All Blog Posts Tagged 'training' (94)

Why do customers keep coming back to your restaurant?

What do they like about your restaurant?

What do they not like about your restaurant?

Three very basic questions that every restaurant owner needs to know the answers to. This is the essence of the Guest Experience.  These questions answer the most basic parts about your restaurant…

Formula For Success

The more I study the concept of employee engagement in the restaurant industry I see the need for innovation. One of the biggest challenges is how to get hourly employees to really engage with the company’s mission. The formula I’m seeing emerge in other markets could change foodservice engagement if readily embraced.

Goals + Gamification = Engagement

We all know that annual reviews in foodservice are impractical. With high…

There is a recently completed study on the work habits of Millennials that might surprise employers. The study was done by MTV, and before you shrug it off, think — who better to get honest feedback from a younger generation?

Let’s examine the results as they apply to foodservice and the upcoming restaurant workforce.

Culture

In a briefing with…

I recently visited a restaurant and observed an elderly couple struggling to view a menu.  A few minutes into their struggle, their server graciously presented them with an iPad version of the menu and showed them within a few seconds how to zoom in to read the menu better.  The couple had a wonderful time…

Grant Funded Hospitality Training 

If your hostess and server team is spiraling out of control, or you're interested in honing their skills to generate better guest service and hopefully improve sales, consider state grant programs.  These programs can be made available to independent, small chain, and corporate restaurants.

Understanding Grant Opportunities

Many states make grant funds available to employers in good tax standing to…

There’s a mobile epidemic occurring everywhere you turn - locally, nationally and globally. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 27 percent of US households used cell phones exclusively in the first half of 2010. Additionally, a Nielsen survey reported smartphone usage nearly tripled in the last year, especially among 18-29 year-olds where 62 percent use smartphones.

How does this connect to the foodservice industry? It means your workforce demographic is moving…

When the chef is out, you are it. You are the main guy that everyone, cooks, dishwashers, bartenders, and servers look to for all the answers. The minute you panic, they all panic. Keep a cool head and split your problems up. Delegate: Delegate with authority and confidence. Never place blame: On equipment or persons. If you are the IT guy, you…

What is the profit per dollar in a restaurant? Most owners and managers can't even answer this question right. And they wonder why staff isn't more careful with the business. If everyone understands this in your restaurant you will have a much different operation.

MAKE SURE THEY DO!

Everyone who has sat through a training video, raise your mouse.

Until just a few years ago, a restaurant's options for utilizing a training video were very limited.  The options were to purchase an off-the-shelf solution or invest heavily in a production company to produce something custom at hundreds of dollars per finished minute.  Regardless of cost or format, delivering restaurant training through video was difficult. 

Enter Streaming video.

Streaming video, with…

Copyright 2011 by Jim Sullivan

I recently had lunch with Tim Kirkland, the best-selling author of The Renegade Server (2009, Indian Creek Press, $19.95). If you haven’t read the book—a 21st Century treatise on how to motivate, inspire and direct iPod Generation waitstaff to better serve and sell—I highly recommend it.

Our conversation centered not on servers, but on the current state of—and frustrating lack of progress in—foodservice training. We…

I’ve been in the restaurant business my entire career.  I have enjoyed the challenges and successes and I’ve learned a great deal from the failures.  I have a real passion for the people who work in the business, especially those who work in the restaurants. 

Much has changed since I…

I, like many other Americans, tuned in to watch the final episode of Smallville this last Friday night. For those not familiar, it is the story of Clark Kent growing up in Smallville, Kansas and his life lessons and upbringing that lead him to become the Man of Steel.

 …

As owner/operator of a restaurant, if you asked one of your waiters: "what is the difference between broiled chicken and roasted chicken?' or "what is a ragout sauce?' Would you be provided with the correct answer? If not, then I highly suggest that you start teaching basic food knowledge and food preparation methods in your waiter training programs. Otherwise, precious revenue and service reputation is being lost unnecessarily everyday in your restaurant's dining room.

Most chefs…

A New Main Dish will be featured in the next few weeks at my restaurant.

I'm working on beefing-up my service with some back-to-the basics training techniques that have somehow fallen from the plate over the last few months.

With Spring in the air, it…

The staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there is the alter ego. Batman in reality is Bruce Wayne, Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, Spider-Man is really Peter Parker. When that character wakes up every morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man.

And it is in…

Restaurant Service Consulting, by definition, is a review or evaluation of the restaurant dining room service system. This means, "how the dining room runs" which includes all of the service tools provided (or to be provided) by the management.

These tools include readable floor diagrams, seating coordination, menu descriptions, properly done staff schedules, sidework postings and a whole host of other things.

 

There are two main aspects to the Restaurant Service Consulting…