Friday 11 June 2010

Lest we forget

Son of Rita (Jamie) has returned from Brisbane, and picked up work at Bar Celona. He asked me today if I remembered doing a review of Prince of Wales a few years back, and naturally I did. He then told me he now works with the guy who was the focus of that positive POW review, a lovely guy named Aaron.

It’s a good job I write what I actually experienced, felt, and ate when I do these reviews, as, if I was bullshitting, I would rapidly get found out! With the POW experience, I well remember the fabulous customer service we received from Aaron, and because I haven’t been back since, it is easy to recall.

What I found notable is the fact that when Jamie and Aaron sat together after work chatting about life (as you do), Aaron had remembered getting written about glowingly on a blog a few years ago when he was at POW. Naturally, as they progressed with the conversation, it turned out that it was Jamie’s mother who had written about Aaron’s performance.

My point is that unless someone takes note of these local stars, they just pass through, un-acknowledged publicly, and maybe ultimately fade away.

Surely there should be some sort of annual hospitality award, based on GENUINE, unbiased nominations from ordinary eaters-outers who are most likely to be the recipients of this service?

If it was, for instance, an xxx award, then naturally you’d expect to only have people nominated who worked in venues that were xxx members. Ditto if it was sponsored by a large company, like, say, xxxx, then only places that used xxxx products would be encouraged to nominate.

Nah – we’ve had enough self-interest lately. Let’s just have an award that has credibility and honesty associated with it. An award that actually means something to the recipient. An award that tells everyone (and particularly a prospective new employer of the winner) they are being served by a devoted and celebrated waitperson. An Oscar of the hospitality world in Hobart.

11 comments:

The Passionate Gardener said...

It's called the Hobart City Council Service Award. Ha ha....

Rita said...

I agree PG. That is one award I thought about when writing this post. When you added you 'ha ha' at the end of that comment, were you inferring the HCC awards have no credibility? When it first started a few years back I thought it a brilliant idea. Then I went through the process secondhand whilst observing a workmate who was nominated. Am still not sure about them, but the idea behind it is certainly sound.

Awesome Welles said...

You could manage an Award of this type through your blogsite Rita. Of course you would have to have safeguards in place to prevent fraudulent voting and nominations. It could be an absolute winner.

on the outer said...

Awesome Welles .. is on the money. Done more as an acknowledgement thing rather than the usual PR / Spin / marketing perspective. A real grass roots end consumer perspective ... noice one :)

Rita said...

Hmm. Maybe it could work.
How does the below sound?

Readers of this blog could nominate waitpeople, making sure they include naming the place of work, so we can all have time to get in there and see if we verify the nomination. That means the employer gets some trade as well, so it's in their interests to cooperate.
If we had a time frame on it, like, say, a month, after nominations, and have the nominations on the sidebar here so it would be easily accessible, and remind people to vote, then anyone who wanted to vote could go to the Contact Me page, and email me their votes.
But do people generally really give a shit, or is it just me?

Christina said...

This is a great idea Rita.
I think people definetley do give a shit.
A lot like your good service column but we could all check it out.
Is a month long enough for everyone to get to the nominated places though?
Hope Jamie does well at Bar Celona. Lunch there quite frequently. They have THE best crumbed trevalla with chips and a greek salad for around $18. Knocks 349 and frenzy for six I think.

sir grumpy said...

Not another bloody award Rita.
Crikey, does everybody have to get an Oscar?
Yes, be appreciative of good service but let the boss of the place ensure this is the NORM.
Yes, instead of a Logie you could call it a Norm.
And you could have the foodie Rasperries for worst service but that would have far too many nominees.
Bloody awards.

Rita said...

Don't be such a bah-humbug Scrooge, Sir G! Anyway - I think your suggestion for a Raspberry award has merit too - so I'm creating the Sir Grumpy Raspberry award.....which can go down my sidebar too, along with the great customer service!

Anonymous said...

for the raspberry award can you please add the owners son at the sandy bay bakery, rude rude man!

Nearly knocked me over once and didnt even say sorry

Anonomouse said...

I agree with Sir G. Why do we need awards when it should be the norm amongst the industry? It's not that bloody hard to be friendly, efficient and look to please the guest. It's not that hard to serve quality food... It all comes down to attitude, professionalism and training.

Anonomouse said...

Another quick point. I think awards should be for those that so far exceed the norm that they are awarded. The less often awards are given the more meaning they have.