Good Serve!

Service.

It’s the hot word right now. The Rugby World Cup is around the corner, and we’ve woken up worried that we aren’t that good at it. Not entirely true but there’s a lot of work going on to bring our collective front of house staff up to speed.

I was at the local launch of Kia Ora Mai. It’s a service training program that has been running in Auckland for a year, and has just kicked off in Wellington. Check it out here.

New Zealand has cruised on the friendliest-country-in-the-world vibe for a long time, and with the Rugby-loving world nearly at our doorstep, someone said “ hang on a minute… maybe we should deliver these people what they expect rather than what we think they should be happy with.” Clever.

Truth be known we get away with a lot being the genuine article, by being frank, open and smilingly charming in our antipodean way. Research has shown the one thing that makes Kiwi staff work so well is that they actually care about the people they are serving. A generalisation I know, but largely true, especially in comparison to some of the service cultures elsewhere in the world.

KiaOraMai is one of those training platforms that is going to do what a select few top end and savvy hotels, restaurants and bars do already. Arm their staff with an attitude and a skill set to handle customers like kittens. Lovingly and with a friendly disregard for their sharp claws.

Service levels differ from person to person in the same joint, from joint to joint in the same street, from street to street in the same city and so on. No one does quite like the other, and that personality that makes the difference seems to be the clincher. But having a few tools of the trade and stock phrases to arm yourself in tricky situations is useful.

Wellington’s claim to the culinary capital of the country will be underpinned by that service ethic when the mighty RWC descends upon us. Just as it depends upon it now, and will beyond 2011.

So what does good service mean to you? Here’s my anecdote:

I was in Cafe Polo in Miramar last week, having the beef, a table of two, involved in a clear and obvious intense conversation. Hands clasped together, urgent whispers, the occasional lean back in the chair and sigh, all the signs of a conversation you should not interrupt. The waiter, a charming chap from Hungary who had been effusive and chatty all night, informative and delightful; in noting the mood, switched his manner on a dime and we hardly noticed him as he whisked plates from under our noses, refilled wine and water, and was generally very good at being Mr Unobtrusive.

It was appreciated. But good service takes place in so many ways, from whipping up something off-menu, such as The Larder did with grace and aplomb for a friend of mine lately, or offering to call you on your mobile when your table is ready so you don’t have to queue in the doorway, like Sweet Mother’s Kitchen will happily do.

What’s your version of good service? Who’s done ol’ Wellie proud lately?