The perfect dining experience isn’t a single success, it’s a culmination of dozens of tiny successes. From the moment your guests arrive to the moment you invite them back for another visit, you and your staff have many opportunities to create both the perfect dining experience and guest loyalty. Your restaurant training program is likely focused on the most obvious parts of a guest visit – providing amazing food and outstanding service – but if you have tunnel vision for the big stuff, the small stuff could do you in.
Delegating Details for Restaurant Managers
The devil truly is in the details for restaurant managers. That means that even when you and your staff do everything else right, a small oversight could completely taint a guest’s impression of you. And in a business with such tight margins and fierce competition, guest impressions make or break you. That’s why the goal of restaurants – and all restaurant managers – is to create an environment where guests come back again and again. This includes big picture strategies like promotions, brand awareness, restaurant atmosphere, and menu specialties, but it also includes all the little things that support the big picture. It’s a daily challenge to find a balance between the two. The key? Training and delegation. Train your staff to take care of these details so you have more time for your big picture responsibilities:
- Cycle of Service: There’s an old saying in among restaurant managers — great marketing can kill a bad business. If you invest in a promotion that brings a crowd in the door, but you and your staff can’t deliver exceptional service to that crowd, you’ve blown it. Train your entire staff on the complete restaurant Cycle of Service that covers all the opportunities you have to create loyal guests.
- Exterior restaurant appearance: Guests begin forming an impression of your restaurant as soon as they pull into the parking lot. Maintaining the appearance of the exterior of your restaurant, including parking lots, walkways, landscaping, dumpsters, and trash cans, will help ensure guests start forming a positive impression immediately.
- Interior store appearance: If guests walk into your restaurant and see dust on the lighting, trash on the floor, or poorly maintained décor, they’ll wonder how the parts of your restaurant they can’t see look – like the kitchen! It’s everyone’s responsibility to be constantly looking for issues that detract from the appeal of your restaurant. Empower your staff to take care of issues themselves, and escalate issues as necessary.
Cycle of Service Restaurant Service Training
With every guest who walks through the door, your staff should be striving to not only meet expectations, but exceed them. Our restaurant service training follows the Service That Sells! Cycle of Service, breaks down a guest’s visit into separate steps from the moment guests pull into the parking lot until that final moment when they walk out the door. Click here to learn more.
