M ASTERS OF CUSTOM ER SERVICE

RL never forgets its customers are just that customers

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By: Lisa Bertagnoli
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RLSmall Business and Entrepreneurship

Photo by Stephen J. Serio RL Restaurant's General Manager, Rich Varnes, doesn't see
himself as a boss. I'm a servant, he says.
The service at RL, the restaurant adjacent to the Ralph Lauren boutique on North Michigan
Avenue, is smooth as a perfect Hollandaise. Captains, waiters and busers glide around the
room, taking orders, refilling water glasses and coffee cups, dropping checks, doing
whatever needs to be done. Customers seated at the white-clothed tables get whatever
they want, whether it's cottage cheese (it's not on the menu), sauce on the side or half a
club sandwich.

Overseeing the clubby dining room is Rich Varnes, RL's general manager since 2001.
Elegantly clad in a Ralph Lauren suit, he patrols the room, greeting regulars, picking up
stray napkins, brushing microscopic bread crumbs from tables, changing light bulbs if need
be, and listening, always listening, to customers. When some regulars told Mr. Varnes that
they disliked leaving the restaurant smelling like cooked meat, he decreed that steak Diane,
a signature dish traditionally prepared tableside, would be cooked in the kitchen instead.

Mr. Varnes, 48, delights in upending popular notions of customer service, and these upside-
down notions anchor the service philosophy at RL.

To start, he's hardly a boss. I'm a servant, Mr. Varnes says. They put me in a suit and call
me a GM but I'm a servant. Customers, he insists, are customers: To Mr. Varnes, the
euphemism guest symbolizes how watered down restaurant service has become.

Waiters at RL are waiters. They aren't anybody's buddy, and they certainly aren't
salespeople. RL waiters do not up sell, that is, suggest appetizers, desserts, top-shelf
liquor or side dishes. Waiters, in fact, are judged not by sales but by how many people ask
to sit in their sections. That's the Holy Grail of service for us, Mr. Varnes says.

RL RESTAURANT
General manager: Rich Varnes, 48
Seats: 80 inside, 40 on the patio
Check average: $25 at lunch, $65 at dinner
Service secret: "It boils down to service, and the table, and the experience of the customer," Mr. Varnes
says. "Are they having a great time having a meal with us?"
Why it works: "People like to be pampered," says Bonnie Riggs, Rosemont-based restaurant industry
analyst at NPD Group Inc. "They like to be recognized. And the more they pay and the more loyal they
are, the more they expect."

That's smart, says Bonnie Riggs, a Rosemont-based restaurant industry analyst at NPD
Group Inc. Customers don't want to be pressured. They want to be in the driver's seat.

At RL, they are. The restaurant's back-to-old-fashioned-basics approach to service, paired

with meticulous attention to detail, has earned it an army of regulars. Locals, as Mr. Varnes
calls frequent customers, account for 70 percent of business. They are seated where they
want without asking: Mr. Varnes, who reviews the reservation list every day, knows to place
friendly ladies who lunch near each other, business competitors and some politicians, far
apart.

KNOW THY VIPS

Mr. Varnes knows who his customers are. He consults Crain's Who's Who list to keep
fresh on high-profile executives and trains younger staff members to recognize VIP guests
by face. He instructs new executive assistants to drop their bosses' names when making
reservations, because at RL, locals come first, especially if they want a last-minute table.
It's unfair, Mr. Varnes realizes, but it's good service, not to mention good business. Any of
our great customers we will make priority customers, he says. If you don't make them a
priority in our business, then what are you doing?

Photo by Stephen J. Serio Rich Varnes, general manager of RL, meets with staff members
before the restaurant opens.
Frequent customers, some of whom dine at RL twice a day, are a priority in the kitchen,
where Ryan Pitts, executive chef for the past 10 years, posts a list of their preferences, from
the way a salad is composed to portion sizes. Mr. Pitts, 38, permits no rancor between the
dining-room and kitchen staff, as that rancor can cripple the finest restaurant.

I tell waiters that they are an extension of our customers, he says. I tell them, 'We're here
for you. Anything you need, let us know.'

New waiters are told to ask for help when they need it. They're also trained to take control
of their own stationsno need to ask a higher-up for permission to do anything. If they
make a mistake, they fix it and move on; no excuses.

You can't B.S. our customers, and you shouldn't even try, Mr. Varnes says.

Rogers Park resident Barbara Ireczek didn't like her food at RL when she first visited the
restaurant last spring. The steak Diane was cold, recalls Ms. Ireczek, 57, a retired city of
Chicago crisis worker. (She says she didn't complain to the waiter because she was
speechless that a signature dish wasn't up to par.)

Yet Ms. Ireczek returned to RL for lunch (she says her burger and creamed corn were very
good) because of the way she was treated. The service was excellent, she says, recalling
that four or five people waited on her table. They knew what we wanted, and they were
there when we needed it.