QUALITY RESTAURANT SERVICE

Randall Turner, a dear friend of mine, dines out at least twice a week and knows good service; he also knows when the wait staff is indifferent. A recent experience at a restaurant in the area made the evening memorable for all the wrong reasons.

"I was there with business associates and wanted to try a new restaurant that had been touted," he recalls. "The place was cavernous and the eight servers outnumbered the customers."

It was a warm night and the small group decided to sit outside. After a long wait the server appeared, filled their water glasses and disappeared. "We had to hunt for more water, bread and for the waiter so we could order," Barnard complains. "There were only two other customers in the restaurant that probably sat 150 people. We knew the servers were out there but we couldn’t see them. It was almost funny."

The service did not improve as the evening wore on.

"After the meal we ordered coffee and when it arrived sometime later I tasted something strange and sweet in the brew," he relates. "When I asked the server what it was she replied, ‘I don’t know what it is. It’s something.’"

Having to chase down the waiter for the bill was the icing on the cake.

Although the food was good, the quality of service soured the entire dining experience. It was a new restaurant and perhaps the staff was working out a few kinks, but Barnard says he likes to patronize a restaurant that will appreciate his business. "It is disappointing when the meal is superior but the service is not up to the same standards," he concludes. "That is what stands out in my memory."

www.yaseintl.com

Discipline and Decorum

We have all tried to tell our children what to wear, when it wear it, and how to wear it only to be shocked by their attitude towards conventional garb. What they enjoy wearing comes from the Salvation Army or Goodwill outlet stores and the more thread bare, the better.

A major challenge exists for restaurant operations as to what constitutes a proper dress code in today's world. You have sloppy, sloppy sloppy; casual, casual casual; business casual; upscale casual; casual formal; business formal; and formal formal. The industry is definitely struggling especially at the high end to determine "the rules of the road." With the increased casualization of our dress codes and with the ensuing informality of life in general, the restaurant industry has faced a myriad of changes or adjustments in their approach to their rules of discipline and decorum.

con referencia a:

"We have all tried to tell our children what to wear, when it wear
it, and how to wear it only to be shocked by their attitude towards
conventional garb. What they enjoy wearing comes from the Salvation
Army or Goodwill outlet stores and the more thread bare, the better. A
major challenge exists for restaurant operations as to what constitutes
a proper dress code in today's world. You have sloppy, sloppy sloppy;
casual, casual casual; business casual; upscale casual; casual formal;
business formal; and formal formal. The industry is definitely
struggling especially at the high end to determine "the rules of the
road." With the increased casualization of our dress codes and with the
ensuing informality of life in general, the restaurant industry has
faced a myriad of changes or adjustments in their approach to their
rules of discipline and decorum."
- Service Excellence: Discipline and Decorum (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Discipline and Decorum

We have all tried to tell our children what to wear, when it wear it, and how to wear it only to be shocked by their attitude towards conventional garb. What they enjoy wearing comes from the Salvation Army or Goodwill outlet stores and the more thread bare, the better.

A major challenge exists for restaurant operations as to what constitutes a proper dress code in today's world. You have sloppy, sloppy sloppy; casual, casual casual; business casual; upscale casual; casual formal; business formal; and formal formal. The industry is definitely struggling especially at the high end to determine "the rules of the road." With the increased casualization of our dress codes and with the ensuing informality of life in general, the restaurant industry has faced a myriad of changes or adjustments in their approach to their rules of discipline and decorum.

Today the industry fights a constant and confusing battle to determine the rules of dress code. Stories are told about restaurants requiring coat and tie only to find that exceptions are made on a regular basis.

Recently I dined in a most spectacular hotel restaurant. The bar had a beautiful mahogany look with displays of rare cognacs (snifter of Hennessey Ricard was priced at $275.00). The restaurant offered wonderful wines with a great sommelier, and presented a serious menu with even the knife, fork and spoon being ala Carte. A very genteel piano player played and sang gentle music while servers ran around answering your every request with "my pleasure". The dress code, according to one staffer, was coat and tie, and the first thing I noticed were guests with jackets and no ties. After two gin and tonics, it really did not matter.
 I ordered a wonderful esoteric salad with greens from the far reaches of the world. I followed up with a perfectly cooked strip steak, spinach with oil and garlic, and half a bottle of Sterling Diamond Ranch Cabernet.

