IT’S HARD to imagine happy-go-lucky Aussie Matt Wilkin getting flustered, but he remembers struggling to keep up with the hectic pace of working in an Australian holiday resort early in his career.
“The busiest service nights of my life were in my second ever job, about 20 years ago in a big ski lodge in Victoria,” he recalls. “It was always absolutely rammed. Between 6 and 6:30pm you’d get seven or eight tables all ordering at the same time – I ran my arse off! I was fried by the end of those five months but I was 18 at the time and it was good fun. It was a good life-learning period.”
One crucial thing he learned during that time was the importance of teamwork: “It was my first time away from home, and I was staying in staff accommodation – it was the strongest team environment I’ve ever experienced.”
He has kept that team mentality with him to this day, and says it can be crucial when dealing with busy periods in a restaurant: “You have to talk to each other – everyone falls behind at different times but it doesn’t take too long to sort out if everyone jumps in.”
He stresses that good management can help to avoid chaotic situations where service is disrupted by staff neglecting their own duties to help colleagues: “That’s what managers are there to do – fill in the gaps and facilitate preparation, communication, balance and control.”
His advice for anyone feeling the pressure at a busy time is to “stop for a second, take a deep breath, and collect and recover your thoughts.” He even advocates staff briefly removing themselves from a situation in order to reflect: “If you find yourself getting flustered, take yourself away from it all, think about where you’re at, and go again.”
When things do get heavy, Wilkin says that it is important to be open and honest with customers. “Direct eye contact is essential – you need to acknowledge people. Smile, be honest, apologise if necessary; they just need to see your facial expression and know that they’ve been registered.”
Above all else, Wilkin maintains that character and attitude are the key to keeping your cool: “A career in front-of-house isn’t for everyone, and you need to have the right temperament to let things slide and to recognise that your own issues aren’t so important,” he says.
“There are always good and bad customers, but there are always reasons why someone is having a bad day,” he continues, “A customer can have a go at you and it might not be your fault.
“You have to remind yourself you’re on stage and there are reasons why things go wrong – you can’t afford to dwell on those.”
