keep your fingers out of guests glasses, so don't put your fingers in. No, at any time. Even when you're clearing, take them as it should. Take them by the foot off the glass or just by the side of the glass. If a food or beverage item looks questionable in any way, do not serve it. I will repeat this a swell, but anything you think this is not all right, it doesn't smell good. Whatever the case, do not service. Do not serve it because, you know professional waiters will always have a look at that, so keep your fingers away from your mouth and other bubbly openings. People will spot it from afar when you're, for example, picking your nose so you shouldn't do it. Ensure that all hot food is served and kept hot on all cold food is served in cat cold. Now this might sound a bit stupid. Andi Simple. But it's not because variances in temperature can be very dangerous, for course contamination and people can get sick. So be careful. If you take ice from a nice machine, always use a scoop. Don't do it with your hands because your hands can be dirty. There can be assets if that asset is transferred to the ice and the ice gets into a whiskey can go wrong. Never allow staff to take food out of the restaurants to their home. So if you'd immediately, for example, all food should stay there. So you are fully in control of what happens to the food. Uniform should be for work on me. If you have a uniform, don't wear it on your days off and be careful with jewelry because jury is not only um, for example, if you're wearing a Rolex and you're serving people, they might get the wrong I d On top of that. It's also a matter of safety. Wedding rings, for example, are notoriously known for getting stuck in whatever or, you know, eso be very careful with jury as well. So there you haven't look the part and people will take you more seriously on. On top of that, it will build your self confidence. 10. The art of recovery: now, Whatever you're gonna do, there's always gonna be some sort of complaints or there's something gonna happen in the restaurants. Now I want to explain to you what the art of recovery is. Clients If they have a complaint, what do you think they get? They get upset, they get angry, they get frustrated, and you off course are going to be the person who has to deal with it and more specifically , solved the problem. Now there are a few things you can do. First of all, if you excuse yourself, Onley, excuse yourself once. So that means you can say, sir, my apologies and that's it. Don't go throughout the conversation apologizing. So you just apologise once and that's it. Second of all, of course, you have to show a bit of empathy. You can say, sir, I fully understand. You could say I fully understand This situation is not ideal for you. I fully understand this is not a comfortable situation. However you want to put it, show that your empathic now what you have to know about solving complaints and situations is you cannot do it. What do you mean? Well, you don't have the solution on Lee, the customer has a solution on Lee. The guest knows what he or she wants because it's already in their heads. What you can do is give them options. He can Well, let's say, suggest things. You can suggest him a B or C, and you can have them choose whatever they would like. Now. The problem here is that mostly they will choose an option, which is not commercially, the most interesting to you, where you can steer them in a way. And that is where this is where you use language. Use your bully language, the intonation in your voice or the way you pronounce the words you're using, etcetera. So again you apologize. You show empathy, and then you propose a few suggestions. Now let's say, for example, somebody has a stake on the cooking time is not what he asked. He asked for. Well done. And he's getting a medium now. What you could say. Yes, sir, I truly apologize. I fully understand this is not the best situation. Or you could say I fully understand that you're in a hurry now. This is what I can do for you. And as you can see. I put the emphasis on the word this. Now this is what it could do for you. I can get your state back to the kitchen and have another one ordered. That may take about 15 to 20 minutes, or we're not going to charge you for the steak if you prefer to continue now. I just gave him two options he's got to choose from. It might be that he says, Leave it. It's fine. If you take it off my belt, it's fine. But if he doesn't, he can choose the other one. Whatever he chooses, he chose the solution. Never forget that. And that is the order of recovery, letting the guest choose the solution. Now it's not done yet. What else he can do is follow up, follow up, follow up. You have to keep taking care off this customer. That is very, very importance if that customer we pay the bill, put down the money and walks out without a goodbye or whatever. Very, very bad. At least you have to escort them to the door, even if you can escort them to the car, whatever. But you have to show that you care, because again that is the heart, the heart off hospitality and the art of hospitality is Carrie 11. Allergies and diets: allergies and diets. While these days it's to be taken very, very seriously. What you should do is pay extra attention to these people. Now it starts, obviously when they make a reservation in the restaurants. When you got them on the phone, you can immediately show that you're interested in their person and the fact that they're coming. So you could ask on any allergies or diets we should be aware off now if it happens when they're already in the restaurant and they didn't announced it during the reservation, you should pay extra attention