At precisely 9:01 p.m. enter yuppie family with newly born. The gentleman was in his late thirties and was dressed in a golf shirt and slacks. The wife was in upscale, beach casual and the infant had a pacifier in mouth (for at least part of the time). When the pacifier fell out, the noise level drowned out the singer/piano, guests, wait staff, bartender, and one choking guest seated in the corner.

The issue is that while the family spent big, they lacked respect for the level of the restaurant, as well as their fellow guests, which made them disruptive to say the least. The moral of this story is that poorly communicated and fuzzy rules for dress code and decorum can come back to bite you badly where it hurts. It can cause the dissipation of one's restaurant business. Rules are standards and while management must make adjustments, they must uphold the integrity of their concept in order to maintain and perpetuate their success. This is especially true in concepts where even the knife, fork and spoon cost extra.

Customer Service Principle

Throughout business history, companies have introduced grand strategies designed to raise their levels of customer service. They soon discovered, however, that the strategies were the easy part. Getting employees to buy into the strategy and make it work proved more difficult. Not surprisingly, results were usually doomed to failure from the start. 

This inability to "close the deal" has been a perennial cause of puzzlement and frustration to company executives. They assumes that once strategies are unveiled, employees will implement the program in such a way that customers notice an increased level of customer service. 


Wrong. Not only do sales and service not rise; morale goes down with them! The reason? The assumption that customer service can improve without employee commitment. 


All too often, management forgets that strategies and programs start and end with their people. This assumption is a throwback to the thinking of the American Industrial Age when employees were reduced to a component of production, not unlike a piece of equipment. 


Industrial age thinking was based on the concept that employees did not want to work and were definitely not concerned enough to do quality work. Employees were given orders, and except for breakdowns (injury or illness), tasks were grudgingly completed.
Of course time has proven again and again that employees DO want to work, they DO enjoy their work, and they want to care about the quality of their work. Research has shown that work plays a huge part in a person's self esteem, self worth and personal happiness. 


To turn your strategy into reality, you must create an environment that builds employee pride and quality. It is absolutely vital that customer service be a long-term, everyday commitment that employees believe in. Otherwise, employees will think it just another passing management fad that will fade away after a brief flurry of activity like so many other programs. They've seen it all before and if they don't believe it, it won't succeed. 


To illustrate the difference in employee attitudes consider this parable. An observer passed by two job sites and asked one employee from each what they were doing. 



Employee one: I'm working like hell for too little money.
Employee two: I'm building a cathedral.
Notice any difference in attitude? One was sold on the project and therefore became part of it, while the other was merely a part of the machine. Which employee would you want representing your establishment?
Customer Service Principles: 

-Commit to excellent customer service. Live it, breathe it, believe it, and reward it.
-Sell the employees on the whole, not just their part.

-Ensure that any Marketing initiatives emphasize your employees, not just your products. When morale and pride go up, you can bet services and sales will go up. Make your employees feel they are part of an elite group.

-Ensure all customer contact employees have autonomy to accommodate their customers, even if it means bending company rules. Then take a hard look at those bent rules, and see if they need to be discarded entirely.

-Be better than your competitor by knowing your competitor. Take your key people out to a competitor's operation, and talk about what works there and what doesn't (after you've left, of course.)

-Finally, keep the focus on your people: They ARE your business!

