THE cries of restaurateurs to find and keep hospitable employees have rung the ears of at least one restaurant rater and reviewer.

“Sometimes I can’t even put out a review, even if the food is great, because they’ve scarred my experience,” Gabrielle Burgess, CEO of Suga Lifestyle, told the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

While poor customer service in Jamaica has been heavily joked about and normalised over the years, in all sectors, Burgess noticed that early last year, coming out of the pandemic, restaurateurs have been facing a challenge finding hospitable staff.

“If you notice, even on social media, in the papers there’s advertising that various members of staff are needed, in the kitchen, waitresses, et cetera. Staff retention is an issue whether they are migrating or going to cruise ships or even just because they are unhappy and they just want to try something else so they just bounce around,” Burgess said worryingly.

After a decade in the industry, Burgess praised restaurants for their significant improvement in the cuisine portfolio in Jamaica. However, although the bar has risen for the quality of food, and the growth of the culinary industry, the service standard has fallen. It has been difficult for Burgess to pinpoint exactly what the issue is with employees but notes that training is not the issue. She explained that some restaurant owners take the onus upon themselves to pay for their staff to get training in proper customer service and the others who are graduates of tourism and hospitality schools are simply not translating what they have learnt on the job. The lack of effort to apply the lessons learnt has been broadly reflected as laziness by both employers and diners.

“They may be late to work and therefore burden other staff and increase the waiting time for diners or guests. They may be late on break, they take long breaks, they just generally not hospitable or attentive. They don’t use any initiatives, some of them may act like robots,” Burgess described.

Despite knowing the challenges restaurateurs face, as a restaurant rater and reviewer, Burgess also has a duty to carry out her reviews with integrity. Customer experiences are a part of her rating criteria and a lack of hospitable service affects her overall ratings on a restaurant. She admits, however, that there are a few good staff members in the industry but on a greater scale, service is at a lower level. “They’ve forgotten the ABCs of quality service in the industry, the majority of that is happening in Kingston versus the highly trafficked tourism areas such as MoBay or Ochi Rios,” Burgess said.

In further demonstrating just how lackadaisical service workers have been, she shared with the Sunday Finance a personal experience at a restaurant.

“When I went in there, there was nobody there, like nobody by the cashier desk or anything. My husband and I waited patiently and then someone came out from the back, looked at us, and went back inside. She didn’t even say hello,” Burgess recalled.

“Then she must have gone and called the cashier. The cashier came out, looked at us [and asked], ‘What would you like to order’,” Burgess said in a tone seemingly impersonating the cashier.

She explained, with staff like that, restaurateurs feel helpless. Interestingly, she noticed when she showed them kindness, they made a few attempts to be a little more hospitable in return. Showing kindness to bad customer service workers can be difficult, but Burgess says the public also has a role to play in their own experiences.

“People judge us on our jobs too, and we need to remember that, no matter what industry we’re in. We all have bad days. The server could really be having a bad day — so we just need to be more understanding sometimes — and they might even improve their service as they go along and see that you are also being sympathetic towards them,” she said.

She also warned against public humiliation of restaurants on social media when bad customer service is experienced. The desire to be social media famous or an influencer can have negative and permanent damage to restaurants.

“Right now you have a flurry of people who once they’re on social media, everybody calls themselves a blogger nowadays and they might not know the story behind a restaurant or if a restaurant may be just having a bad day or maybe they’re burdened by short staff, they [are] not looking at all that is going around — yet still they may just blast a restaurant,” said Burgess.

For that reason, she explained that during the COVID period, she made no negative reviews, and despite being present she would write no review if it was a poor experience. Rather, Burgess sent the owner a letter of what transpired to allow the owners to properly address staff and correct the issues.

“I think we all just need to be a little more understanding of what is happening, instead of blasting restaurants or laughing about it and sharing so more people see what happen, see how we can help instead of making the situation worst,” she pleaded. “If we continue like this, we will have restaurateurs give up.”

On the other hand, she says restaurateurs also have a role to play to keep their staff motivated to carry out their duties. She is urging restaurateurs to find innovative ways to reward their staff for their good work. While recognising the current economic climate, she says a sign of recognition or gift might not be enough to keep staff interested. With money being a major need, she says consideration can be given to a new approach where extra compensation is added to a well-performing staff member’s paycheck.

“If this staff member is bringing in some more diners just by their star hospitality— sometimes that’s why you go to places, because of the great service and the food — so I would say extra compensation in that regard,” she recommended.