as well, because what happens is that these people are always, like left to themselves. They're like served last on DSA. Sometimes chefs don't really get it. They think, Oh, they're just being annoying, etcetera, etcetera. Well, try to not fall into that trap. Give them some very special attention. Now, what you might do, for example, is when you take the order, you could say to somebody who doesn't have an allergy or a diet for a good sir. Well, make sure you get that straight away, etcetera, etcetera. We can give a bit more attention to people with allergies and diets. You could say while you take the order, for example, that's an excellent choice. I actually tasted it myself, and it tastes delicious, whether it's true or not. And hopefully it is true, because you should be tasting. You wrote your own food. It gives them that extra kind of confidence. It gives them that extra feeling off. Oh wow, they really think about people like me might be lactose intolerant. Might be gluten. Whatever it is, give them a small bit of attention. That would also happens this that when you go to the kitchen, you go get the dishes from the chef. Sometimes people with allergies and diets, the dishes already try to take out all of the food at once. So let's call it the regular people and diet slash allergy orders at the same time. Because if they come in last, they're gonna feel left out again. Even batteries. When you serve them first, it's a bit the same one. You have coffee and tea drinkers now. In the old days, people who drank tea well in certain parts of the world that were kind of looked at bit strange. I mean, everybody took coffee, didn't they well, that has changed as well. Obviously. So the same goes with tea drinkers. Served them first. Give them that special bit of attention. And that is what I wanted to say to you in this lesson. 12. What is service?: now what is service? It serves really the thing you need to make a difference in your company. Let's have a look at it now to define service. It's not that easy. What if you have a five year old child coming into the room and he or she asks you, what is service? How would you explain that? Now? Let's try. First of all, you probably know Trip Advisor. Now, for those who don't Trip Advisor is a website where you can leave a review on a restaurant you visited or a hotel or even amusement park. If we look at all these reviews and all of them could be complaints. Ah, lot of the complaints. Almost eight out of 10 are about service. Now. What do people perceive as service? Let me give you an example. Let's say you go to a restaurant and you order a steak and you want your steak, Um, rare, for example. All of a sudden you're steak is served and it's overcooked. It's got too much. Now what you do, you call the waiter and you say, Obviously there's a problem. Now the way that the waiter will interact with your complaint what your remark is, what we perceive as service. It's how he will handle your complaints and what he will do with that situation. That what we see a service now before we continue and before we can define service, let me take you through a few numbers. You probably know, But 62% of people will buy Mawr after a positive experience, and 66 people will buy less after a negative experience. Nine out of 10 people are influenced by online reviews. Now this is a staggering number. People going online even if you have been, for example, recommended the latest iPhone by your best friends, you will go online to buy it, and if you see a review, you will be influenced. Now, I'm not saying you're not going to buy it, but you will be influenced. This is absolutely a scary number, if you ask me. 69% off. People say that good service depends on speeds on the speed of response, For example, think about the number of emails you get in a day. It's also mind blowing, and I can show you hundreds of females I've got Will people will congratulate me on responding on a very in a very quick way. So 69% of people think that is a good thing. Seven out of 10 people will say that bad service is when you have to explain something again. Let's say you call the phone company and you explain a problem. They will patch you true to a technician or somebody else who will help you. And you have to explain again. That is again what people will perceive as bad service. 95% of people will talk about a bad service experience, and only 87% will talk about a good service experience. Because when I go to my local restaurant, there's like a small sign on the wall that says, Did you like it? Tell your friends you didn't like it. Tell us so very important. A while ago we did a survey with 100 50 companies, and we asked the customers off those companies, which in total, are about 6000 people. What do you think is the most important in terms of hospitality when you go to a company when you visit a company could be any company in any industry on before the results came in , I already knew what the answers would be Not exactly, but kind of what the range of answers would be. And what we see here, for example, is that the most answers have to do with the human aspect the human interaction off people in those companies. Next, we asked those customers what bothers you the most when you visit a company. And again we see that, for example, it is mostly human aspects. When they have you waiting too long, when they don't know who you are, etcetera, etcetera. Last but not least, we asked him, What do you expect as a minimum when you are welcomed in a company and again we see those human aspects as you will see here, for example, in these results off the survey. Now, in order to define service, let me give you a few examples. And