A lady guest to your hotel or restaurant can be your biggest critic as well as she can be the person who would pursue her friends or family to return to your restaurant for a second time. Serving the ladies is more of an art and if correctly done, it could mean a long term customer for your food and beverage business.

The restaurant management should ensure that its serving staff can serve the ladies in a very professional manner as well as learn etiquettes that can impress the lady guests.

Here are some important things that the food and beverage serving staff needs to understand:

Ladies are sensitive- Most of the ladies are quite sensitive about the way they are treated at a restaurant or a hotel, bad or below standard treatment can offend them. This is especially true if there is a sole travelling lady.

It’s a male chauvinistic society- In most parts of the world it is believed that the men are attended first due to the male dominance in the society. This male chauvinistic approach can be very annoying to the female hence you have to be very careful that the female guest is attended to at all point of time.

Women have moved to powerful positions- With the passage of time a lot of women have contributed to the society and have gained a powerful social as well as professional position. It is important that the serving staff can show respect towards them.

So, what’s the food and beverage staff expected to do?

• Whenever you serve any food or drink, make it a point that the lady guest is served first.
• Pull the chair to help the lady sit. This is a norm mentioned in almost every service SOP or restaurant training manual and is also a very important step to make the lady guest feel special.
• If a lady is alone at your restaurant or hotel, make sure that you can greet her and also have small talks to keep her entertained while she waits for her food (this needs to be done only if the lady looks restless or out of place). The don’ts for the service staff
• Staring at the lady guest
• Ignoring
• Asking questions that can be too personal or annoying
• Making the lone lady sit near the entrance or toilet doors

What the hotel/restaurant management needs to do?

• Compliment the lady on her attire or appearance (wherever and whenever applicable).
• Offer her a room that is not too far from the elevator.

With all these points a restaurant management can ensure that the lady guest coming for a good food and beverage experience is correctly attended.

This will not only enhance your reputation as a respectable food and beverage business but will also get you a lot of loyal female guests, hopefully followed by males who come after these females.