What Direction Should They Take?
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Okay we've been discussing this Restaurant Service Journey long enough, what's the bottom line? Is there one key to successful service in all restaurants.? Yes! OUR SERVICE STAFF. This includes management, utility, bussers, servers, cooks, hostpersons, etc. Anyone which is everyone who contributes to the service of your guests/customers. Today usually minimum amount of time and resources are spent on having the best staff possible. We spend huge amounts of money on marketing, equipment, decor and produce. We then cut costs in wages, uniforms, benefits and training. Then we have countless meetings on why we have little repeat business, high turnover, poor morale, theft and unprofessional service. Very few industries would send out the key people who represent their organization improperly attired, without proper tools, insufficient training and underpaid. We in the restaurant business do it daily. Let's think outside the traditional restaurant management box for a second. We build our business from the ground up. Demographic surveys, menu engineeering, market analysis, etc. We do look for that unique chef to fit our cusine and maybe a front of the house manager that understands our vision. We get the latest cool uniform for service staff (of course we don't think of getting input from anyone who will be working in them) maybe a Head server, hostess or captain, they haven't been hired yet (save that labor) NOW last but not least we have a job fair and hire 100 people for 60 permanent positions. Never would have thought of hiring 60 people who will stay with our restaurant if we offer professional working conditions similar to other professions. Rush through an accelerated training program and Viola! Opening night. What's wrong with this picture. You do the math. Honestly their are many restaurants and restaurant organizations that train and provide service staff with a professional environment to succed in. However generally the aforementioned scenario is the norm in our business. My love for the restaurant service and optimism for our industry tells me this is changing.
The last three months have been; challenging, exciting and informative. Changing a concept (like....opening a new restaurant) is quite different then a few years ago. I had the opportunity to be part of opening a new casino in Vegas years ago (No! I'm not telling you how many) and the difference is amazing. However moving forward let us examine something I found very unique with this concept change. The priority on service. Many times we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a beautiful dining establishment and then pinch pennies on service training. Or we rush through a training program that dosen't take in account the strenghts and weaknesses of the staff. And we wouldn't think of asking the staff their input when we are setting up the training program. I call this cookie cutter training. A truly long term succesful new concept needs the input of all the team. From the design phase to execution of the food, beverage and service. So! In a nutshell what am I learning from this exciting concept change adventure. TEAMWORK + PROPER TRAINING = STEPS TOWARD A SUCCESSFUL NEW RESTAURANT.