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Over the years, various surveys conducted in restaurants reveal that 75% of patrons list poor service as their top complaint. Where customer service is concerned, talk may be cheap, but behaviour is everything.
Mistakes happen and complaints will be issued, but the solution comes down to just one thing: creating an environment in your restaurant that is geared towards keeping customers content. In this manner, every complaint will become a customer service opportunity.
To maintain a competitive edge over other restaurants, operators need servers who do more than just take the order and deliver the food. Servers need to guide customers through the entire dining experience while keeping them content and wanting more. But this doesn't just happen. Restaurants who want to successfully compete must invest in staff training and make it happen.
Tips for ensuring good customer service
• It’s the little things that count – smile, be warm, friendly and enthusiastic.
• Keep communication channels open and keep the customer informed, even when things are going bad – food is late, service is a tad slow and so on. Pay attention to the customer’s body language and stay calm.
• Acknowledge others – while you don’t have to stop and talk in depth with each table, be sure to make eye contact, smile and offer a friendly greeting. Assist others where you can. Consider what your customer has to say.
• Stay involved – after the customer has received his or her meal check early on that all is well with their meal. Request feedback before a customer leaves. Always thank them when they leave.
• Choose your employees carefully – make sure you hire the right people for the job, and the ones with a good attitude. Then treat them well.
• Empower your employees – trust them to make decisions that will help the customers they serve. Your service staff shouldn’t need to say, “I’ll have to ask my manager”.
You should think of your servers or waiting staff as professional sales executives. Successful companies invest in training programmes to educate their sales team about the products, services and the company as a whole to assist them in securing sales. Why should training for servers be any different to this?
While there are many components to effective training, keeping staff members current with ongoing training will ensure that your operation maintains its competitive edge.
Training should be obligatory for all staff members, and each should be compensated or rewarded for their attendance. If your trainers come from in-house, make sure they are knowledgeable and worthy of imparting knowledge onto others. It is advisable to seek outside assistance of a professional sort once in a while to lead different sessions and to keep interest up.
A good training programme should be comprehensive and detailed, though it should not be dull. When designing training programmes, try to keep them simple and fun. Instead of a classroom atmosphere, successful training programmes are those that are highly interactive, repetitious and rely upon replicas of real life.
To consider the time needed, consider the number of products on your menu and consider how long it would take the average person to retain this information. The property size, style, and locale will give insights into how frequently training programmes should be implemented. For example, a dinner club that changes wines and bar lists on a monthly basis will require monthly meetings.
While it is useful to have a training manual, ensure that this is always kept up to date with current trends and operations, as well as menu items. Try to keep it a fun and interesting read to encourage the new staff member. While it is sometimes beneficial to have a new addition to the service staff ‘shadow’ an experienced service employee, there is a chance that the new addition may pick up some of the established waitron’s bad habits. Be aware of this.
It is also advisable to allow staff to taste new menu items. If you add a new item to the menu give the waitrons a taster and let the chef explain the dish to them, so that they can better describe it to their customers. An informed server will create a good impression on the customer and increase his or her respect for the establishment. It is also important that staff understand how each menu items looks and is presented, as well as what is in it. After menu review and orientation with new employees, have them assist a manager in setting up trays on the line or spend time in the serving station of the kitchen to better acquaint themselves.
It might surprise you how interested your staff members are to learn more about the industry. They like to keep current with emerging trends, menu items, and serving techniques. Assist them with this as far as possible. After all, how can they improve their skill set and knowledge base if they don't understand the industry at large?
It is crucial to ensure that your staff are informed about all aspects of your operation, including who designed the restaurant, which artist’s paintings adorn the walls, where the decorative artwork comes from, who refreshes the flowers and so on. All of this will enhance your image and strengthen the customer’s resolve and support of your establish. All of this should help you not only maintain your competitive edge, but use it to your advantage. Servers are the sales force of a restaurant and when engaged in interesting, ongoing training, the results are many fold for operators.
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