let me tell you a few stories. First of all, do you know who Peter Shankman IHS Or probably you don't because his other celebrity, he's just a businessman just like you and me? Probably on Peter Shankman is somebody who likes to things. He likes his work, and he likes steaks, More specific grilled steaks. Now Peter was on a flight from Chicago to New York just before he goes on to the plane. He sends a tweet into the world, and it's a kind of a joke because his favorite restaurant is called Morton's On. Before he boards the plane, he sends out a tweet, saying, Hey, Morton's, can you meet me at the airport with a porterhouse steak when I land in two hours? Just to say, I'm glad to go home? I can't wait to have my favorite steak. Now at Morton's, there is someone who sees this tweet coming by now. What do they do? They have one off their waiters, fully dressed in a tuxedo, waiting for Mr Shankman at the airport with a paper Brownback on a porterhouse steak inside . And if you don't believe me, have a look at this picture now. Did he eat the steak on the sport? I probably don't think so, but it's a great way off getting in touch. What your customer. So what is service? It could be paying attention to your customer but paying sincere attention to your customer . Another great example. Off customer service is this story. Do you know what this is? It's called Tiger Bread Now. Have you ever seen a tiger that looks like this? I haven't. It looks more like a leopard or maybe a giraffe. Indeed. The giraffe. Now there's a small girl in England and her name is living and she is in the supermarket with her mom. And she looks at this Brett, and she says to her mom, that doesn't look like a tiger at all. And the mom notices it just like we just did. And she says What you write it doesn't look like a tiger. And Libby says it looks more like a giraffe. And her mom says, You know what? You should write a letter to the supermarket saying that it should be called giraffe bread , and that is exactly what Lily did. Lily writes this letter to the supermarket, and this arrives on the marketing department. Now there's a guy, customer service, marketing officer, Let's say, and he sees this letter, any things to himself. Wow, this is a brilliant idea. This is really a story behind it. So he writes back a letter to Lily saying, Dear little girl, you're absolutely right. It doesn't look like a tiger at all now. What we're going to do is we're gonna change the name over Tiger bread to giraffe breath, especially for you, and so that you can buy your first giraffe bread. I have added a gift card so that you can be the first to buy it. And indeed, this marketing guy, he keeps his promise, and what he does is in all of their 200 plus supermarkets. They changed the name off Tiger Bread to Giraffe Brett on. More than that, he actually publicizes the story with the product. Have a look at this, Needless to say, that the sales went up with 300% so again, service might be paying sincere attention to your customer. Now, unfortunately, there's also other stories. There's a lady who has trouble with her digital television. Now there are a few off the channels that are not working on her digital television, so she calls the customer service and she says, Look, there's something not working here. And what did they say on the customer service hotline? Low Madam, you have to go online and there you can solve it on the lady says. But your customer service, can you do anything for me? No matter. You have to go online and solve it there and the lady says, But why are you then there? So as you can see, not paying attention or doing the effort for your customer is bad service. Another thing you have to realize in terms of service is that anyone who works for a company should be an ambassador for that company should be inspiring customers or guests. Now I run a butler school and we trained bunkers, so our bottles should be trained in the best possible service. Now our training is quite intensive and the 1st 5 days are the toughest ones. We call it hell week, just like the Navy seals. Why? Because our butters get a load of information five days. Not only do they have to study it, they also have to apply it immediately. We took about service hospitality, eye for detail, anticipation, etcetera. So and on the fifth day of the training, we send them to a hotel in the middle of a beautiful town nearby cold brush and we sent one student toe one hotel and they have to do an exercise and that exercises. You go into the hotel and you ask to go to the toilets, and you have a look at how the receptionist will help you or what they will or will not do . Have a look at their body language eye contact. Are this smiling? Maybe they're even escorting you to the toilets. So when they go to the toilets and they come back, they go to the receptionist and they ask for a price. A price for three rooms. For four nights now in this town, you will easily pay 300 euros per room. That's quite a lot of money. If you do that times three rooms and times four nights, you will end up around 3.5 1000 euros. That is a really big budget. Do you know how certain hotels offered those prices to our butler students? Do you know in what way they are an ambassador or better said, not an ambassador, Because when you are working for a company or you representing a company, you should be inspiring people, being an ambassador and giving that passion to them as you would for anyone else have a look at how they present their prices. What you see here is how a five star hotel presented their prices to one of our students. It's horrible, don't you think? It's just a piece of paper where they've written on the