This journal purpose is to debate if the skills required from a Food and Beverage employee changes in accordance with the business type, or, on the contrary, it remains unchanged. The content is based on my experience as a customer to various establishments and reflects the theory I have learned during class and how I aim to apply it in the future. I used Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle throughout this journal, therefore, there are five key points: the description of the event, the evaluation of both positive and negative aspects of the event, the analysis of the situation from my point of view, my conclusion expressing what I would have done differently, and finally an action plan (Gibbs, 1988).
“The server plays an important role in a noble profession. The skills and knowledge of food and beverage service are transferable between establishments, sectors and throughout the world” (Cousins and Weekes, 2020, p. 45). Skills are classified into hard and soft, hard skills refer to skills that are certified by a degree or certificate, usually skills learned in school, such as college degree, or languages fluency, and soft skills are each individual particular abilities gained not through school, but through work experiences, such as communication, work ethic, teamwork, or problem solving. Although hard skills contrast soft skills, they are equally important. (Institute of hospitality, 2022). As a customer I have experienced both bad and excellent service. I once celebrated my birthday at a four-star hotel’s restaurant and experienced bad service, basically our food order was wrongly taken to the table, our drinks order was mistaken, and when it was time for cake, we were offered napkins although when I booked, I was told that for cake I will receive plates and spoons. Looking back now, with the knowledges acquired during lectures I can analyse the situation from the skills perspective. Firstly, the manager should have been there supporting the waiter as she was new and had two tables next to each other, both celebrating a special occasion and with approximately 40 people in total, I strongly believe she felt overwhelmed and that added to the lack of experience made it very easy for her to commit errors in her service. I think teamwork was missing, and probably that waiter didn’t have proper training. As Wood defines it, the term beverage refers to all liquids considered drinks, and lately non-alcoholic drinks have met an increased popularity, therefore successful beverage management will imply versability with the opportunity to upsell beverages to the cuisine businesses (Wood, 2013). I once visited a Turkish restaurant in London and at arrival we were walked to our table, offered drinks straight away, were presented chef’s specials, and received free appetisers while waiting for our order. To me, that was not just a great example of upselling, professional attitude, and excellent customer care, but also great use of marketing tool to offer customers something for free so that they will feel they owe you and therefore overorder (LinkedIn, 2015). University classes gave me a much richer comprehension and changed my vision, I now understand that a great set of skills or the lack of skills can generate a great or bad service. I believe that a possible way to address bad service is continuous improvement. According to Johnston the path for success in this industry is continuous improvement, staff should be continuously trained, managers should be continuously learning, organisations should not be afraid of implementing this approach but on the contrary, they would only gain benefits ( Johnston, 2012). I strongly agree and I will use another personal experience that will reflect why I support it. I was a guest at a five stars hotel located in Bournemouth, UK on two different occasions two years apart. At our first stay the service was excellent, however, during our second stay the service was even better. The hotel clearly had a continuous improvement approach, their website stated a change of menu to reflect their support towards cultural diversity. I now realise that my experience was even better the second time because the hotel realised customers value and worked towards meeting expectations; being a seaside hotel with guests around the world it is impetuously necessary to focus on culture. I was extremely pleasant to see in the hotel restaurant menu food from my country, alongside with dishes from other countries.
To conclude, the set of skills should not change depending on the business type. I clearly don’t know the hard skills of the servers that were subject in the events I presented; however, I experienced their soft skills and I believe that if I decide to go to a hotel, or a restaurant, or a coffee house, or any other type of establishment where I am served, I expect the same, which is to be taken care of.