 www,yaseintl.com

Defining Customer Service: The Customer’s Perception Is Our Reality

You might not be able to define service, but you know it when you find it, and so do our customers. Countless seminars, books, and articles have been written on the subject of service. Every company touts service as its goal, but service is an elusive concept which is extremely difficult to measure and evaluate. Service is elusive and intangible but it is the life’s blood of the hospitality industry so we must ask ourselves, “What is customer service?” In today’s competitive marketplace service is the most important thing a company has to sell. It truly makes the difference when two businesses have the same product. If service was just smiling or getting food onto the table on time it would be difficult enough, but we know it is much more complex than that. We’ve been told over and over, every time we come in contact with a customer, that we make a good impression or a bad one for the organization we represent. The gurus have taught us that these are called the “moments of truth”. That being the case, the first moment of truth takes place with a genuine and personal touch as soon as the guest walks in the front door. This sets the tone for the rest of the experience, and if it gets even better, the dining experience will be unforgettable. If you consider the effect that one person can have on the entire experience, and multiply that by a dozen or more employees, the moments of truth have increased exponentially. The first rule of service is simply to find the right people with the right attitude, and then teach them the rest. Let’s face it, serving techniques can be taught; sophistication has to be acquired. It baffles me that during the interview process more employers don’t ask prospective employees what they think customer service means. Customer service is difficult to explain, and difficult to understand. The people who know best what customer service is, are customers, because they are the ones who know what they want. And because they are the ones who know what they want, it is the customers we should be listening to. Simply by accommodating the requests of your customers you create a demanding customer. And a demanding customer is not a bad customer. When you accommodate requests and your demanding customers go to another property, they’ll be disappointed if they don’t get the service equal to what you have created. Hence, demanding customers equal profits. As we continue to try to define customer service we find that there are some basic truths. To understand those truths you have to realize that customer service has to always be defined from the customer’s perspective, not the operator’s. In fact, we need to remember, the customer’s perception is our reality. We all know that successful service is not a one-time event; you have to work hard at it. It is only as good as your last encounter. It is a production and it goes on stage every day at the same time, and it’s live. There’s no practicing; there’s no rehearsing. Executives around the world recognize service as the most important tool a company can use to differentiate itself from the competition. Therefore, they also realize that the most important people in any company are those who provide service. J.W. Marriott Jr. said, “Service people are the most important ones in the organization. Without them there is no product, no sale, and no profit. Indeed, they are the product. Service is and should be a high calling.” We’ve all heard the phrase, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” The first thirty seconds sets the tone for the entire experience. The most important first step for anyone in our industry is creating a bond of trust and credibility with our guests. This is what we call rapport. The essence of rapport is commonality. People like people who are like themselves. If it’s true that almost everything you become and accomplish in your life is with and through other people, then the ability to create rapport with other people is the most important skill you can learn. That being said, it is easy to understand why the main challenge in our business is to manage these millions of moments of truth every day. That means managing hundreds of encounters with customers each and every shift, because it is in fact service that determines how much money they are going to spend and how much you’re going to make. It is important to remember that in every service opportunity there is a sales opportunity, and in every sales opportunity there is a service opportunity. You can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t sell it, you still have it. In this industry, we throw word “service” around like it’s a basketball. In the writing of this article, I feel like I’m preaching to the choir, but it comes back to that basic premise that it’s not what you know that matters, but doing what you know that matters. Caring is the golden key. You have to care that your guests get the best service and the best value, and that they have the best time they could possibly have. When the guests know you care about them, that’s when they’re on your team. There is nothing better than having the guests be on your team; it’s a win situation for everyone. Service is an intangible product. It’s a commodity that customers pay big money for these days and it’s a word that’s way overused. I recently read where it’s the most overused word in the world. “At one time in my life I thought I had a handle on the meaning of the word ‘service,’ the act of doing things for other people. Then I heard the terms ‘internal revenue service,’ ‘postal service,’ ‘civil service,’ ‘service stations,’ and I became confused about the word ‘service.’ This is not what I thought ‘service’ meant. Then one day I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them mentioned he was having a bull service a few of his cows. Voila! It all came into perspective, and I now understand what service is all about. Now I know what all those service agencies are doing to us.” -- Orionsky (pseudonym for on-line humorist and contributor to unsolvedmysteries.com) Service, service, service. We spend a lot of time and money on training and retraining our employees about the importance of customer service, but we really never tell them how simple it can be. In fact, it’s so simple it’s mind-boggling. I have what I call the Simplicity Rule of Customer Service and it goes like this: “All you have to be is hospitable.” Being hospitable is the act or practice of receiving strangers or guests in a friendly and generous way. It’s really that simple. All we have to do is hire people that are hospitable, and the rest comes easy. After all, we all know it’s easier to train the technical side than it is to train the personal side. In this industry, profits are not made by focusing on the larger details; profits result from focusing on small details and caring about the guests. You need to forget the macro, and focus on the micro. After all, when you really think about it, “It’s the small things in life that are big.”

