Our Thoughts On Training
Implementing a knowledge base for your restaurant team can transform your operations, fostering a more efficient, organized, and collaborative work environment. By improving communication, ensuring consistency, and catering to today's workforce needs, a knowledge base empowers your team to focus on what matters most – creating exceptional guest experiences.
You want to tell people that the spices will transport them to an exotic place; that the mushroom and wet leaves in the wine remind you of going camping in the autumn; that a few appetizers for the table would be great to share so everyone has a little something to try without spoiling their appetite. It’s not about necessarily about the food or drink itself but how someone will feel when they have it. Sell the experience, not the thing
Run each service at peak efficiency because every second matters, especially with today’s additional challenges around with COVID-19. The aim is to train your team to be thinking critically about their actions, to be conscious and intentional about what they are doing during service.
Restaurant employees expect to have a clear idea of how to do their job (i.e., a training program), what's on the menu, and information about the company they now work for. They also expect to be able to quickly get answers to questions that come up, just as they would in their everyday lives. When employees are not engaged, they underperform, misrepresent the restaurant brand, create negative service experiences, and eventually leave for something more engaging. Restaurant owners and managers have to create a new model for how we run restaurants.
Imagine running a 200 cover night with handwritten paper checks... you can't, because it makes your brain melt a little, the stuff of nightmares. POS makes it possible to service more guests more effectively than ever before. And think about reservations: OpenTable made it possible to manage a book with greater efficiency and accuracy, enhancing the quality of relationships we have to our guests and with more of them. You could run a restaurant without a reservation system, but why would you (with the exception of smaller establishments)?
All employees in a restaurant need training, and with a 73% rate of turnover as the standard in our business, we need a system that can help us manage this better.
When guests come into your restaurant, oftentimes the server or bartender is the only person they really speak to, except for a brief moment with the host team, if you have one. This is why it is crucial that your service staff, the ambassadors of your brand, know at least a base-line about the wine list. There is so much information out there and we only have so much time because our primary job is to get through a smooth service. The question is, especially with wine, where do you even start?
The iGeneration grew up with technology strapped to their sides, and as a result, they've become accustomed to a constant stream of stimuli from cell phones and tablets, TV, and even animated video signage. We’ve highlighted three common traits that characterize this unique population, explained how they express themselves in restaurant staff, and we offer ways to tap into them to produce positive results on the floor.
Think of your restaurant’s fan base as your springboard to success, your greatest marketing tool, and your number one solution to many day-to-day challenges. How to build a strong following of regulars, however, is not as simple as training a staff that’s proficient in order taking and menu preparation. They need to be exceptional at selling your experience—your brand—to every guest that walks through your doors.
If for every time you hire a new employee you could save $100 you would, wouldn’t you? How about $200? As I shared in my post last week, the cost of turnover for one new employee is said to be between $4000 and $14,000. It stands to reason that if you would take action to save one or two hundred dollars, then you’d probably take action to save thousands of dollars, right?
It's a good use of time to learn as much as you can about the different offerings that guests can enjoy. Avoid getting overwhelmed by taking things one step at a time. The more you know about your menu, the higher your sales will be because guests trust you to lead them on an amazing experience. Happy guests and higher sales mean higher tips!