Life — March 8, 1923 — page 35: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Headwaiter and His Captains are There to Help You —By E. M. Statler IHE headwaiter in any Statler dining room is your host. He is there to see that your way is made easy, that you are well served, that you are entirely satisfied, both with what is brought you and the way it is put before you. Working with him, and sharing his responsibility, are his “Captains”—his assistants—who have the same relation to the headwaiter as assistant managers have to a manager. If you should ever, in any of our restaurants, have cause for dissatisfaction or annoyance, ask for a captain or head- waiter. Whether it is a question of service, or of the food brought you, you will get immediate action and satisfaction. Our headwaiters are authorized to see that you are not charged for food which you find unsatisfactory as to quality, portion or price. We want no money for a dish that does not please you. So if you have been thinking of a headwaiter as purely ornamental, just there to show you to a table, get the habit of remembering that he can be useful to you. And per- haps you would like to see some of the formal instructions by which these headwaiters and captains are governed in all the Statler-operated hotels. HOTELS STATLER BUFFALO: 450 rooms, 4: baths (Thenew Salvin Bula, to be opened in April, will have 1100 rooms, 1100 baths). CLEVELAND: 1000 rooms, 1000 baths. Euclid, at E. 12th. DETROIT: 1000 rooms, 1000 baths. Geand Circus Pak. ST. LOUIS: 650 rooms, brtia Ninth and Washingees. BOSTON: Now building. To have 1100 rooms, 2100 baths; at Columbus Ave., Providence ~ tnd Arlington Sts. Instructions to Headwaiters and Captains in the Statler-operated hotels “Always remember that it is you whom we hold responsible for the satisfaction or dis- satisfaction of our guests in your dining rooms. “Remember that anything which is not right—and the guest is always the judge— must be made right as soon as your atten- tion is called to it. “Remember that courtesy and deference and helpfulness are indispensible qualities in every transaction in these hotels. This ap- pie primarily to contact with guests, but no less forcibly to your relations with your fellow-employees. “Always greet your guests— and pleas- antly, not stifly—as they enter your dining room. Don’t be over-cordial; but be sure to be pleasant. “Watch every table, and thus make it easy for any guest who wants you to get your attention. Nothing is more provokin; to a diner than to try repeatedly to catch your eye, and never find you looking at his table. A guest should always be able to get the eye of a captain or the headwaiter in- stantly; when he can’t, that is your fault. “Don’t hurry the diner who wants to be leisurely; don’t let anything delay the guest who wants fast service. And don’t argue— don’t ever argue—remembering particularly the paragraph of The Statler Service Codes which says that ‘In all minor discussions between Statler employees and Statler guests, the employee is dead wrong, from the guest’s standpoint and from ours’. “What we are striving for, and what you must strive for, is to have the public better served and better pleased in our dining rooms than in any other. That is one way to steadily-increasing business in our restau- rants—which is one way in which your job can become a better job.” ‘The largest hotel in the world with 2200 rooms, 2200 baths. QuiSeventh Avenue, 32d to 33d Streets, directly opposite the rans Railway Termi- nal. A Statleroperat q with all the comforts and con: veniences of other Statlers, wrth the same polices of cour teous, intelligent and helpful by all employees, comicbooks.com