Hospitality

‘There is a perception that customers are more aggressive these days.’

You just can’t get the staff these days… That is the resounding cry in restaurants, cafés and pubs across the UK, which remain hampered by staff shortages. Yotam Ottolenghi’s group of eight restaurants joined other major players late last year in saying staffing is a challenge. Rick Stein’s group, which runs 10 restaurants in the UK and is one of the largest private employers in Cornwall, said staffing issues had made trading more difficult in 2022.

Kate Nicholls, CEO of trade body Ukhospitality, suggests they are down to an unhappy cocktail of factors, including demographics. One business owner has a theory to offer, too. ‘The overall issue was Brexit,’ says Dee Rettali, owner of Fortitude Bakehouse, a craft bakery in London. ‘You went from having a lot of choice with staff to thinking, how do we do this? We have very few English people working for us because there just isn’t that take-up.’

At some restaurants, menus and hours have been reduced as a result. Staff shortages forced Michel Roux Jr to cancel lunch service at his two-michelinstarred restaurant Le Gavroche in 2021 ‘until further notice’. It never restarted; last month, Le Gavroche closed its doors for good as Roux sought a ‘better worklife balance’.

In some ways, the pandemic was the tipping point. As measures such as Qr-code menus and one-way walkways left customers with a sour taste in their mouths, many hospitality businesses struggled to stay afloat. All of this has a knock-on effect on service. Meanwhile, customers have become more demanding.

‘There is a perception that people are more aggressive these days,’ says consumer rights expert Martyn James. One theory is that as eating out has become more expensive, customers’ expectations have heightened: according to ONS data, prices in restaurants and cafés rose by 9.1 per cent in the year to September 2023.

Presenter James Corden was briefly banned from Balthazar in New York in October 2022 for allegedly shouting at a waiter, ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’ Restaurateur Keith Mcnally accused Corden of being Balthazar’s ‘most abusive customer’ in 25 years. But it’s not just celebrities.

‘I get people moaning about the food or the service not being good enough,’ says Martyn James. ‘Lots of things have consequences you don’t even think of; everyone used cash [precovid], whereas now everyone pays on card and tip jars are empty, which means the tips that used to triple your wages aren’t [there].’

According to ICS data, 31 per cent of customer-facing workers have contemplated leaving their roles due to abuse from customers. Just 21 per cent of people aged 16 to 21 think customer service is a respected career in the UK.

But Jo Causon remains optimistic. ‘Customer service is a very different proposition [now than] five to 10 years ago. I would actually be saying it’s a more exciting opportunity,’ she says. ‘The onus is on us, as organisations, to make those attractive jobs and demonstrate that customer service isn’t a job [to] do until another job comes around. Customer service is a profession.’

As eating out has become more expensive, expectations have heightened