prices on? Mostly, they will say with giving that piece of paper, you can also find everything on the Internet. Now that is a horrible way of doing business. Are you agreeing with me? Because if you would buy, for example, it's a a bike or a motorcycle off 3.5 thousands. That's also a lot of money. If you go to a bike shop, they will probably give you a brochure with professional photos, and you probably will be able to ride a bike before you buy it. So how you are an ambassador for your brand is hugely important to convey good service to your guests. Now you see this picture of a five star hotel, and as you can see here, well, this is a four star hotel. It's a bit better. They didn't write any mistakes. But what happens when I flipped this page have a look? Not much better, either. That is not the way how to bring over your product to your customers 13. Exercise Service is: now, by now, you probably know what services and why we need it. Now let's do an exercise. What you see here are a few expressions, and with these expressions and words, you can make sentences, and these sentences will explain what service is now try to puzzle. What's more important is when you puzzle the sentences, is what they mean to you. So let's give it a try, and I'll see you in the next lecture. So let's have a look at this exercise. As you can see here, you have a few expressions, and with these expressions you can make sentences. And these sentences will actually define what services, more importantly than puzzling, is actually what it means to you. So let's have a look at the solutions. First of all, I want you to stop this video, hit the pause button A have a look at these, and when you hit it again, then you will see the solutions. But think like I said, What does the sentences mean to you? Good. I hope you stop the video and here are the solutions to the puzzle. Now let's have a look at the 1st 1 Adding value to every interaction. Now what is an interaction and interaction could be a face to face encounter. And how do you add value that could be through your body language to what you say, etcetera, etcetera. Next, being at his best for every customer, that means to me being at his best. It's personal presentation, and every customer is that you do not make any exception as to who that customer Roby, whether it be the Monday morning at eight o'clock when he's still hung over from the weekends, if you know what I mean, or the Friday evening if you're getting ready for, uh, the weekend to come. So being at his best for every customer next, doing normal things exceptionally well, that means, for example, saying Hello, how do you shake hands? How do you do that in a proper way, As you know you can find out in our courses. Number four. Surprising yourself about how much you can do. You can really go the extra mile. Surprise yourself and try to brainstorm new ideas. Number five going beyond what is expected. Now this is something we hear a lot, but what is going beyond? What is expected. Well, to answer that question, I think about what your customer or your guest is not expecting. Are there expecting, For example, when they are getting into a taxi that you have foreseen a small bottle of water that is going beyond what is expected? Number six Finding new ways to surprise the guests. No, this is also something we get a lot from companies. How do we surprised our guests again? Think about what they are not expecting. Tried to do it on a moment where you catch them off guard. They just walk into a room and they see something surprising. That is what we want. Last but not least, taking care off the guest like you take care of your grandmother. How do you take care of your grandmother? Just like she did with you. She slipped. You may be a bit of money. She gave you a nice street. But how do you take care off? Your grandmother would love a lot of lof and that is how you take care off the guest 14. Why service: Now we answered what services? So it's paying sincere attention to your customer. The next question could be, Why do you need service? Why, it's any possible reason to provide service. First of all, I think it's the perception of the customer, the way the customer looks at your company or at your products or brands. I have a look at this hotel. This is the Ritz Hotel in London. It's since more than 100 years, one of the top hotels in London And how do you perceive it? What is your perception about this hotel? Well, before you think about that, let me explain. I went there well a while ago. Now I went to the restaurants, didn't sleep there because he pay about $1500 a night, and that was a bit outside my budget. But I went there to the restaurant because service and hospitality is my profession and I want to learn as well. So I went there on I rife with tax, who with my wife the door goes open. There's a very nice guy with a top hats welcoming are saying Welcome to the Ritz. So the experience already started. We walk into this beautiful lobby, as you can see here, and we walk down the hole now to the left and the right off this whole, you have small salons and small rooms working have tea time because the Ritz and London is world famous for its tea time, and we go into the restaurant at the end of this corridor and we see a lady singing life. There's, Ah, violin. There's all sorts of things. They have all silverware, and they serve in a very elegant way. There's even the logo off the Ritz, which is in the butter encrusted. Now what is your perception about this hotel? Would you say it's fancy? We just say it's wow, Would you say it's luxury? Well, let me break that perception in less than 10 seconds, because this is also the Ritz, and this is