The Power of Training To Retain Your Restaurant Staff

The benefits of training your restaurant staff to a high standard have always been clear, higher competency leads to a better quality offering for your customers. What wasn’t always clear is that there are many other benefits and these include:

1) Providing better job satisfaction

2) An improvement in teamwork

3) Much more interaction between co-workers

4) A higher quality experience for your customers

5) More personal involvement in the operation, and, of course all these things lead to;

6) A much greater staff retention rate.

It can very often take some time for a new member of staff to fully integrate with the other staff members. This settling in period is often frustrating for everyone, not least the long-suffering customer. So having fewer staff changes makes for a smoother operation.

You should always offer training to your staff, whatever their job. The smooth running of your operation cannot be left to chance or the skills of your various department managers alone. Everyone must work on the same page. Having clarity of direction of your business is hugely important and your staff members should all know what your business vision is. Giving a clear vision for your business and ensuring that all your staff are aware of the vision, leads to staff members becoming more involved in the restaurant, promoting the restaurant and the success of the restaurant. So training can always start at home, your restaurant, with getting everyone involved and communicating clearly together.

If a customer asked your waiting staff which wine would best suit a particular dish, would they know? Or is it a case of – no sommelier – no idea! Knowing this kind of information gives you the opportunity to step forward and up-sell. An example “If you are having the beef sir, our chef recommends a bottle of xxx to go with it. Would you like to try that?” If they go for the recommendation then you have provided them a greater, more knowledgable service, giving greater customer satisfaction and this in turn will lead to a greater reward.

Having your front of house staff, customer service staff, knowing what happens in the kitchen and why, gives them a head start with the customers.

So clearly there are 2 types of training you can hold here, internal, which covers inter-area skills and teamwork and external, where you recruit professional trainer to train in specific tasks and skills.

Everyone wins here, the customer, the owner and the waiter.

So why not follow this example and train to retain.

Don’t delay, get training and bring in the trainer!

The very best resources are available to you, for customer service tips, for marketing your restaurant, with social media and other strategies at [http://restaurantmarketingguy.com]

If your would like to get a free introductory course on establishing a social media presence go to http://bit.ly/hzeZUo Baz Rothwell is a 40 year veteran in the leisure industry specialising in business development and marketing.