Prego - a pivotal career opportunity

I meticulously designed comprehensive HR processes, encompassing recruitment strategies, training and talent development, organizational structure, and performance appraisal systems.

The key to our success was rooted in staff retention and a strong emphasis on cultivating customer relationships. We observed our regular patrons starting families, prompting us to introduce a children's menu and offer assistance with their infants, allowing parents to dine peacefully.

We adapted to our customers' needs instead of constantly reinventing ourselves. Every day, we welcomed relevance at our doorstep. I often reminded servers that today's customer could be their future boss.

We valued staff who built personal connections and recognized leaders at all levels, celebrating their contributions to our success. They were featured in our training manuals. We trained the team to remember orders to enhance relationships, making customers feel at home. Habits form from thoughts.

Many of the staff I left 9 years ago are predominantly still there, so are the systems, and so are the customers. An iconic village local just like most of its patrons, other wise known as 'Ponsonbyites'.

Customer service brand: Warming a jacket beside an open fire just before a customer goes out into the cold night air warms more than just an item of clothing. It warms their hearts.

Cafe hanoi

The concept for service lay in quick turnover, banquet style shared plate dining which, at the time, was unheard of in anything other than small family-run Asian-owned eateries. The foodies were into it. The corporates got there in the end, it just took a little more time to trust. Sharing was, and still is, however, not compulsory - just warmly encouraged.
The service dance we do at Hanoi involves instructing the customers on how to eat their food, mixing it table-side or reassuring them that they are meant to use the 'tools you were born with'. There are many opportunities for our team to engage, delight and surprise the customers with their knowledge, and have some fun introducing them to the cuisine and culture we adore.
It is urban cosmopolitan and has a floor and kitchen team that reflect that in attitude and in spirit.
HR insight: Growing to understand the nuances within Asian staff culture. At any one time we have had between 60 and 100 staff across all of our businesses. We have had upwards of 20 different nationalities working in teams that are under pressure for periods of up to 5 hours at a stretch.
Leadership insight: Removal of a business partner in a decisive and uncomplicated manner ensured the smooth and ongoing success of the company.

the parlour

A private dining space like no other.

Offering either a Cafe Hanoi experience or a Ghost Street experience in this historic building environment conjures up the feel of old colonial gatherings whilst smelling and feasting on modern Asian cuisine.

Within The Parlour's sensorial framework, teams must adeptly manage each host's diverse needs with the grace of a gazelle. This is achieved through upfront work involving technology, carefully crafted guidelines and questions for customers, and an events manager with extensive brand knowledge.

Business insight: Capitalizing on the established reputation of well-regarded brands in event management can yield significant benefits when executed correctly. However, there is room for improvement in our delivery, and it remains an ongoing development focus for the team.

ghost Street

The den where time and all bearings are lost in the steamy milieu of bodies, woks and old time rock'n'roll.

Take us or leave us. We are unapologetic about the way we get things done down here. Modest glassware, punchy American style cocktails, gloriously uneven tabletops, a concrete floor and a sharpie to sort out your own food order.

There are so many things to unpick here and I would love to talk to you about them all. Seemingly dizzying in concept and but oh so wonderfully cohesive when discovered underground and enabled by a team who can feel the fun you're having and relish it.

Customer service insight: Acknowledging cultural service differences can be a creative way to brand your service without being to gimmicky. Just make sure your people know why you are doing it.

''An intoxicatingly buzzy atmosphere'' Metro Top 50 Restaurants