also the Reds. And have you ever seen a bathroom? When you pay $1500 a night while it looks like this, are you shocked? I think you would be because your perception just dropped to zero. And we all have that when you go to a restaurant and the toilets are not clean, your perception drops. When you go to a car dealership and the parking lot is full of cigarette butts, your perception drops, so perception is the first thing that you need. If you want to have some good service now, how can you solve that? You can solve that with eye for detail, but I'll talk about that later. The second reason why you might need service is the choice off the customer. Why would they choose you and any industry you are, whether it be a product, a service, a restaurant, a car, Brent, whatever. Why would they choose you? I didn't think it's about the product. Not always. Mostly it's about the people. It's about the service, which is offered. They have a wide range of choice. So that is probably the second reason the third reason to provide service is the wish of the customer. What do they wish? What do they need? Because I'm convinced that people don't know what they need. I didn't say they don't know what they want, I said they don't know what they need, and that's where certain companies are creating needs. For example, Apple, they created the need for a phone with a big screen and one button. Nobody needed it until it's appeared. So I'm 100% certain that with innovation in service, you can go a long mile if you know what I mean. 15. Topservice language: as I told you in language, you have both verbal and nonverbal in the non verbal. I told you that words are the least importance because this is only 7% off communication in your body language. And I also told you that 38% waas Internation. So the tone of voice. If you're on the phone, that 38% becomes 82% obviously, because people cannot see you. But words are not the least importance. When we go to the verbal language. The actual words we are speaking have different meanings, and by changing those meanings, it can do something to sub conscience of your clients. Let's say, for example, the word price. The word price to me says This person wants to sell me something. It gives me a negative feeling. So instead of using the word price, you could use the word value or tariff. For example, what is the price of the room? What is a tariff off the room? Where is the price of the car? What is the value off the car that's completely different now? Next to that, let's say that you have the word cost. There were cost. We would replace that by the words investments. It's completely different than by something and look at it as a cost that it is an investment. Other words could be, for example, the work contracts. Oh, I would never use the word contract. I would use the word agreements. I would never use the word signature. I would use confirmation. So if you put it all together, let's say you go and buy a car and you have made your choice and the sales person would say , Let's go to my office and we are going to sign the contract Signing the contract will give that clients of feeling off being stuck for the next 3 to 4 to five years. If you say Let's go into my office and we're gonna confirm the agreement now, that's completely different, because when I hear contract, I think there's only one party doing advantage. If I hear the word agreement, that means that we have two bodies and it's a win win situation. So by replacing those words and not using certain words, you can do magic. What I would really advise you is to, as of now, what I would really advise you is, as of now, scratch four expressions from your vocabulary. Four expressions we use every single day, and we kind of use them out of complacency because we're a bit lazy. We don't think about our language. And those four expressions are yes, no. Okay. And the hardest one of all. No problem, because we use that every day and in a service situation. If you are going into a service conversation using the expression, no problem. You are per definition using a negative words. The work problem also yes and no are too short to answer because if you go to any restaurants and you got a waiter coming up to you, Andi, he's not the most polite off people. He would say Yes, And then you would order, for example, your coffee and he would say, OK, he gets your coffee, comes back, puts it in front of you. Polite as you are, you would say thank you. And that waiter would say no problem. So would only two or three expressions. He is building up that conversation. That's not the way to do it. There are many, many other things to say, and many, many other ways to talk. Certain situations are also strange to me. When I call, for example, the supplier these suppliers will say, Well, you have to call back in that sentence. I would never call back because I am the clients. I am the one who wants to do business with you. So the initiative should be with the supplier. Same thing in your business. You make the effort off calling back your client. If the time is not right at a moment of the core because when you say you have to call back , you're actually saying dear appliance on for too lazy to call you back. And actually, I'm not interested. That is what you're really saying. Instead, off you will have to call back another one. I don't get this. When you go shopping, for example, you go shopping and you're browsing through all these clothings you like. And all of a sudden there's a sales person coming up to you in a store in 95% of the cases , what will they ask you? Can I help you? Well, that's a wrong question. That's not a question to ask, because that gives me the