BTA Catering Operation Training Consultant Bülent Ödev:

“A smile makes a big difference”

BTA Catering Operations Training Consultant Bülent Ödev is a graduate of the Tourism and Hotel management Department at Istanbul University. From 1990 onwards, he worked for 11 years on cruise ships for a major American company in various posts, from bellboy to assistant manager of a restaurant. During this period he also studied Hospitality Management at the American Hotel Motel Association (AHMA). He returned to Turkey in 2002 and since then he has been working at BTA Catering. Besides his post as Operations Training Consultant, he also trains service personnel and chefs who are involved in face-to-face communication with guests. The training comes under three headings:
• Customer Satisfaction and Smiling
• Complaints Management
• Techniques for Boosting Sales.

WE DON’T WANT SULKING WAITERS!

Stating that, “We decided to stay outside the system and to be the ‘Purple Cow,’” Bülent Ödev goes on to say: “In Tourism and Hotel Management education in Turkey there generally is the tendency to train “Engineer Waiters.” For example, it is always said that it is necessary to “be Cheerful,” but it is difficult to internalize it. Turkish people have a strong stance against laughing and smiling; it’s a cultural thing. It is difficult to break that stance by simply saying that one must smile and be cheerful.”

CELEBRITIES WERE ASKED FOR THEIR VIEWS

Ödev says that, with the support of TAV’s management, he has decided to prepare DVDs to be used during training, to show what a difference being cheerful makes. He has therefore conducted mini-interviews with celebrities coming to the Atatürk Airport, asking them one by one what they expected from a waiter. The celebrities include Güler Sabancı, Can Dündar, Erman Toroğlu, Acun Ilıcalı and İlhan Mansız. He says, “They all said different things, but the point where they agreed was ‘cheerfulness.’ Watching these DVDs convinced our colleagues a little more and we achieved good returns on cheerfulness.” He adds, “As someone working in this sector, I believe that it is the waiters who make a difference in restaurants above a certain standard. What causes people to return to a restaurant is the waiters as much as the food. We suggest to our employees that they should be respectfully cordial and cheerful without actually becoming too familiar. If the atmosphere is right, they can even chat and talk about the match played the night before, or about the weather. Through behavioral training, we emphasize that our staff should be relaxed, cordial and cheerful.”

COMPLAINTS MANAGEMENT HAS BEEN STANDARDIZED

BTA Catering has established standards in airports such as those of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Tbilisi, concerning complaints management. All the complaints received up to the present were divided into categories and standards were set regarding the attitude to be taken by BTA Catering employees when faced with complaints. For example, when a guest does not like the food, staff apologizes in the same way in both Istanbul and Ankara and offers other food as compensation. Product matches are also made as techniques to boost sales. For example, suggesting water to go with ice cream and chocolate cake to go with coffee has become standard in all airports. BTA has achieved good returns following the training sessions repeated every four months and it continues to bring innovations to the sector.