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Feature - Surviving the high-season

How customers can work with staff to create fun experiences for all involved.

By Kara-Leah Grant

’Tis the season to be jolly, but when you’re skiing all day, working all night and fitting the fun in around the edges, jolliness can melt as easily as spring snow.

But for Whistler’s frontline staff, maintaining a smiley exterior is just a part of the job, even when your customers seem to do absolutely everything they can to make that job as difficult as possible.

But remember, those guests are probably just as tired as the staff. They also skied all day, probably after partying all night. Since getting off the hill, they’ve most likely waited in line at the post office to send last minute Christmas cards, they’ve waited in line to buy groceries for pre-dinner cheeses, waited in line at the liquor store for wine to go with the cheese and they’ll definitely wait to get a table at almost any restaurant in the village when they head out for dinner.

After dinner, they’ll stand in the cold, waiting to get into a club, and once they get into the club, they have to wait to get a drink, wait for the bathrooms… wait, wait, wait. It’s enough to bring out the Grinch in the jolliest of people.

But before you feel too sorry for people here on vacation, celebrating Christmas and New Year’s in a virtual Winter Wonderland, remember, they’re not working Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve, or New Year’s Day. That’s reserved for Whistler’s worker bees (Thanks to Max for use of his trademarked phrase. The cheque’s in the mail. Or it would have been, if I could have made it past the post office line up.)

But, there is one ingredient which both sides can add to the mix, which guarantees to grease all transactions and ensure no nastiness erupts at the checkout, or in the taxi loop, or outside the club. Best of all, this ingredient costs nothing and it’s really, really easy. It’s simply called etiquette.

Defined as "the rules and conventions governing correct or polite behaviour in society in general or in a particular social or professional group or situation," etiquette is an old-fashioned sounding word but it’s a necessary component of modern life.

As a great man once said, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and we all like it when people show a little etiquette.

Jeff Cockle is the head doorman at Tommy Africa’s. He’s seen a lot of line-ups in his time, dealt with a lot of people, broken up a lot of fights. He exudes the calm exterior of a man who knows the best way to deal with people and that way is respect. Cockle believes the most important thing when working the door of any club is to treat all customers like you’re welcoming them into your home.

"I always greet people and ask them how their night is going. I look them in the eye and really talk to them," explains Cockle. "Partly I do it because I’m figuring out how drunk they are, what type of mood they are in, if they might be trouble later on, and partly because if I start by being respectful and polite it gives guests zero reason to be disrespectful to me."

But it doesn’t mean they won’t be. Cockle says that 2003 has been a good year for etiquette, but some people still forget their please and thank yous.

"With less locals at Tommy’s this year, I have noticed that our guests are more polite," says Cockle. "Some locals expect to get through the line immediately and while I don’t mind looking after locals, they have to treat us with respect. Otherwise, I’ll stop them right there and suggest we start over or they don’t come in. Sometimes even your friends think they can talk to you in an incorrect way when they get drunk in the bar."

Cockle is relaxed and laid back about his job, surprising in an occupation that almost guarantees conflict. He sees it as part of his job and a way to diffuse tension before it occurs. It’s something people notice.

"Most people expect a doorman to be a tough guy, but that’s not what it’s all about so when I’m told I am doing a good job, it’s is nice," says Cockle. "When someone walks up to you at the door and shakes your hand and speaks to you nicely, it makes your day. People giving us respect makes our job better."

It’s a sentiment that’s echoed throughout the service industry. Whether someone is driving cabs, driving buses, bussing tables, serving tables, slinging drinks or making subs, frontline staff appreciate nothing more than getting respect from their customers.

Scott Musgrave has worked in the service industry for over a decade and still loves what he does. Currently a bartender at Tommy Africa’s, he believes that regardless of the grief some customers might give you throughout the night, it’s your number one priority to treat all your customers with care and respect.

"You have to roll with the punches and be positive. If you let the bad customers put you in a bad mood, then you pass that along to the next people you serve," says Musgrave. "Service staff have to remember that, even when they are stressed out."

Despite the love he has for his job, like most people in the service industry, Musgrave can talk right into next week about the things that customers do that drive him crazy. These are small things, little things, the things that those of us who haven’t worked in the service industry before don’t even realize are bad etiquette.

