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The Important Yet Delicate Role of Servers
October 19, 2007

In the not too distant future, Chain Leader’s editors will be looking at front-of-the-house training programs that help turn servers into salespeople—in short, productive employees who make themselves money while helping fill the coffers of their respective restaurants. (If your company has an effective program, please tell me about it.)

It’s a delicate and important role, particularly in full-service restaurants, where there’s golden opportunity to turn customers into regulars. I believe that approach—versus merely boosting a party’s check by upselling—works best.

Of course, as training experts tell us, the process begins at recruitment. You hire friendly people who like to take care of others. In short, you look for people who have the hospitality “gene” and not necessarily experience. Years ago, I heard training consultant Jim Sullivan neatly encapsulate this sentiment by saying that employee attrition ideally begins at the point of hiring.

But that’s not the reality restaurants face. They’ve already hired employees of various skill levels. Now the question is: How do you help them be more productive?

I was looking for such ideas when I came across this article on Slate.com by former chef Sara Dickerman, who offers six “general formulas” to assess restaurant service. I’ll leave you with a sample:

Greeting skills: S+ = HGTY

New York chef David Pasternack recently told me good service (S+) is basically "hello, goodbye, and thank you" (HGTY). A simple principle but one that is often forgotten, or even, at trendy restaurants, willfully overlooked. Someday, I will learn to walk out of restaurants when I am not acknowledged with at least a "We'll be right with you…" within a minute of arrival—it is as good a harbinger of a bumpy night as any I know.

Thanks for reading. Come back again.

Posted by David Farkas on October 19, 2007 | Comments (0)