Restaurant Talking Points

“Hi! My name is Paris and I’ll be your server. Are you ready to order?”

It’s an unfortunate fact that I’ve heard that greeting a million times. When a waiter or waitress leads with that greeting, 99 percent of the time it means that my service experience isn’t going to be Remarkable

But this experience was oddly different.

My waitress, while extremely energetic and friendly, was very short. But what she lacked in height she more then made up for with her smile. That smile was beaming and went from ear to ear. As I looked at her I could actually read on her face how excited she was to be taking my order.

She was neatly dressed from head to toe in all black, and her hair was pulled back into a pony tail. She had a pencil placed behind each ear and one in her hand eagerly waiting to write down my order on a small pad of paper. She was very skinny so she wrapped the apron around her body twice and then tied it off with a bow in the back.

I ordered the Orange Juice and French Toast which she carefully wrote down on the pad of paper. She repeated the order back to me and waited for my OK. I said it sounded perfect and she quickly ran the order to the kitchen.

The rest of the meal was incredible but here’s what was so different and special about this dining experience.

The server was my 6 year old daughter. It was Fathers Day and she was waking me up early to take my breakfast-in-bed order.

On the outside this just looks like a cute little story. But take a deeper look and you’ll find my daughters actions very revealing.

Let’s start with her greeting. It wasn’t very good. In fact on a 5 point scale with 5 being Remarkable and 1 being sucky, she floated more to the sucky side. So what does that mean? We are talking about a six year old here.

Those of you that have children know that young minds learn from their surroundings and mimic behaviors they witness. I’ve never taken my daughter through the training program “Elements of Service” (although maybe I should. :)) and I doubt she has read any of my articles on service. That leads to the conclusion that her initial greeting was developed using what we call in this business, the shadow method. She developed her greeting by watching & listening to your service team.

WOW! Does she really hear “are you ready to order” that often?

I hope this opens your eyes as to why the shadow method doesn’t work. Your team isn’t doing it right to begin with! You need a structured service training system in place that takes your team through the entire service cycle, including the initial greeting. Setting the service expectations is imperative to a successful guest experience. Call us to help you with this.

Now for the positives. Did you notice that she repeated the order back to me. That’s a great habit because it gives the guests the confidence that the order was taken correctly.
The other positive was how she dressed. Her perception is that a server should be dressed impeccably with neither a wrinkle or a stain on the uniform.

It’s amazing what we can learn from our children. And as a parent it’s my job to help my child learn the correct way of doing things. Which is why, after the breakfast-in-bed, it was so hard to decide which feedback form to use; the mystery shopper or the service audit.

Consistency is a word I’ve been hearing over and over lately. Unfortunately I usually hear the word consistency after the words “lack of”, “need better service” and “I can’t get no”

I hear this from restaurant owners who are calling to ask for help in getting their team to provide better service. 75% of these calls are from people feeling anxious about the economy.

You can’t pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch the news on TV these days without hearing news about the economy. And it’s being presented with a very doom and gloom slant.

As a result of all this negative talk, many restaurateurs are starting to worry about how this economic downturn will affect their business. They are taking a hard look at their restaurant operations looking for ways to improve. Most come to the same conclusion; they need to outservice their competition.

Here’s a typical phone conversation:

Restaurant Owner: Our service is very inconsistent. What can I do to get our staff to be more consistent?

4RS: What kind of service training do you provide?

RO: What do you mean?

4RS: If you hired me as a server today, what kind of training would I receive before I was given the green light to start waiting on guests?

RO: You would have to pass our menu test and follow a head waiter for a couple of shifts. (Shadow method)

4RS: OK. How do you communicate YOUR service expectations to your new team members?

Restaurant: huh?

4RS: How does your team know what you expect during the service cycle? For instance do you have standards about what should happen when they greet a table or what to do after the entrees have been delivered? Do you have anything written down or any classroom training that focuses on these types of service expectations?

Restaurant: No, not really. We’ve been meaning to get to that.

