For Bill Kitsilis, owner of Angelo’s Palace Pizza in Cumberland, banning customers from his family restaurant would have been unthinkable a year ago.
But that was before COVID-19 and a few incidences of customers becoming belligerent with young employees after refusing to follow public health guidelines amid the pandemic.
He’s told two customers not to return.
“There were a lot of mixed messages from the government about if we should wear masks or not and how effective they really were,” said Kitsilis. “And when we asked guests to wear their masks, they started to argue and even swear at my employees.
“I just can’t have that.”
Kitsilis is just one restaurant owner in a state of many who have gone through this same issue – people not wanting to adhere to public health guidelines that have been made mandatory by the state. If restaurants don’t insist their customers – and employees – comply, they could be at risk of being fined or being shut down by state inspectors.
“We’re taking a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to bars that, by blatantly flaunting Rhode Island’s COVID-19 requirements, are hurting the entire industry, are jeopardizing the safety of customers and communities,” said R.I. Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole-Alexander Scott earlier this month.
The Rhode Island Hospitality Education Foundation, an industry organization that provides classes for the workforce to maintain standards of professionalism and certification, saw the need early on to help restaurant owners and their employees navigate difficult situations like these. The foundation created a new series of classes called “Boost Your Service.”
“Customer service is customer service,” said Heather Singleton, chief operating officer of the foundation and the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. “But what we are dealing with right now during the pandemic is that managers, employees and customers all have rising stress levels. The anxiety has risen.”
And de-escalating consumer issues, worries and complaints is one of their latest ventures to tackle during these new training classes.
“It’s almost like we have to figure out a better way to have emotional intelligence with customers while also understanding the new COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions,” said Singleton.
For months, restaurant restrictions were changing weekly – from being limited to curbside pickup, to being able to dine outside. Now indoor dining is allowed at reduced capacity and some bar seats are allowed to be occupied, as long as there are separators between the customers and the bartender.
While some rules are mandatory statewide – such as employees keeping their masks on throughout their shift – some of the rules vary by establishment. One of Kitsilis’ biggest issues is customers not keeping their face masks on while they place an order with a server, a guideline not enforced at some restaurants. Kitsilis tells his servers to back up another 6 feet and encourage customers to keep their masks on while ordering.
“Usually what we hear the most is that employees are interpreting guidelines one way and the consumers are interpreting restrictions another way,” said Singleton.
Kitsilis enrolled six managers and key servers for the “Boost Your Service” course to hit the “reset button” on customer service during pandemic regulations. Not only has it helped his staff navigate potential confrontations with customers but the course has let his staff know that he’s willing to invest in them.
Rummy Pandit, dean of the College of Hospitality Management at Johnson & Wales University, said training for employees to defuse confrontations is becoming more common across the industry, including in the classrooms at JWU.
“It’s not that the customer is always right; it’s that the customer is always key,” said Pandit. “Give the best service, but enforce today’s rules.”
The foundation is also branching out to meet the needs of more workers in the industry.
For a large segment of the state’s hospitality workforce, including business owners, English is a second language, making the de-escalation of confrontation more difficult. To combat this, the foundation has hired a bilingual trainer so that courses are available in Spanish.
“Dealing with food safety is not an easy course as it is,” said Singleton. “And now we’re adding virus information and ways to protect public health. One of the things that prevents [Spanish-speaking employees] from moving up the ladder is their lack of English skills. Now we can give them that same level of certification and education.”
Beyond customer service, Singleton said, the foundation offers courses that could give a leg up to those looking to advance in the hospitality sector. Those courses include food safety, pathways to management, and technical programs for teenagers in Rhode Island’s high schools with culinary classes.
“If I’m an employer and am looking at two students’ applications who both don’t have work experience but one has gone through these classes, I’m always going to choose that student with training,” Singleton said.
At Angelo’s, Kitsilis said the confrontations with customers declined, especially since many of the same rules for restaurants have remained unchanged for months.
“There are flare-ups of when people don’t want to comply, of course,” he said. “But it’s just about having your staff be diligent enough and having the guts to tell customers that they need to follow the rules.”
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com.