feeling that I'm not able to do it myself. Much more interesting is to stand from a distance on half a look at your clients off your car or your customer and be in the vicinity. And when they need you, they will look at you. They will make eye contact. And I promise you, when they make more than 3 to 4 to five seconds off eye contact, that's the moment they will need you. And then you go to them and you don't use that phrase that everybody uses. Can I help you? You can say a lot of different things. I'll show you that in a minute. Another situation I just don't get is when you're in a restaurant and the waiter comes up to you. You have that menu in your hands. They come up to you and they ask, Have you made a choice? I don't get it. Why not? Because a waiter should be a ambassador for the restaurant. It should be somebody who inspires you. Somebody who sells you stuff because you want to have it. Instead of saying, Have you made a choice as a waiter? You could say, sir, before you make a choice. May I really recommend the grilled steak? Or maybe the Dover sole, which is baked in a clarified butter? And I can guarantee you, if you give your customer more than three options, seven out of 10 people will take one off those options. Now, if you are trying to avoid those expressions like yes, no okay, and no problem. What can you say? Well, there are many, many things to say. Let's say, for example, somebody asks you a coffee. You could say Very good, sir, instead of yes or OK or no problem. Now this might sound a bit stiff and a bit unnatural, but I haven't in my vocabulary. I use it every day. I'm trained in using language in a different way. You should try it as well. Another one. I really like this. Allow me. You remember the situation about going shopping? I wouldn't go to a customer and say, Can I help you? I would go up and say, Allow me to show you that in a different size or a different color. If somebody arrives at a hotel with their suitcases, Don't Austin, can I help you? You should say Allow me to assist you. That's something completely different. It's just saying things different and the sub conscience off. Your customer will really recognize that another one I use a lot is, as you know, as you know, is a non threatening way off repeating something you already said. And for example, somebody comes up to incest. Could you point me in the direction off the toilets? You could say, As you know, sir, it's here to the rights. Well, obviously they don't know, but it's much more interesting than to go with them. If you don't have the time off course, If you're offering great service, you should escort your customer. What will come to that later on in the stream? The next sentence I am going to teach you is the most important sentence off this whole training. It is so hugely important you can forget anything I told you during this training. But just remember this one sentence. Just remember, there's one technique and apply it every single time. Now, the next sentence I'm going to run to you is a sentence which you should use at the end off every service encounter. You should use it on the phone. You should use it in real life at any possible customer interaction. It's a simple sentence that will allow you to go to the ends off service. And if you use that sentence, you are 100% certain. There's nothing more you could have done for your customer on that sentences. Can I do anything else for you? Is there anything else you require? Can I serve you anything else? Anything else, no matter how you ask it, but ask it every single day and I can give you an example. A while ago, I was doing a speech in Italy, so I flew out to Italy every week, every time on Friday because I was hired by an insurance company who asked me to fly out once a week to do with speech in terms off customer service for a group of their clients. So we were 25 people there, and the scenario waas. They got up in the morning, had some breakfast that I did my speech, and then they went on to a bus, drove to Milan, took a plane back to Belgium. Now, when I did my speech, this was around 11 o'clock on what I did. Waas. I asked everybody in the room. Have you checked out on all of them? Had checked out and I asked him, Did they ask you at the reception? Can I do anything else for you? And they didn't ask it. And I said to the public who needed anything else on all of a sudden, there was a gentleman who actually wanted a charger for his iPhone. And there was another lady who wanted the newspaper to read on the bus on the way to the airport. The fact of the matter is, if you do not ask what they need, they will not tell you. And if you are asked him, can I do anything else for you? And the answer is no. Well, you have done anything, everything that had to be done and they will never come back to you and said you didn't do this or this for me because you have lost it 16. Put language into practice: Now let's put this into practice. Let's say a customer ask you something and you don't know it. Most people would say I don't know, but how would you say that differently to a customer? You could say, for example, votes are Allow me to find out that information for you or allow me to verify which is a good sentence. But what happens when you ask a customer? Allow me to verify that for you, the customer has to wait. Now, in a sense that is bringing over bad news for the customer. If you are going to introduce bad news, you should always add good news or give a let's say, a swing to it. You could say, for example, vote, sir, that's a good question. Allow me to verify that for you, I'll be back shortly. Now that's completely different. And as you can see with building up