Defining Customer Service: The Customer’s Perception Is Our Reality

You might not be able to define service, but you know it when you find it, and so do our customers. Countless seminars, books, and articles have been written on the subject of service. Every company touts service as its goal, but service is an elusive concept which is extremely difficult to measure and evaluate.

con referencia a: Blogger: Service Excellence - Create Post (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Deining an Employee's Duties

Many restaurats managers never take time out of their hectic schedules to wrtite job descriptions for their employees. But if they did, they would actually save a huge amount of time in the long run.

www.yaseintl.com

con referencia a:

"Many restaurant managers never take time out of their hectic schedules to write job descriptions for their employees, But if they did, they would actually save a huge amount of time in the long run."
- Service Excellence: Defining an Employee's Duties (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Defining an Employee's Duties

Many restaurant managers never take time out of their hectic schedules to write job descriptions for their employees, But if they did, they would actually save a huge amount of time in the long run.

Among other things, job descriptions serve as:

• Selection criteria. Job descriptions are intended to help an employer determine whether a person is qualified to perform a job.

• Expectation setters. They help set the expectations for employees, so there are no surprises, we recommend giving an employee a copy of the job description when he or she interviews for a position and again when he or she starts the job.

• Training tools. Managers can use job descriptions as training checklists.

• Feedback forums. Job descriptions can also serve as relevant, objective criteria upon which to evaluate employees.

• Protection against litigation. Job descriptions can help shield restaurants from wrongful-discharge, discrimination and other lawsuits. Having a job description in place can help defend your action. Creating written, detailed, comprehensive position descriptions will assist you in making appropriate and fair employment decisions.

Basic elements

Every job description should contain the following items:

• Job title

• Title of immediate supervisor

• Position summary. Provide a general description of the job, its responsibilities and the required skills.

• Tasks and competencies. Outline the job's tasks (duties) and competencies (skills needed to accomplish the tasks). Be sure to include a line that says, "Other duties as assigned." This gives you the flexibility to adjust an employee's duties as needed and provides the worker with the opportunity to grow in the position.

• Prerequisites. List the required education, experience and physical abilities needed to perform the job.

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Who Should People Blame For Bad Customer Service?

Customers never blame the real people responsible for bad customer service. I remember asking a customer service workshop made up of restaurant managers to describe their typical employees. It was very interesting to hear them passionately describe their own employees as basically lazy, uncaring, with low standards, no work ethic, and an only-in-it-for-themselves attitude--the list went on and on with the vast majority of the traits being negative. I wrote each trait on a black board on either the 'good' side or the 'bad' side. Not surprisingly, the 'bad' side was full, while the 'good' side was almost bare. That finished, I turned around and told them that the reason that their employees were like that was simple. The problem did not lie with the employees, but rather with themselves, the managers. The managers were the only ones who were at fault: They either made their employees that way through a lack of feedback, or they tolerated their employees poor behavior. Either way, they had the power to hire, fire, train and develop their employees, but they chose not to. Look in the mirror and you will see who is to blame. Not surprisingly, I got excuses, outrage and anger at my statements. After much gnashing of teeth, the majority of the group finally saw that they bore the responsibility. I have never known one employee to apply for a job with the preconceived notion of having a bad attitude, wanting to arrive late, or not caring at all. No, this is a learned condition due to attitudes established by the other employees who are tolerated by management or brought on directly by the environment generated by management. Every manager has the capability to have excellence in his or her operation. Want to get noticed? Want to establish pride? Take charge and establish excellence.

What's a Loyal Customer Worth?

