In FOCUS
Framework for Great
Customer Service
There are a number of steps that you have to take to ensure your staff are motivated
and delivering a great service. Ajmal Mushtaq tells Tandoori how to do this
Ajmal Mushtaq
is a business expert
and is the chefdirector of Mushtaqs
Restaurant in
Hamilton, Scotland
W hen I opened Mushtaqs in
Hamilton, Scotland, just over three
years ago, I had seven people
working for me. Today I have 40.
The one thing that has remained
constant throughout this time is
the number of compliments I am
always receiving about how great
a team I have here at Mushtaqs.
It’s all about aligning the team’s
behaviours, characteristics and
attitudes to ensure you have a
motivated team that is completely
focused on serving up great customer service every time.
The steps I use to ensure the
team are fully motivated to deliver
excellence:
Leadership: Is it better to be
liked or to be respected? The managers at Mushtaqs are coached
to ‘lead from the front’ – ‘know
the way, go the way and show the
way’. They are expected to be experts in their area of responsibility
and the focus is on ‘respect’ rather
than ‘being liked’ by the team
members.
Equal Treatment: As the team
has grown from 7 employees to
40, the way the staffs are treated
remained constant – all staff are
highly respected and greatly valued by the business. There is only
one set of rules and these apply to
every member of the team regardless of experience. Nobody is on
‘special treatment’. This is a very
powerful method of limiting workplace politics. Instead, your team’s
energy can be spent on delivering
great service.
Sharing Tips: Sharing tips is a
great way of ensuring the whole
team are aligned and motivated. At
Mushtaqs, ALL team members, old,
new, waiting staff, kitchen staff,
porters etc share the tips. This is
a great way of motivating the team
as they all see additional financial
benefit for delivering great food
combined with great customer
satisfaction.
Responsibility: Team members
are empowered to take full responsibility for their area of work. This
enhances their confidence and
gives them additional motivation to
take complete ownership of tasks
and complete them in a manner
that often exceeds expectations.
Training: At Mushtaqs we spend a
significant amount of time on staff
training. There is a uniform training
programme for all the staff. This
ensures that all team members
deliver quality service that is consistent. Further, it ensures there are
no tensions or confusion among the
team that may arise from varying
standards of service delivery.
Relationships: It is very important for the team to build relationships and team members are
actively encouraged to get to know
each other and their families. This
strengthens the bond and inspires
trust and respect. Too often we
can work with people and not
know anything about them. At
Mushtaqs, we use relationships as
a powerful tool to build team morale, trust, respect and tolerance
within the team.
The managers at
Mushtaqs
are coached
to ‘lead from
the front ...
They are
expected to
be experts
in their area
of responsibility’
Looking Good – Feeling Good:
If you are feeling good and looking great your confidence will be
evident when dealing with customers. A uniform inspection takes
place at the start of each shift. All
team members are expected to
be immaculate. The team is lined
up and an inspection takes place
from head to toe – hair, face, nails,
shirts, trousers and shoes are all
checked to ensure high standards
are maintained.
Organisation: The working
environment needs to be clean and
clear at all times. This makes working with efficiency much easier. At
Mushtaqs, a strict ‘Clear As You
Go’ policy operates and this helps
ensure exceptional levels of health
and safety are maintained. No work
is rolled over for the next shift. This
approach helps everyone maintain
a sharp focus on delivering a great
job every time.
Team Meetings: At Mushtaqs, we
have a team meeting every week.
All members of the team