Johannesburg - There are plenty of marketing clichés emphasising the importance of dedicated employees to the success of their brand: our people are our best asset, we go the extra mile for you, how can we help you?
And, in South Africa, many of these hackneyed phrases backfire because staff are incompetent, indifferent, lazy or just plain rude.
Johan Scheepers, general manager of Sun International’s recently opened hotel in Sandton, The Maslow, is well aware that, in the hospitality business, service is the make or break ingredient.
He knows The Maslow is a strikingly different hotel – “We wanted something modern, yet elegant... an island of peace in the middle of the business rush...” he says. But, “without committed staff…”
So staff have been carefully chosen from those with and without experience because they can bring a professional, but personal, touch to what they do, says Scheepers.
And, while he may say all of the important marketing-speak things, the proof of this particular pudding is in the eating... in what visitors say.
And, on websites like TripAdvisor, there have been a lot more compliments than complaints.
Like this one, from a US real estate marketer, who travels often in Africa and South Africa.
She wrote: “Unfortunately, I got sick on the plane en route to Johannesburg. I slept one night at the hotel, and didn’t feel any better. The next day I asked the concierge, Lynn Ott, for assistance in arranging transportation to the emergency room where I was kept overnight.
“I looked up at midnight and was shocked when the nurse was telling me I had a visitor. No one knew I was there. Who was it? The Maslow concierge – Lynn! She knew I was a woman travelling in South Africa on my own and stopped by on her way home from her shift – at midnight. Now is that going beyond the call of duty or what?
“I can give many other examples of how room service sent a bottle of wine when they made a mistake on my order and how the front desk printed documents for me, but what Lynn did in visiting me at the emergency room is what won the day.”
When I meet Lynn Ott, who is actually in charge of guest relations, she doesn’t want to make a big deal about it: “I was just concerned about her and wanted to let her know she wasn’t really alone.”
Ott has been in the hospitality business for a while. She does it, she says, because “I love meeting people... and I don’t look on our guests as numbers or just customers... “
Later, when I am sitting in the hotel’s Lacuna Bistro, contemplating what to order, I meet another one of Johan’s people. Ronny Seshoka is the epitome of what a professional waiter should be: friendly (without getting in your space); knowledgeable and efficient. And, in the hotel business, he is an asset because he is adept at the art of “upselling” – encouraging me to have the dessert, which is next to impossible after the first two courses.
Seshoka tells me he relishes the opportunity of working at a place like The Maslow: “It is so interesting meeting the different people here – they come from Africa, Europe, the States – and then it is a matter of pride for me that they have a good experience here...”
Seshoka
comes from Limpopo and says he is learning all about the art of good service.
Food and beverage manager Patrick Fisher tells me later Seshoka was so keen to get the job he worked for his first three nights for nothing (the contract had not been finalised, although it was later and he was backpaid).
I wonder, not for the first time: Is there not a way that the big hospitality groups – Sun International, Tsogo Sun, Protea Hotels – can spread this customer care message to the rest of South Africa, where it is sorely lacking.
While Seshoka waits in the background, I choose a cream of cauliflower soup with smoked olive oil, followed by a medium-rare ribeye steak accompanied by a Sichuan pepper jus.
The soup is outstanding. There is no other word to describe it. And, when I travel, I consider a pepper steak, or variations thereof, my standard test for judging an establishment. Lacuna Bistro’s ribeye and jus are easily in the top three.
It is easy to see why the hotel and the Lacuna Bistro and its accompanying bar and lounge, have become the new fashionable place to eat.
On Fridays, the bar particularly is the place to celebrity spot. Over weekends, there is a buffet and live music around the pool, making it an interesting local option for lunch.
But The Maslow is, primarily, a business hotel and has a number of offerings making it a popular choice for local companies, either for their own staff from around the country or for contacts from abroad.
The hotel offers free wifi in the rooms and in some public areas. It also offers expensive coffee machines in the rooms which elevate the morning brew from something ordinary to something special.
The concierge service, run by Ott and her staff, is adept at handling most requests – and, the hotel also offers a range of conference and events areas, ranging from ballrooms to boardrooms.
The hotel was originally a Holiday Inn property and has been well over a year in reconstruction. The result is something more European in flavour than South African. The Maslow succeeds in creating that a mental oasis blocks away from the noise and bustle of Sandton centre.
Sipping coffee in the lobby, looking over a complimentary copy of The Star, I realise, the marketing slogan of The Maslow is apt: The mind’s preoccupation relies on the body’s location...
Lacuna Bistro Cauliflower soup with olive oil
1kg cauliflower florets only (no stems)
100g chopped white onion
1 litre fresh cream
500ml of vegetable stock
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp picked thyme
Salt and white pepper to taste
Method
Shallow fry onions with garlic and thyme to release flavours, no colour on the onions.
Add the remaining ingredients and heat, avoid boiling.
Once the cauliflower is cooked remove from the heat
Blend all the ingredients into a smooth puree, season to taste
Strain the cauliflower puree through a fine sieve
Cauliflower soup now ready to serve
l For this recipe we smoke our own olive oil, but for home a nice cheesy crouton will do the trick. - Saturday Star