Does it drive you crazy when a customer complains and you end up having to comp a meal or two? Do you get on your staff when they substitute a baked potato for the vegetables? If so, you may be focusing on short term results at the expense of building a solid base of loyal, repeat customers. Have you ever estimated what a loyal customer is worth in sales over their lifetime, if they keep coming back to your restaurant? Many operators have. A national pizza operator has estimated the average “life time sales value” of a loyal customer is around $13,000. Do you think they mind having to give away a pizza or two in order to keep a customer happy? A high-end hotel operator puts the life time sales value of a loyal guest at over $100,000. They are so adamant about keeping their guests happy that any staff member can spend up to $2,000 on the spot, no questions asked, to resolve a guest problem. Smart operators know it always costs less to keep a customer than it does to find a new one. Look at your customers in terms of their long term sales potential if they keep coming back again and again, not just what they may to spend at one meal. Communicate this concept to your staff and enlist their ideas and support in finding ways to turn casual customers into loyal guests. www.yaseintl.com

What's a Loyal Customer Worth?

Does it drive you crazy when a customer complains and you end up having to comp a meal or two? Do you get on your staff when they substitute a baked potato for the vegetables? If so, you may be focusing on short term results at the expense of building a solid base of loyal, repeat customers.

con referencia a: Blogger: Service Excellence - Create Post (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Grow Your Business Through Superior Customer Experience

Your customers experience your brand every day, with every transaction made at your retail units. With so many options available to the customer, their experience with your front line is a powerful differentiator. Yet how do you make sure your customer's experience at every opportunity is one that will generate growth?

con referencia a: Service Excellence: Grow Your Business Through Superior Customer Experiences (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Grow Your Business Through Superior Customer Experiences

 

Your customers experience your brand every day, with every transaction made at your retail units. With so many options available to the customer, their experience with your front line is a powerful differentiator. Yet how do you make sure your customer's experience at every opportunity is one that will generate growth?

Listen to your customers, listen to your employees, and align those customer desires with employee actions through a powerful integrated approach that:  

• Understands what customers value and what employees do to impact that  
• Engages employees in planning and implementing improvements  
• Rewards and recognizes employees for improvements

Sounds simple, right? But when I ask anyone in the service industry "what keeps you awake at night?" the most frequently-mentioned topic was how to use customer feedback to drive performance improvement. This may seem surprising given the number of organizations that regularly gather surveys, comment cards, and other sources of customer data. But, based on the  feedback I get, it appears that a large number of these companies are not satisfied with their ability to use customer feedback to improve performance and/or achieve desired business results. Integrating customer feedback into a continuous improvement process is the essential.

Continuous Improvement – Doing It Right
 
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, W. Edwards Deming popularized the notion of viewing quality improvement as a continuous, closed-loop process. This same approach has been discussed in connection with customer satisfaction measurement and management for at least 15 years The idea is fairly simple: Use measures of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction (and related voice of the customer data) to identify priority issues for improvement. Plan and implement efforts to address those issues, and then gather new measurements to determine if actions taken are having their intended effect. Apply this process on a continuous basis to monitor and manage customer experiences in ways that will lead to desired business results.

In Spanish  www.serviciofueradeserie.blogspot.com 

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WHAT IS DELEGATION ?

It is not possible for a single person to handle all the tasks in an enterprise. Moreover, the task of the manager is not to do all the work on his own but to get the work done by other members in the organization. For accomplishing the group purposes, delegation is necessary. Besides, there is a limit to the number of persons, a manager can supervise. Once this limit is crossed, authority needs to be delegated to the subordinates.

Authority gets delegated when a superior gives a subordinate, the discretion to make decisions. A superior can delegate only that authority, which he has and cannot delegate the one be does not have. The important decision for a manager is to decide when to perform them on his own. To determine when delegation is most appropriate, the managers should ask five basic questions:

1.       Do the subordinates have the necessary information and expertise to perform the task ?

2.       Are the subordinates committed for successful implementation of the final decision ?

3.       Will the capabilities and interest of the subordinates be expanded by this delegation ?

4.       Do the subordinates share with management the same set of common values and perspectives ?

5.       Is there sufficient time to do an effective job of delegation ?

If any of these questions remain unanswered, the probability is greater that the delegation will not be effective. More time will be required, lower quality will result, more frustration will be experienced and less empowerment will occur.

THE ART CALLED “DELEGATION”

The failure of delegation occurs not because managers do not understand how effective delegation can be done but because they are unwilling to apply the principles for the fear of loosing their importance. The studies of managerial failures reveal poor and inept delegation. The root cause Lies in the personal bias of the managers.

