The FINANCIAL — The affect of the global recession did not weaken the resolve of Khatuna Maglakelidze, Director of restaurant Tsiskvili, or allow her to cede leadership to other restaurants.
Restaurant management quickly adapted to the new environment of competition on the local market characterized by reduced prices. 2009, a year of huge challenges, was a very important one for Tsiskvili, which was awarded a Golden Brand for the fifth time. The restaurant also received another quality trade mark by Georgian Quality.
Innovative projects will be the main challenge for restaurant Tsiskvili in 2010.
“Our plans include a Tsiskviloba festivity to be organized every autumn. It will include different performances. We will arrange open air theatrical show programmes; prepare exhibition-sales of old malls and ethnographical things; and performances of culinary skills from different regions of Georgia. Volunteers can also participate. All our guests will be offered special discounts, surprises and gifts,” Maglakelidze told The FINANCIAL.
As a result of market demands Tsiskvili started delivering a lunch service to companies at accessible prices. “Considering time as the main deficit of employees we started delivering food to certain addresses,” Maglakelidze said.
Maglakelidze described the restaurant business as a very complicated business sector to run, but she says that being a female gives her certain advantages.
Maglakelidze said that Tsiskvili is not just a restaurant. It includes historical archives of Georgia that should be visited at least once.
Q. What changes have taken place at the restaurant recently?
A. All eight years of our existence have been full of interesting events and developments. From the very beginning of this business our main goal was considering the main factor for cooperation with customers. The values and satisfaction of our customers has always been our main goal.
A satisfied customer is more loyal and this factor became the determiner of our success.
An enterprise should never fail if it is constantly striving for improvement. Accordingly we have been systematically training our employees according to international demands. The final result of that has been retaining the loyalty of our customers and increasing their number. We managed to use our space productively and founding two radically different restaurants under the one name of Tsiskvili. This step supported us in occupying different segments.
Our company had to overcome numerous difficulties in 2009. This was because of the global recession which affected our business as well. We managed to adapt to the existing challenges and managed to compete with prices too. The timely and correct decisions of our management allowed us to maintain an active position on the market.
The restaurant business connects people of different professions. The combination of their efforts and delivering the final product to the customer is very difficult. We are working when others are resting. And the main difficulty is that all restaurant employees are at times serving inebriated customers. This factor asks for constant monitoring and mobilization from the managers, in order to follow the principle that the customer is always right.
Q. What is the secret of your success?
A. The main advantage of Tsiskvili is its architecture and design. Lots of museum exponents are presented in both its interior and exterior. A beautiful waterfall, natural cliff and real water mill really impress viewers with the history and culture of our country. Tsiskvili is also actively demonstrating the traditional history of Georgia with the help of folk music and choreography. Next to all of these factors an important factor for our guests is products of high quality and a high level of service. All these factors determine our popularity.
In Georgia Golden Brand is the most prestigious and influential award. It is awarded to only the best performing companies in the country. Tsiskvili holds the award for five consecutive years and this factor is testimony to the success of the restaurant. Golden Brand proves that our management is indeed taking the right direction. Golden Brand is very important for correctly estimating the business environment in the country and that is stimulating. Being a five time winner of this prestigious award makes Tsiskvili a more eminent and trustful brand in both Georgian and international standards.
Restaurant Business in the 21st Century
The recently produced video commercial of restaurant Tsiskvili has appeared on youtube.com. Khatuna Maglakelidze said that the video commercial was uploaded by a partner travel company that supports Tsiskvili restaurant at the same time as attracting foreign tourists.
“I have been frequently told by our foreign guests that if you pay a visit to Georgia and miss a chance to visit Tsiskvili, it is the same as having not seen a part of the country.
I think that life in the 21st Century has become impossible without the internet. 80% of our customers are active users of the internet. Their tight timetables encouraged us to offer them online reservations, available on our website whereby each person is able to order a table or menu either from office or home.
“One of the main factors of our success is that we are always observing our competitors on the market. I sincerely wish success to all of them. But presently there are only a small number of restaurants in Tbilisi that can be compared on the same level with Tsiskvili.”
“Annual turnover of Tsiskvili was increasing year by year. However, in 2009 the volume was the same as in 2008, an outcome which was clearly influenced by the global recession. In 2008 the restaurant’s turnover reached 1,843,596 GEL. According to our expectations we will return to an increase of turnover similar to before the recession.”
“Modern service-technologies are fast developing in the restaurant business and accordingly, consumers are more demanding of a high level of service quality. Accordingly the main factors are accepting any demand of the customers and then satisfying them. In this case it is very important to hire personnel carefully, to recruit and then improve their skills; implement disciplinarian standards and arrange a healthy working environment for them. These aspects will raise the number of satisfied customers, which is the key factor for success of the company. This is the simple rule of demand and supply that determines market balance. Without this formula enhancement of service quality will be impossible.”
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