THE SCOOP WITH SKIPPER

With the dry season kicking in, we are well and truly moving along a steady course at Admiralty House. The storm that was COVID-19 is slowly passing, however many Darwin restaurants and customers are having issues adjusting to the new normal after the pandemic. This has affected the relationship between the restauranter and the customer all over the country and across many seas.

However, the Skipper is here to give you some advice while sitting on the dock of the bay.

The Customer in the post COVID-19 world

Recently, many organizations like TripAdvisor and Delicious have conducted surveys on their members with regards to service demands. The major question in these surveys was, is the customer more understanding of restaurants considering these changed conditions, or do they expect pre-pandemic levels of service? And, are these expectations fair?

These are fascinating questions as they draw many considerations. Pre-pandemic restaurants, such as Admiralty House, were spoiled for choice for new employees. We had university students, domestic and international travelers, and the like. For places like Admiralty House, which requires employees to have fine-dining and functions experience, it was easy to obtain new staff as there was an abundance of people from all over the world with incredible knowledge of food and wine that enhanced our customer’s experience.

However, post COVID-19 this is now gone. Rather, restaurants and function venues alike are training newbies from scratch. The time and resources involved with this is staggering but it is achieving results, while some restaurants are operating on a skeleton crew. This, however, has had an impact on service levels and the customer experience in general.

The answer to these questions although concerning, were understandable. Customers generally still expect pre-pandemic levels of service given the survey results, despite the issues in today’s world. With many restaurants unable to meet staffing requirements and struggling to stay afloat with the loss of JobKeeper through a situation no fault of their own, the meeting of these two worlds is hard to reconcile.

Online review agencies like TripAdvisor, Google and Open Table have all noticed significant uptake in negative reviews in 2021 (67% increase), with the survey results mentioned earlier spilling over to the real world. So, is the customer always right, or are customers being generally unfair when things are not as perfect as they used to be? 

It is a bit of both. Customers have every right to expect great service. We at Admiralty House have had to adjust the way we employ people and structure ourselves differently to get talent. If the customer is paying the same price that they were before COVID-19, then they should expect the same service. However, at the same time the customer always has the option of speaking to the restaurant direct about a service issue rather than leaving an online review.

We are all in this together

Darwin locals and visitors can expect the best service at our two restaurants. Many venues are not there yet when it comes to customer service, so it is important that everyone works together to ensure our industry – the biggest employer in the Territory – gets through this workforce shortage without being too beat up when we reach the other side.

Any restaurant when opening their doors should consider (if they are short staffed) whether they should drop the number of tables on offer. We at Char Restaurant and The Darwin Club have had to do this many times this year. When we did not do this, we received negative reviews as we could not service all our tables in the manner that was expected by our customers.

However, it is important that as a customer, before posting a negative review, consider whether you are being fair in the grand scheme of things (AKA the global pandemic). Have you considered the external issues that are outside of the restaurant’s control? Can you contact the manager directly and find out whether you can resolve it that way? 

After all, working together comes with the Territory.