Words To Avoid In Customer Service

For those of us in customer service rolls we understand how difficult it is to please everyone. There is no cut and dry manual for dealing with the public; even if you have the best of intentions, inevitably, at some point, you will offend or irritate someone. The best we can do is to familiarize ourselves with practices and phrases that most often offend and omit them from our greetings and day to day interactions with our guests.

I work in an environment with people who are just starting in the hospitality industry, many of whom are at least 10 years my junior. I cringe every time I hear the words "No Problem" or "You Guys" used in conversation with guests. For me, these two phrases are big no no's in the service industry and will inevitably lead to irritating someone in your charge. 

Addressing people for the first time and throughout a dining experience is a tricky task. For men, Sir, Mister or gentlemen work just fine. For women, it can be very complicated. There's Miss, Mrs, Ms, Ma'am, ladies, girls and so on. You can offend a young-hearted lady by calling her Ma'am, or a distinguished lady by calling her Miss, or a group of 40 somethings by referring to them as Girls. The verbiage can be very tricky to navigate, especially when your goal is to fly under the radar and make people happy. 

I recently read an article about gender addressing that changed my view completely on addressing guests in a restaurant. Have you ever approached a table with a big smile on your face and a warm greeting of "Hello Ladies!" only to realize that one of those 'ladies' is, in fact, a man? I have, and I felt terrible and if I felt that awful about uttering the word, I can only imagine how awful he felt after I said it. In my opening line, my very first approach at the table, I ruined the experience for the guest. It doesn't matter if the rest of the meal was absolutely stellar, the service impeccable, all he will remember is how I referred to him as a lady. I've also experienced the flip side of that scenario, where I referred to a lady with a short crop as 'Sir', again, feeling absolutely terrible. I did everything in my power to rectify the situation, but there was really nothing I could do to take back that inadvertent insult. Since then, and after reading this article,  I have abandoned all gender specific words in my service tactics. Ruining someone's day isn't worth the ease of everyday language.  

Guests should not have to identify their gender or make excuses for their appearance, nor should they have to be categorized by the person serving them. As professionals in a customer service capacity it is our duty to ensure that guests leave with a smile on their face and a satisfaction in knowing that the money they spent was well worth it, categorizing guests does not fall into that equation. It is inappropriate to refer to a group of people, both male and female, as "You Guys". I've been hearing it more and more in the younger generation as a casual grouping of people: "Let me show you guys to your table.". Why does the male prefix take precedent over the female members of the group? Why do you need to add a gender to that phrase at all? "Let me show you to your table." "How are you all doing?" .  Bottom line is this: there is nothing casual or friendly about ruining someone's day by either mis-gendering them, or insulting their place in society with a gender specific word: guy, lady, sir. Try: "Hello there!" or "Hi Folks! How are you today?". You'll find that most of your customer service phrases work just fine without the gender attached. 

Another irritating phrase I'm hearing more and more is the "No Problem!" when I ask for something from a service personnel. Albeit a casual, friendly way of saying, "Of course I can get you what you want", it implies that under slightly different circumstances that it might, in fact, be a problem. When conversing with guests avoid the use of any negative language, even if you mean it in a positive way. "No Problem!" could easily be "Absolutely!" or "My Pleasure." both of which use only positive language and avoid the suggestion that what they are asking for might be some sort of 'problem', or inconvenience to you. Keep your words positive to ensure that guests use positive words when it comes to describe you and the service they received!

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