Sir, – Further to Sean Boyle's letter "Irish informality – charming or rude?" (April 4th), having now retired after more than 50 years in the hotel and restaurant business, and teaching hospitality students of all levels, I believe our Irish informality is a plus for us, but when dealing with customers, especially visitors to our country, ideally staff should pause and take a lead from the manner of the customer, where possible.
Staff with experience in dealing with a variety of customers can almost sense in advance what a customer prefers, yet they must not be seen or heard to adopt a clearly different approach or tone with different customers. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER SANDS,
Collinswood,
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Dublin 9.