Category Archives: Restaurant

Restaurant

Training Restaurant Servers

Here is the new approach to training servers.

The author operated table service restaurants as pancake houses, coffee shops, family theme, steak houses, International gourmet, Polynesian, Tex-Mex, Delicatessen, Seafood and others too numerous to designate. What they all had in common was that they had waitresses or waiters, now referred to as servers. These servers were expected to perform the duties of handling guests, gathering orders, communicating these orders to the kitchen, assembling the orders for delivery to the tables, delivering these orders, correcting snafus, handling complaints, collecting the payment of the checks and all of the other activities associated with making a restaurant visit a pleasant experience.

To the uninitiated this seems to be an insurmountable task requiring a wide range of food handling talents, a good psyche, a calm inner strength and a genuine liking of people. Where do you find such a talented person and how can he or she be turned loose in your specialized dining room, entrusted with the life blood of your business – your customer? Yes, it is possible to recruit, train, motivate and supervise such fine people to respond adequately to the needs of your food establishment. The newest approach is to train servers from the view point of a trainer taking on a new server recruit on a one- on- one trip to a successful conclusion, ie; making great money for the server and the establishment!

Here is solid advice for every food server everywhere… Deliver the orders as soon as possible. Check the quality of the foods carefully before serving them. Never serve any food you believe to be spoiled, soured, or tainted, that you think might be dangerous to the customer’s health. When you discover spoiled, sour, or tainted food, don’t throw it away – call the manager and have him double check you. If he agrees with your detection, he will agree to the disposal of the questionable food items. Always serve the correct portion. Observe to learn the portions for each item listed on the menu portions sheet posted in the service area. You can’t keep customers happy and your restaurant functioning properly if foods are over or under- portioned. Management, in setting a price for a food item, takes into account that a certain weight or size of that item will be served for the price to be charged. Exceeding that portion short changes the business and makes it difficult to make the cash return to pay wages and stay profitable. On the other hand, if a guest sees a smaller than usual portion they will resent it and may not return again.

Understand your employees that you are training.

How can you inspire people to work harder and produce more? After years of research, Success Motivation Institute found that these seven basic actions are still among the strongest motivators. There is nothing here that you don’t already know. But in your daily work, how many of these actions do you forget to practice?

1. Flatter your people with your personal interest: There is nothing wrong with flattery when it is sincere. Genuine flattery, as opposed to mere “buttering up,” will give your people a lift, and will give you a boost in their eyes. Cash in on your personal interest dividends today. Learn the first names of the husbands and wives of your people. Find out about their children, their family problems, outside interests. Get to know them as human beings, not just workers.

2. Be consistent in your treatment of your people: This may sound easy, but it’s not. It takes practice and constant self-examination to remain impartial.

3. Build up the confidence and pride of your people by consulting with them regularly: Seek out the ideas and advice of your people. Show your respect for their opinions and judgment. Show that they can learn from you but that you also want to learn from them. Make your people feel they are participating, not just taking orders.

4. Be generous with credit: When one of your people performs well, don’t keep it a secret. Let others know about it.

5. Treat ideas with interest, consideration, and respect: When one of your people comes up with a suggestion-even a poor one-make him/her feel glad he brought it to you.

6. Own up to your errors honestly: Don’t strut around like a superior being. If you make a mistake, admit it and take full blame. If one of your people is right and you are wrong, tell him so. And let others involved know that the mistake was yours, not his. Show the people who work for you that you are just as human as they are.

7. Make facts flow freely: Knowhow is a man’s link to opportunity and advancement. Sharing your facts, your knowledge, and your experience will convince your people that you are on their side. And it’s only human to reciprocate.

In short, to double the output of your people, treat each individual as a person first and as an employee second. The greatest need of the food service industry today is teamwork by agreement. Our industry is a vast complex of many different businesses and widely varied views. Yet our differences fade into insignificance when we consider our many over-all mutual interests.

Restaurant

How To Start A Restaurant Business

Research shows that 89% of café and restaurant businesses fail within the first five years of opening, and yet the successful hospitality businesses are amongst some of the most lucrative businesses in the world! You can often find a heaving restaurant neighboring one that is completely empty; the location is the same, so how can this happen?

The successful restaurant is meeting expectations, whereas the unsuccessful one is not. In short, only one has done their homework! Extensive research and preparation is vital when you start a new restaurant business. It is the only way to lay the foundation for success; and a business management toolkit can be a useful way to avoid the early pitfalls to which many new restaurant businesses succumb.

Of course, as with any new business a suitable location needs to be found, investment and budgets prepared and the nature of provision needs to be determined. Beyond this however, the restaurant industry offers a very specific service. When you start a restaurant business, you need to take a wide range of industry related factors into consideration. This is where a restaurant management toolkit can prove invaluable.

The success of any restaurant business relies on its customers and so to start a new restaurant business you need to research the potential market. This will highlight what your client base will be and what they will expect. Once this is determined, you need to draw up an effective business plan that details your vision whilst incorporating all aspects required for you to start a restaurant business destined for success.

The design of the new restaurant needs to be practical, whilst reflecting the needs of the customers and creating an attractive environment. A restaurant management toolkit can assist with the smallest details, which can really make a difference to the success of a new restaurant. Once the design features are determined, the new restaurant business needs to be marketed efficiently and effectively. This will ensure that the client base are alerted and also drawn to your new restaurant, to begin its success.

Now you have your customers, you need to keep them. An integral part of any successful restaurant business is the restaurant staff. The staff chosen must be motivated, hardworking, meet service standards, and reflect the vision of the restaurant business. They represent the business and optimize sales opportunities. This means that as a restaurant manager, you have a commitment to your customers to be committed to your staff. A restaurant management toolkit can assist with information about staff incentives and training which will help you to secure a regular stream of customers.

Once your customer base is established, you need to make sure that you gain the optimum revenue possible to make your restaurant a permanent success. This means ensuring new restaurant policies and procedures meet industry standards, handling the budget efficiently and securing profit and sales. Any successful restaurant business knows how to make sure their customers continue to spend, and in increasing amounts. A restaurant management toolkit uses the experience and knowledge of experts to bring you tried and tested methods and documents, which can save you valuable time.

Armed with extensive research and expert guidance, with all preparatory requirements in place, you are ready to start a new restaurant business and set along your road to success.