language and combining that with holy language, you give that customer another feeling. Another one, for example, is when you have a phone call and you have to transfer that phone call to a colleague of yours. Now, if you have a customer on the line, you could say For example, sir, I will have to transfer you with one of my colleagues again. That customer has to wait. Now, why are they calling you? Or probably because they have a problem or a question. So what do you need if you have a question and answer? What do you need when you have a problem? A solution? So these are the words that you should use before you transfer that call. You could say hello, sir. Allow me to solve this for you. I will transfer you with Mr X because he is the best person to help you. And I have chosen these words very carefully because solving helping that is what people are looking for. So please use your language. Use your body language in a good combination and you can do magical things for your customers. I'll see you in the next lesson. 17. Real life stories of great hospitality: Now let me give you an example off creating amazing moments. Let's say we go to Disneyland. Let's have a look at how a day at Disneyland would be in terms off peak moments. Here you see from left to right our day and from 0 to 100 on the left eye. You see my emotions the way I feel during that day. So we start off the day and we decided to go to Disneyland with the kids and we are getting stuck in traffic. So that's not very nice. That's a 10% feeling for me. We arrive and I completely forgot to buy tickets online, so we have to stand in line to buy those tickets. Next up, we want to go to Space Mountain straight away, but we have to wait in line. That will take another 35 maybe 45 minutes. Not that fun either. But all of a sudden we go into Space Mountain. Oh, my God! Water rush! Amazing! So that feeling peaks to 100. We got off and again we want to do another one. So maybe the wild Wild West again waiting in line. But then when we get an onto the wild Wild West, Another peak moments. So then it's almost time to go for food, for into the restaurants. So again we have to wait in line to get our food. And we have lunch. Nothing special. It's OK, but it's half and half all of a sudden the door opens. And who do we see? It's Mickey. Oh my God, we're taking self is getting signatures, etcetera, etcetera. So that again is a peak moment. We continue today again, waiting in line and doing another attraction might be a rollercoaster might be something else. The day comes to it sent, and we try to find our car on the big parking lot and we drive home. And yes, again, we have traffic Now, as you can see, this graph there are only four beat moments above 75%. And that is what we need. Because if I ask somebody Hey, how was your day at Disney? What they will say is, Oh my God, it was amazing. We went into the Space Mountain, we saw Mickey, we went into the wild Wild West. That was really great, and it's those moments that they will remember. And that is what we need in your company as well in your life. A swell. So I'm here to tell you, change the script and your question probably is. But how do I change the script? Well, how do you change the script that is up to everybody? A bit? Individually, I cannot give you a real concrete solution, but I can give you examples. The first thing to do is try to think what your customers thinking. Try to walk in their shoes next up, ask what are they expecting? And more importantly, what are they not expecting? Have you ever been in a scanner? Something like this? It's a very sterile, sterile room, and you have to lay still and it's very claustrophobic, so it's It's not that fun, But can you imagine what this would do to a five year old? I mean, Children, they don't get it. They have to lay still. They cannot move on. On top of that, that machine is very, very, very loud. It could be a traumatic experience. Now there is a hospital in the United States who is actually thinking differently about this, and instead of coming into a room like this. A completely white one. Where you have a doctor in a white suit, You will have more. Something like this. Isn't that amazing? It looks like a jungle. So they asked the Children to jump over the leaves in the stones to get to the scanner. And that completely changes the script. And there are other hospitals who followed this example, as you can see here. And here's another one where you are welcomed by a pirate and you have to get onto the pirate ship. How amazing is that? Well, that is what we call change descript. And I don't know if you know, Southwest What sort West is an airline in the United States. It's a low cost airline, and they don't have that much budget to surprise their customers. But they are legendary for their safety announcements. They joke about it every single time. And they say things truly intercom like ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived on time. What? We don't know where that's amazing. Another one would be. He's in. Gentlemen. In case off cabin press cabin pressure loss, you will have masks falling from the ceiling. Please place that over your mouth first and that over that over your child, Should you be traveling with more than one child, please choose the one with the most potential in the future again, that's hugely funny. But all of a sudden there was this couple on Southwest Airlines coming back from their honeymoon and they were cold. Jolan, Leslie and all of the stewardesses found out that it was the end of their honeymoon. So she takes the intercom and says, Ladies and gentlemen, you have a newlywed couple here and everybody gives a big round of