Exclusive Interview | Deepika Sethi,Brand Head OMO-Soul Food Community, AMPM Cafe
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The ability to come up with instant creative solutions & handling multiple responsibilities proactively will surely put you on Success Path in Food & Hospitality industry.
Deepika Sethi Brand Head Omo Soul Food
Share with us some interesting anecdotes from your experience of setting up multiple brands/offerings.
Experience of setting up multiple brands is faced with the challenge of delivering a unique and top-notch experience for every customer at your table. Notable points like lasting impression customers have of your brand, their thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and reactions to everything from serving efforts to feedback efforts. These activities made me expand my branches to manage new projects for the company and ensure its flawless execution. In business, the scope of learning and experimenting never ends. It’s all about the experience on the floor and being around in the business, understanding what the customers are looking for.
What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
The hospitality industry is itself a broad category of fields within the field of service, which includes various avenues. According to me, academic training is not enough to thrive and plunge into success in the field of hospitality. In the service industry, it is the little things that make a difference. It is the little things that make a guest’s experience truly extraordinary. This requires one to be hyper-vigilant about every detail from the top to the bottom, ranging from sourcing ingredients, cooking and enhancing food flavours in the best possible way, addressing customer queries and serving before time, to obtaining feedback. One needs to be proactive to handle multiple responsibilities smoothly and simultaneously. The ability to come up with instant creative solutions, and implement visionary ideas to offer the best possible outcome is the key to differentiating you and all other brands in the field of hospitality.
What are the attributes you look for while selecting or hiring? If someone wants to work with you, what should they do?
When hiring hospitality staff, it is more than to look at their professional experience. Understanding personality traits in the hospitality industry is an essential element of recruiting process. After all, working as a restaurant manager, concierge or general manager requires an ongoing commitment to input an exceptional guest experience. There are certain skills which I make sure are induced in a prospective employee to ensure assertiveness in every way possible. Great communication is a vital skill for all hospitality staff, which indicates how employees interact with others and how they will approach customer service. This industry is undoubtfully fast-paced but there is no excuse for a drop in quality. The best type of hospitality staff will find satisfaction from looking after the needs of others, often putting themselves in second place. I make sure to assess the candidate’s adaptability in the interview by throwing out a question they may not be expecting and seeing how they respond, which tells about their approach to handling and responding to unexpected situations.
What is the one tech/app/software feature you would like to see? This could be for guests, operations, etc.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software has become a near-vital tool for all businesses. CRM is something which not only benefits customers but also is a win-win approach for the brand. It can be used to gather customer interactions in one central place to improve customer experience and satisfaction. CRM not only ensures better customer service, and boost sales but also induces improved customer retention as a guest can leave their valuable feedback in a constructive way. Also, in this CRM the guest can experience their own visit history and recall cherished moments. “Not all customers are equal, so the value of a CRM is that it helps you keep the right customers and input your precious pennies towards customers that will return the highest value over their customer lifetime.