"I hate it when people do a shot and then slam the empty glass upside down on the bar," says Musgrave. "It breaks the glasses, spills the alcohol and makes a mess. Why people do it, I’ll never know. But I wouldn’t go into someone’s home and slam a glass upside down on their table. It’s just bad manners."

But when you first start going to a bar and all your buddies are slamming their shot glasses upside down on the bar, you’re not going to know it’s bad etiquette. It’s these small things that make a difference in the high season when nerves get raw. Add alcohol to the mix and that’s when the trouble starts.

"Common sense goes a long way," says Musgrave. "I don’t walk into people’s offices and hassle them, but people do it in a club because they’re drunk and they don’t have any respect for people working in clubs. Treat me with respect. Show me etiquette."

Musgrave says he sees his job as an agreement between the customer and himself and it’s vital that respect is shown both ways.

"I’m good at my job, but I’m only as good as the people I’m serving. If you waste my time, you’re going to slow me down and other people will have to wait longer. You do your part of the agreement well and I can do mine well and we’ll both be happy," says Musgrave.

"I hate it when I’m busy doing 10 things and somebody looks at you and snaps, waves or whistles. I’ll give him the one-minute sign and he throws up his hands like he’s been waiting for 10 minutes when he just got there. Then when I get to him and ask him what he wants, he turns around and asks his friends what they want, keeping me waiting… Basically, he’s disorganized but gets annoyed at me because he thinks I’m the one being inefficient."

But frontline staff stress that not all customers are like this. Most are good. Some are even great. Next time you go into a club or restaurant, instead of worrying about whether or not you are going to get great service, why not worry about whether or not you are going to be a great customer? After all, it is better to give than to receive.

"A great customer is a person that know what my job is and what my limitations are," says Musgrave. "It’s customers that regulate other customers behaviour that really make my night. They’ll turn around to someone else and tell them they are being an idiot. That’s great because then it means I don’t have to get upset at a customer, plus the idiot is more likely to listen to someone who is on the same side of the bar as them."

Kat Frew is a server at the Longhorn Saloon. She has a degree with a double major in psychology and psychiatry and says she also loves her job.

"For me, serving is all about creating a good experience for the customer, not just bringing them drinks and food, but really entertaining them," says Frew. "When I do my job really well, it means customers come back and look for my section the next day, the next week, and even the next year."

Like Musgrave and Cockle, Frew says the biggest thing customers can do to make her job easier and their experience awesome is to follow etiquette.

"Quality of service is a subjective thing and a busy server will treat you the way you treat them," says Frew. "I’m not a servant so don’t snap your fingers at me, and do say please and thank you. It really does matter and I hate to say it, but if you’re rude to me when you first sit down, it’s unlikely you’ll get great service."

Once also a Longhorn server, but now working at the Amsterdam, Shelby Wouters has a bachelor of Fine Arts and says she’s amazed at how rude people will be to service staff because they see them as ‘lower’ than themselves.

"Most of us have degrees, but even if we’re not as highly educated, we’re all people and there is no reason to talk down to staff," says Wouters. "Treat the staff the way you’d like to be talked to and you’ll get better service and have more fun. And who doesn’t want to have more fun?"

Both women have worked many Christmas days and surprisingly say there is no doubt it is the absolute worst day of the year to work, not just because the money is terrible and people don’t tip, but because people don’t seem to have any Christmas spirit at all.

"A lot of staff in Whistler never have Christmas because we work that day and it is no fun at all," says Frew. "If I could have one present from my customers this year, I would ask them to be happy and cheerful and show some Christmas spirit when they come into the ’Horn. I can make their day fun for them if they help make it fun for me."

The Longhorn is the busiest après bar in North America and that means it can take time to get a beer. Frew says there is nothing better than a customer who appreciates that fact.

"I love it when people recognize it’s busy and acknowledge it," says Frew. "Even when I am super busy, you can get away with being high maintenance if you’re super nice about it and understand my limitations – I don’t make your food or drinks, I just deliver the messages and bring it out."

The Christmas season in Whistler is a high-energy time, but it doesn’t have to be a high stress time. Frontline staff agree that etiquette and respect smooth everything over and combine to create better experiences for all involved. Next time you’re out and about, next time you’re starting to get annoyed at waiting for a table, or a drink, or your food, put yourself in the staff’s shoes. How would you like to be spoken to? How would you like to be treated? And do it. Treat them as you would like to be treated yourself.



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