ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - June 1, 2001

We leave Burgundy for Paris tomorrow and catch a plane for home at 0-dark-30 on Monday morning. If you have not visited the daily diary, take a look at www.restaurantdoctor.com/italy2001.html.

THE CAVALRY IN THE NICK OF TIME
What a pleasant surprise to get my weekly dose of insight from Steve Straus, addressing the differences between travelers and tourists. His thoughts are particularly appropriate as Margene and I wind up our annual corporate meeting in Italy and France. I was also pleasantly surprised when he said that I was the one who triggered this distinction for him! In any case, Steve sez:

Have you ever traveled to a location that is new for you and then had someone come up to you and ask for directions, mistaking you for a "native"? If so, you were probably being a traveler. Travelers quickly acclimate to new surroundings. They feel comfortable and enjoy the new experiences, smells, sights and sounds. Travelers have an intent to absorb, and be absorbed by, their new environment. They want to experience it at a deep level and enjoy being changed by it.

Tourists have a different energy about them. They tend to experience only the surface, the thin veneer that coats all cultures. Tourists snapshoot -- literally and figuratively -- their way through life.

Tourists talk about the trip they took. Travelers talk about how they were changed by the experience. Coaching Point: How are you experiencing your life, your work, your family - as a traveler or as a tourist?

(Note: To get on the list for Steve's (free!) weekly mind-stretcher, go to http://www.StrausUSA.com and click the 3-Minute Coaching button.)

A FINAL THOUGHT FROM THE ROAD
Last week, Gene Vosberg, Exec of the Washington Restaurant Association said he was curious about the tipping situation in Italy."Is Italy different than, say, Britain where a service charge is usually added to the bill? Anyway, if it is different from the US, it would good to get your perspective on it. I find more and more people complaining about tipping, especially for things like coffee at coffee stands, dry cleaning establishments, etc. Did you see any proliferation of the tipping culture in Italy like we are experiencing here?"

I have been reflecting on Gene's question and have a few insights that make some sense to me. First of all, in Italy and France at least, service charges are included in the price of the meal. There is no percentage added on as a separate figure. This system (no tipping, no separate service charge) seems to work in those two countries, I think because of the professional status with which waiters regard their jobs. Because they look on their work as an honorable career, they deliver a high level of service because it is the professional thing to do. We have a few such people in the US -- Paul Paz comes to mind -- but they are definitely the exception.

In the US, however, where the majority of the service staff are transient and the waiter's position is not generally held in high regard, there is not the same level of natural professional commitment. As a result, I think the tipping system evolved (from its roots in England) to provide an incentive for these folks to deliver high level service. Personally, I am not a big fan of tipping but until the general level of thinking (as regards service and those who deliver it) shifts to a higher level, it seems like the best way to make things work in the US.

The tipping system breaks down when workers behave like arcade clown machines -- no action until someone puts in a coin. The system works when the tip is a voluntary gesture on the part of the guest for services rendered, albeit perhaps an expected one. This is an interesting concept to explore and one that I expect we will revisit.

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