The resto where staff gets top billing

Paul Manuud

The Bistro Group is the biggest international casual dining chain in the Philippines with 17 major restaurant brands like Italianni’s, TGIFridays, Fish & Co. and Watami, to cite a few.

Bistro Group president Paul Manuud shares his insights on creating memories in service.

Q1: What is the service philosophy of The Bistro Group? How is it reflected and how does it differentiate the group?

A: We live by the philosophy of “guaranteed satisfaction,” which means guests’ experience should be flawless in all of our restaurants. If there’s anything that happens in a restaurant where we failed to guarantee the guests’ satisfaction, our people are empowered to make decisions on the ground. They don’t have to ask permission from their superiors to act immediately in making things right.

We turn garbage into gold. We are not perfect. Most of us make mistakes once in a while, but one thing we can [assure] our guests: We know how to correct our mistakes. So our philosophy is all about the overall experience that is impeccable.

What we want to achieve is always making sure our customers leave our restaurants happy. We don’t actually want to compare or differentiate Bistro with other restaurants because we always [set benchmarks for] ourselves. What we say or promise to do, we always deliver on the ground.

All [the playbooks in] the restaurant industry in the Philippines are one and the same—everything is all about excellence in service and for customer satisfaction.

What will set Bistro apart from others is that we execute what we promise to do. We walk the talk. We may not promise a lot of things to our guests but when we say so, we make it happen.

We make sure our guests will experience the kind of warmth that when they dine in our restaurants, they feel the warmth and immediately recognize that they are in a Bistro restaurant.

Q2: Your employees are the face of The Bistro Group. How do you ensure they carry out their service mission well?

A: We believe that our employees are the best assets of the company so we take care of [them] and [they are] the most important people in our organization. We place them above and before our guests because we always believe that if you take good care of your employees or team members, they will take care of you and the company. They will also take care of your guests.

Our organization is very “soft” on people, but we are very “hard” on results. We value their opinions. We don’t shortchange anyone and we make sure they are happy and content with what they receive financially. We reward them with incentives. And most importantly, we treat them as “owners” of this company.

Q3: What service management practices do you do in Bistro? Why do you do these?

A: The culture of excellence is uniquely Bistro. We strive to excel in everything we do. We are the best and the worst critics of our products and concepts.

Personally, I don’t ask or require any employee anything that I couldn’t do myself. That’s my basic management principle. If I ask them to take care of our guests, they would see me in our restaurants taking care of our guests. If I want them to go to work early, you won’t see me arrive late in the office.

Q4: In terms of service culture, how do you get everyone on the same page about service that delights customers?

A: There is consistency in everything we do. From me, my vice presidents, director for operations—we all are consistent. I will go back to what I have mentioned that I do not ask my staff to do what I know I couldn’t do myself.

We roll up our sleeves to engage, work and delight the customers. Our operations people do not have a permanent office. Our operations team practices the “prime time culture”. During prime time—which is lunch and dinner—all our officers have to be “on the floor,” observing restaurant operations.

Nobody eats when guests are eating. You will see our directors and vice presidents rolling up their sleeves, working with the restaurant staff. This [is our culture]. It’s developed over the years, influenced by the owners then imbibed by the employees.

We are lucky to belong to a company that has a high regard for people and values culture.—CONTRIBUTED