Restaurant Talking Points

The United States Restaurant Industry

* 46.7% of the nation’s food dollar is spent on meals away from home, up from 25% in 1955.

* Total U.S. foodservice industry sales will reach $476 billion in 2005, up 4.9% over 2004.

* U.S. consumers will spend more than $1.3 billion per day on food away from home in 2005.

* The restaurant industry’s sales equal 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product.

* The restaurant industry is the nation’s largest private employer, providing jobs for 12.2 million people in 900,000 locations.

Quick Facts

* The chances that you dined out yesterday: 1 in 2.

* 40% of all adults have worked in the foodservice industry at some time.

* 25% of table-service restaurant sales come from travelers & visitors.

* Entrée salads have increased in popularity more than other menu items at both full- and quick-service restaurants.

SOURCE: Colorado Restaurant Association using National Restaurant Association and Colorado State Government data.

Why restaurants lose customers:

1% Customer dies
3% Moved away
5% Influenced by friends
9% Lured away by the competition
14% Dissatisfied with product
68% Turned away by an attitude of indifference on the part of a company employee

This can be avoided! Make sure your training procedures include service and sales training for each new hire as well as on-going training.

Source: THE PRYOR REPORT, Vol. 10, No. 4a

Last weekend I went to eat at a new independent restaurant. Small, cozy and I had heard that the food was very good.

We arrived and the six of us were greeted by the host and seated immediately. The server also greeted us quickly and warmly…..and then it fell apart

He attempted, weakly, to communicate the three nightly specials. The problem was he couldn’t remember the small details like, how it was prepared, ingredients, sides and price.

He stumbled through and after his “sales presentation” he said he’d give us a few minutes to look over the menu. And then he left us. He left us!

Did you catch his mistake —- He forgot the drink order!!!

To be fair he did a fine job for the remainder of the meal but the damage had been done.

First, he left money on the table by not being able to sell the specials. I’m the only one who ordered a house special, and the only reason I did was because I had talked with the chef about this special the week before.

If not for that conversation the waiter would have been 0 for 6. And by the way, the special I ordered (beef tips) was incredible.

Second, his first impression wasn’t good, so guess what the people in our party were talking about the next week at work: “The place was nice but it took over 15 minutes to get our drinks” she said at the water cooler. You get the picture.

So what happened? Where did it go wrong for this young man, and how could it have been avoided?

In our training materials everything revolves around the Service Cycle and the 6 sections in that cycle. Today I’m going to talk about the first 2 sections: Preparation and Greeting and Drink Order.

Section 1: Preparation.
This is the section where you prepare yourself physically and mentally for each new table greeting. Physically he presented himself well but mentally he didn’t prepare and practice his sales pitch for the specials. He wasn’t knowledgeable.

The menu wasn’t very big so his goal should have been 50%. Half the table should buy one of the three specials.

Section 2 : Greeting and Drink Order.
He handled the greeting nicely (he addressed each party member by eye contact and then greeted us as a group) but he fell off the Service Cycle by forgetting the drink order.

This could easily have been avoided. To keep your wait staff from falling off the service cycle do the following things:

1. Define the steps of the Service Cycle.
Each wait staff person should be aware of the different steps in the Service Cycle for your restaurant. And during their shift they should be able to tell you where each table in their section is in the Cycle.

2. Set clear objectives for each Step.
An obvious objective for the Greeting and Drink Order is getting the drink order

Each step in the cycle should have clear objectives that are communicated to your staff. Some of these objectives will be universal for all restaurants but some may be what sets your restaurant apart from others, like writing your name on the table or delivering hot rolls immediately.

3. Deliver the training and have your staff practice.
I’m a big believer in testing a new wait staff person before he hits the floor. Not only should a new hire go through service and sales training but the final “graduation” test should be waiting on the owner or general manager.

Yes they will be nervous, but I guarantee that the specials presentation will be practiced knowing their job depends on it.

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Make sure you wait staff is riding the service cycle to maintain the consistency of service that you and your customers desire.

Jeff Hookham
CEO, 4 Remarkable Service
www.4remarkable.com

This is just a great stat that shows the importance of the independent restaurants.

For food distributors on average, 60% of their business comes from chain restaurants but accounts for only 15% of the profit.

What that means is that independent restaurants only make up 40% of products bought from distributors but account for 85% percent of the profits.

The food distibutors had better find ways to keep the independent restaurants happy and healthy!