Receptiveness :

Delegation involves decision making and decision making always involves use of discretion and foresightedness. Managers fear that their subordinates decision may not be exactly the type the superior would have made. Besides, it involves the willingness to give a chance to the ideas of other people. The manager should be able to welcome the ideas of others as well as be able to compliment them for the good work done.

Readiness to delegate :

People who gradually move up the executive ladder in the organization tend to keep on taking the decisions for the positions they have already left. This is sheer waste of time and effort on the part of a manager because the same time can be devoted for far more important decisions. Managers need to concentrate on tasks that contribute most to the firm’s objectives and the other non-important tasks can be delegated.

Who's Running the Restaurant?

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I seldom meet a working owner or salaried manager in a restaurant that isn't working less than 70-80 hours a week. When I ask them when was the last time they took a vacation, I get a similar reply: "Vacation? You've got to be kidding."
[The same response was yielded recently from two independent operators who both had questions concerning the exploration of franchising. It's self-evident that if you don't have time to leave your current operation to take a vacation, you are certainly not ready to franchise. You must ready yourself first.]
While commitment to excellence in all areas of operations is vital, a question remains: Are you running your restaurant or is it running you? There are several steps an operator can take to have a life beyond their restaurant:
1. Establish prefix working hours. Short of sudden death, adhere to these hours.
2. Restrict unsolicited communications. Do not become victim to purveyors and other assorted vendors, and/or the media sales people of which you are a great target for their once-in-a-lifetime special offer of products, services or "fantastic" advertising opportunities. Yes, there may be promotional programs in which you may want to participate. But request all offers in writing and do not waste time with on-site meetings or lengthy discussions on the telephone. If the calls themselves become burdensome, refer them all to your agency or a selected staff member with a patent-scripted reply.
3. You set the agenda. The only people you really have time to talk to are your customers and staff. In order to meet your objectives efficiently (problem solving, finalizing catering contract etc.), you must first determine if the matter is "real" and worth addressing. Secondly, establish the parameters of the discussion to keep things moving graciously without getting sidetracked. Develop and outline and limit all meetings to a maximum of one hour. If you cannot meet your objectives in that time period, alternatively set up a second meeting, but do not deviate from your original agenda or timeline. Meetings lasting longer than this time period often fragment into 'stream of consciousness' discussions due to people tiring. At the conclusion of the hour, depart and move on to your next matter of business.
4. Paperwork. All paper, including mail (snail and electronic), should only pass through your hands one time. Upon review, there is only one decision to make: act on it (reply, delegate action, write check for payment etc.), file it (for your records in the appropriate place) or throw it in the garbage. Once you review any document, promise yourself that you will not leave this decision unfinished and you'll be glad later. While you may admire the lovely brochure your received from Vendor X, if you have no intention of buying their products in the next three months, slide it into the paper shredder under your desk. The seemingly ominous mountain of paperwork will be greatly reduced in no time.
5. Hire sufficient office support staff. Owners, chefs, managers, good kitchen crews, wait staff and good hosts/hostesses are the restaurant rainmakers. Their collective focus should be on restaurant operations -- not office work -- which can be delegated to numerous qualified and available applicants. There is no reason for any owner or manager to be sitting in front of a computer terminal performing minutia office tasks at 1AM, which could be effectively delegated, ranging to the level of a college intern with regular duties outlined, assigned and supported with adequate reporting forms.
Good luck in your recovery program!

Who's Running your Restaurant?

I seldom meet a working owner or salaried manager in a restaurant that isn't working less than 70-80 hours a week. When I ask them when was the last time they took a vacation, I get a similar reply: "Vacation? you've got to be kidding.".....Read more www.yaseservice.blogspot.com

con referencia a: Blogger in draft: Service Excellence - Create Post (ver en Google Sidewiki)

George's Rumblings

Today I feel the need to write about how independent restaurant owners and operators are coping with the econimic crisis that is affecting the country. I understand very well how tough it is for some of you and also, as an operator myself, know how frustrating it maybe to see business sliding to the point one starts feeling hopeless, and think that the only alternative to improve it is to make cuts, even in areas that will affect customer satisfaction directly......

read more at yaseservice.blogspot.com

con referencia a: Service Excellence (ver en Google Sidewiki)