4RS: Well let’s not focus on what isn’t happening, but instead lets focus on what you should and will be doing moving forward
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That’s a pretty typical conversation and here’s the plan we lay out to help these restaurants outservice their competition.

1. ==> Have your service cycle steps and standards on paper. It’s easier to train your staff when you have your service standards written down. You need to present these in a classrom setting. Whether you use an off the shelf training package that includes an instructors guide, like what we offer, or you develope your own material this is an important first step.

2. ==> Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. If you want consistent service then your message has to be delivered over and over and over. Every pre-shift meeting should include a topic about service expectations. Use a game like our Millionaire style game to help hammer your points across each month.

3. ==> Measure. Have you ever watched a sporting event on TV that didn’t have a ton of stats on each player. In golf they keep track of fairways hit, greens hit, average number of putts and so on. What you’ll notice is that no one is perfect…but they measure to see how close they can get. I have yet to watch an event that didn’t keep score.

That’s the way your service team should be. No one will get it perfect every single time but most team members don’t have any idea how they are doing. They don’t know the score. A service audit for each team member once a month will put you on the path to a consistent level of service.

We’ll talk more about a service audit next month. Until then I’m off to the driving range to see if I can get rid of the consistent slice I have when using the driver.

I love movies but two chick flicks in one weekend…my wife owes me big time!

One of the movies we watched was called “No Reservations” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. I wasn’t really looking forward to watching the movie but it did have a couple of elements I liked. Catherine was in it, and from the sounds of the title it had to do with restaurants.

The movie takes place at 22 Bleecker, a fictitious, upscale restaurant in Manhattan. What I really liked about this film, besides Zeta-Jones being in it (did I mention I like her), was that they showed scenes of the wait staff in training.

It’s not very often while watching a chick flick that I sit up and pay close attention during a restaurant scene, but this was good. The scence depicted the owner leading the staff through a training session. They were conducting sales training!

One scene has the staff sitting around a large table. The chef is up front passing around samples of a new menu item he has created. They are attempting to educate the team and to get the wait staff excited about the new item.

The second scene has the servers standing at the table practicing how to describe a bottle of wine. They are trying to paint a picture with creative words that will inspire their guests to want to purchase a bottle. I loved that!

With all of the negative chatter I hear about how servers should not be selling (don’t believe most of it) I thought we should make a point around sales today. One of the top rules of selling in a restaurant is:

Customers don’t want to be sold, they want to buy.

Your customers don’t want to feel like they are being sold yet they do want to buy, on their own terms. That’s why in our Maximizing Sales training module we teach how to present menu items in an inviting way.

An easy way to show this is to look at an example.

When someone asks about today’s special you can say “The sandwich has roast beef, cheese, and olives on wheat bread and it’s heated”.

Or you can say “The cook piles lean, thin-sliced beef on fresh-baked wheat bread and tops that with Italian provolone cheese. Then he puts it under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly and tops it with a sprinkling of sliced Spanish olives.”

Which one makes you want to buy?

Desserts are another menu item where your customers absolutely don’t want to be sold. They are watching their weight this year, or trying to get into shape, don’t want to spend the money… the list can go on and on. But deep down they really do want to buy that Midnight Ice Cream Cake which has layers and layers of chocolate. They just need a nudge.

A server walking up to the table and asking “did you save any room for dessert” is not the nudge I’m talking about. In fact it allows your guests to go into autopilot and say no.

But an excited server that is passionate around the Midnight Ice Cream Cake, creates a beautiful image and offers to bring out multiple forks, is the nudge that can convince your guests that he or she does indeed want to try that cake. They were not sold, they wanted to buy.

Besides, it’s a common known fact that desserts shared with friends don’t have any calories

I used a phrase last week that I swore, as does every new parent, I would never use. We heard it countless times growing up. It was a phrase that was so unfair to us as children that when it rolled off my tongue I was shocked at what I heard. Did I say that?

To be fair she had it coming. She, being my 5 year old named Paris, questioned me about why she had to go to bed at 8:30. My response to the bedtime question was really the only logical response left at my disposal after a long day and no energy left.

“Because I said so.”

I know, I know, I’m still stunned I said it.

