Death threats, media disdain and a quiet word from a Coca-Cola chief made me reassess my attitude towards customer service

More than a decade ago, one of my businesses was a publishing company that included Tandoori magazine—a trade publication for the Indian restaurant sector. It was successful but I threw it into jeopardy by writing a column one month about service standards in curry houses. The article began: "Walk into an Indian restaurant, no matter how posh, and you are more than likely to be greeted by a miserable git." What the article went on to say was never remembered but that line soon became a media mini-cause célèbre. I remember waking up the morning after it was published and switching on the television to witness the most bizarre experience of someone reviewing the newspapers and pointing at a picture of me in The Times, saying: "That guy from Tandoori magazine has really gone and done it this time."

I'm not making this up, but I received 18 death threats from waiters and restaurant owners—for pointing out the bleeding obvious: service in Indian restaurants is dire. The article went on to say that owners needed to engage more with their waiters as it was they who communicated with customers and therefore they were the company's ambassadors. If they weren't treated well, they wouldn't feel that great about where they worked and that would rub off onto the customer experience.

This isn't just a problem in curry houses—it can be applied to every type of business. You may have heard the probably apocryphal tale of the consultants doing work at Nasa. One of them went to the toilet and asked the janitor how he saw his role in the organisation, to which he replied: "Sir, I'm helping put a man on the moon."

It doesn't matter if this story is false—we want it to be true because of the message it contains. Few businesses can survive on the owner liaising with each of his or her customers, so we rely on the people we employ to deliver what we hope to be an accurate rendition of our brand promise.

You can smother your employees with standard operating procedures and staff manuals. But often the bigger and more valuable investment in your people is you and your own time with them. I made that mistake when I opened The Cinnamon Club. On the second or third day, the then chief executive of Coca-Cola was in for dinner and towards the end of the evening I went up to him and asked him not for a compliment but a constructive criticism. He said: "Iqbal, from the minute someone walks in here to the moment they leave, are they having the Cinnamon Club experience you imagined they would have?"

I went away to think about this and as he was leaving I said to him: "I think I know what you were saying. I have been busy selling to the world how great The Cinnamon Club is going to be, but I haven't sold that to my own team." He smiled and said: "Fix that and you'll have a great business."

So I started a series of sessions where I had lunch with each and every member of the team in groups of eight. I explained why it was that I had taken on such a huge and risky venture, found out more about them, took on board some of their comments and, most importantly, made them that day have the customer perspective.

The restaurants I have set up have revolved—perhaps selfishly—around me being the customer and that really works only if your team feel part of that customer experience, too.

The other early lesson I was taught was when I was asked by a diner if I was the main man and I confirmed that I was. He told me I was looking stressed and tense and that this was making the staff feel the same way. "If you're going to be stressed and tense, do that in private. Not in front of your customers, and not in front of your team," he said.

While I'm no angel of a boss, I do try to make the team laugh—so simple, so effective. If it's true that you get out what you put in, the secret to great customer service should be straightforward. Leading by example is not just about working the hardest or having to take on the myriad concerns of being head of a company. Sometimes it can be more straightforward. Maybe as simple as this: smile and the company smiles with you.