Middle East Caterer January 2009 - Staff training article

“Supermarkets sell food, restaurants sell service.” This is an old restaurant saying and it’s never been more true than today as customers demand high levels of service – and the competition in the market place means that if they don’t get it they frequent your competitors restaurants.

Good service starts with the recruitment of good staff – some people are naturally good in the service industry and some are not. The key attributes that you are looking for is friendly, confident and reasonably fast moving (you don’t wan someone that strolls slowly round the restaurant) . When interviewing staff you will be able to gauge if they have these three attributes within the first minute or two. But it’s always worth checking references – it’s amazing how many restaurants don’t!

All new staff should be employed on the understanding that they are on one month’s probation – during that time they can be fired without notice. Likewise if they don’t want to work at your restaurant they too can leave without a notice period.

Once you have good staff you must ensure that they are correctly trained. I find it always helps to write a training manual for each restaurant, complete with service steps and scripts as this ensures that all staff are trained to the same high standards. Service steps are essentially all the stages from when a customers makes a booking by phone to them coming through the door to them paying and leaving. The script is essentially that – it gives suggestions on how to phrase questions to the customers and also tips on selling. As the benefit of training staff isn’t just about giving good service it’s also about achieving better spend per head. This is done through waiting / bar staff by selling. There are three basic methods for staff to increase spend per head. These are the following :

• Positive Selling
  Positive Selling is keeping the customer supplied with enough food and drink to be perfectly satisfied. For example ask a customer if they would like another glass of wine before they have finished the one they are presently drinking. It’s always best to nod your head slightly to reinforce the positive nature of what you have just asked. Furthermore when there is a third or less liquid in a customer’s glass you should ask if you can get them another drink.
• Up Selling
  This is where you suggest a higher priced and better quality product to the one they have ordered. For example if they ask for the house white wine you could say have you tried the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc – its definitely my favourite! (again this where good product knowledge will be of a massive help). Make the up selling as personal as possible.
• Suggestive Selling
  By suggesting other products that the customer has not ordered (or thought of) you will make it more likely that they will order them. For example would you like a bottle of water, bread, desserts etc.

And don’t forget the positive nod of the head!
Some examples of suggestive selling include:
“Would you like some water?…Still or sparkling?”
“Would you like one of our delicious deserts or some coffee?”

The staff also need to be trained on the menu – I would recommend that the chef does this and that the staff should be given tasting sessions where they are encouraged to write their own tasting notes- again this helps to personalise the service that they give. Food times also need to be covered – dishes that take a particularly long time to cook need to be memorised so customers can be warned in case they are in a hurry.

Staff training should be seen as an ongoing job to be done by the managers. It’s beneficial to use Mystery diners for accurate feedback on how effective the training is. These are people that get a free meal in return for filling out a detailed report on their restaurant experience. The staff don’t know who the mystery diners are so they give an accurate reflection of what service is really like (some restaurants will even base a manager’s bonus on the results of regular mystery diner reports). Weekly staff meetings will also help to motivate and train staff.

Guy Holmes, Captivate Restaurants