applause And she says, This is what we're going to do to give them a presence. And the present was actually people could push their Stewart buttons and they would hand out paper napkins on those paper napkins. People were asked to write down the best wedding advice, marriage advice they could give and have a look. How sweet is this? Jonah Leslie got a ton of advice, and nobody on that flight will ever forget that moment That is creating a peak moments. Now, You remember in the beginning of the off this course I talked about giraffe Bretz like going to like giraffes if you know what I mean. And this is another one. This is Yoshi and Yoshi is a giraffe. He's actually a toy for a five year old boy who lives in New York, and he goes with his family to the Ritz Carlton in California, and I have an amazing vacation. But when they get back to New York, what are they realizing? Oh, my God, your she's gone now, this little boy, he's in tears, and his father tries to comfort him. So he says, You know what? Actually, there's not really a problem, because Yoshi he's just taking another break. He's taking a break of another three days, and that little boy says your rights and he say, Yeah, you know, he's He's by the pool. Now he's having a break because you know how hard it is to be your friends playing all the time, etcetera. So the the father cause the Ritz Carlton and he says, Did you find the toy of my son? Yes, we did. And he says, Can you please do me a favor and take a picture off Yoshi by the side off the pool so I can show my little boy. He's taking another holiday and have a look here. There you go. You know she at the pool. How amazing is that? How the hotel they sent your she back in a Federal Express box to New York three days later . And what do they find in the box? Yoshi and his album, his photo album, a vacation photo album. And not only do you see your she on at the pool, but also playing golf and your she getting a massage. While that is breaking the script, how amazing is that? Now I'm going to make a bold statement. I don't believe that the customer comes on the first place. Actually, I'm 100% certain they don't come in the first place. People who are serving the customers who are serving the client's those are the ones who should come on the first place in your company. Because when your team treats your customer good, that means that they are treated good. When you give your team a good feeling when you motivate them, they will be motivated to handle your customer as it should 18. The chef is not always right: you cannot run a restaurant by yourself. You got colleagues on. Do you got the dishwashers? You got your colleagues serving with you, and obviously you got the people in the kitchen. Now, in the hospitality industry, there's always been a while. It's not been a fight, but, you know, it's kind of a discussion. I work in the kitchen. You do service. It's not the same. Were more important, etcetera, etcetera. Now I've always steal away from this. Why? Because I respected everyone. You know, for example, how important a dishwasher ISS if you don't get anything plates. Well, you cannot serve people right. Every person in that chain is hugely important. A professional dishwasher. Yes. You heard me say that, right? A professional dishwasher is as important as a professional waiter and a professional chef because it goes into the logistics of the restaurant as well. If you with the waiter, you need an extra pair of by no knives or forks or whatever You come into the kitchen, they're not clean. There you go, your whole services rooms. So respect all of them Now. That being said, he must know that I grew up in a restaurant and I You know, I served people together with my mother over in the dining room, and it was my father and my brother cooking. So my father was the chef. Now, this makes it even a bit more difficult when you're working with family, Trust me. But if you're working with a normal family, chef, if you will, um, there could be a bit of egos on both sides. Don't get me wrong. The chef and the maitre d or the waiters. Now, don't fall into that trap. Respect everyone. But the chef is not always right. I mean by that. If you have, for example, it's a dish where you have fish, you're ready to take it away. You're ready to take it out on all of a sudden You smell something fishy, if you know what I mean. It doesn't smell right. You have the obligation to tell the chef you have the obligation to tell him because you know it's busy for everyone. Maybe he didn't notice it, but nevertheless, you never take something out, which is not to the standard you think it should be. So if fish is not smelling right, if we see some texture on the lettuce or whatever it is. Don't take it outs. Talk to the chef with the most of respect can. And if there's like a big discussion, maybe you need to take two or three colleagues you know to have a second opinion. Or maybe you got to call the manager whatever. But you have to show your profession ality, and that is why you should be interested as much in food as you should be in other parts of your job. So the chef is not always right, but you should respect everyone on your team. 19. Thank you: Well, congratulations. You've done it. And thank you so much for taking the course. Now, this might be the first step in your career. Or maybe you already a bit of an experience waiter. But it doesn't stop here. Being a waiter will continue all of your life. There's so much more to discover. You can go into cheeses, into wine, into cigars much, much more in depth. And I can't wait to see what results you will have from taking this course so well done. Good luck in your career and cheers.