I’m going to bet you’ve felt like uttering that very same phrase when your team members question you as to why they have to do things. From side work to cleaning procedures to the use of serving trays, you’ve been asked many “why” questions.

The “why” question I want to talk about today is one I discussed with a group during a recent speaking engagement. I did an Extreme Service Makeover session and one of the questions that we discussed was “Why give Remarkable Service?”.

The people that attended this session were so energetic and passionate about their respective establishments that I would like to share their responses with you.

Here’s the top 6 responses to “Why give Remarkable Service”:

1. Makes us stand out
With poor service seemingly everywhere, delivering Remarkable Service makes you stand out from the crowd. It also makes a positive impression on your guests. Leading to number two

2. Keeps guests coming back
We have a client that has a motto of “Make every guest a repeat guest”. You do that by providing Remarkable Service, thus giving them a reason to come back and to tell others about your place which leads to number three

3. Creates word-of-mouth advertising
The cheapest and best form of advertising is word-of-mouth. Deliver on the promise of Remarkable Service and people will talk about you in a good way. And the more people that talk about you, leads us to number 4

4. Increases sales
Just read the first three on this list and you can see that by providing Remarkable Service you will make more money. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective means of advertising and repeat guests are the most profitable guests. Build your customer base and keep them coming back. Increase in sales is just a by-product of the first three.

5. Makes for a fun place to work
It’s nice to go to work for a company that you know is doing things the right way. Who wouldn’t want to work at an establishment that thrives on service. It’s a contagious habit that spreads quickly to new hires.

6. Because you want to keep your job.
It’s kind of funny but serious at the same time. Bringing this up probably won’t win you any manager of the year awards but if they don’t understand the first five hit them hard with number six

The next time you get questioned about why providing Remarkable Service is important, skip the “Because I said so” and give them this list. Now I’m going to start working on my parenting response that will replace, “If everybody jumped off a bridge would you follow them…”

It’s that time of the year! No I’m not talking about Santa, although that is an important topic of conversation in my household. I’m talking about planning sessions for the New Year.

This is the time when most companies sit down and put a plan of action together for the coming year. It’s called strategic planning.

I firmly believe these strategic planning meetings are very important, especially for restaurants. I see it way to often where owners and operators in this industry get stuck working IN their business instead of ON their business. These sessions help many to bridge the gap from IN to ON.

You might be thinking to yourself ”these planning session sound great! What should we work on?” Great question!

Typically the focus of these planning meetings is on the entire operation. Things that can be discussed include menu, food quality and consistency, marketing, facilities and of course my personal favorite, and then one I’m going to help you with today, service.

So lets put a plan together for an Extreme Service Makeover for next year and raise the service levels in your establishment to a remarkable level!

It’s a 4 step process

==>1. Create your service expectations

You must lay out what your service expectations are so you can communicate these expectations to your staff. Your training program should be designed to fulfill these expectations.

If you don’t know what your expectations should or could be then you need to work with someone to help you in this area. Our training programs have them built into the training and are customizable per store.

==> 2. Educate your people

Change doesn’t happen by chance; it occurs as you communicate your service message and LEAD by example. That’s wonderful that you completed step #1 but unless you follow through with step #2 you might as well have used that time to take your management team to see a movie.

Nobody should be allowed onto your team until they understand that you are creating a culture of service. This culture is what drives your business!

==> 3. Add staff that fit into your mission of providing Remarkable Service

It’s time to take a hard look at your hiring practices. Make sure new hires fit or can be molded into your new culture. Conversely it may be time to move some FOH staff members to the BOH or grab some job applications from your competitors and slip those under their windshield wipers. You wouldn’t really do that would you?

==> 4. Evaluate and Measure

There is a saying that goes “You can’t improve what you don’t measure”. Whether you use secret shopper scores or create your own service audit form, measuring your process is the only way to improve your culture.

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An Extreme Service Makover is not as sexy as say building a fully furnished new house in a week or having doctors completely change the way you look. But it will make your establishment more money. Check out our ROI calculator and see what an Extreme Service Makeover can do for you.