Focusing a restaurant training program on the Art of Caring Behavior will lead to improved service and increased guest loyalty. What’s Caring Behavior? Many things, really. But all boiled down, it’s making guests feel important.
Important enough to be:
- Acknowledged no later than a minute after they’ve been seated.
- Recognized if they’re a regular customer.
- Taken care of with a smile, friendly eye contact and thoughtful guidance through the menu and the lineup of beer, wine and spirits.
Those are bare minimum requirements — your day-in, day-out responsibilities in meeting guests’ expectations. To exceed those expectations, however, you have to be ready, willing and able to do Little Something Extras for guests. To pamper them in unexpected ways. To go beyond the routine.
That’s what Caring Behavior is all about. And it’s what separates the winners from the losers in bar and restaurant business. To get your servers to keep caring behavior top of mind, use this exercise: Present them with typical circumstances they’ll encounter on their shift, and ask them to identify both an “adequate response” and a “little something extra.”
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 for a preview.
