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By Lindsey Danis | Solid kitchen crews strive for consistent quality. They establish standards in selecting ingredients, preparation, and presentation. Not every back-of-the-house worker is an experienced and talented chef. But under the direction and surveillance of a qualified chef, they should understand their role in executing a crave-worthy menu.
Standards are an equally important and yet overlooked aspect of stellar customer service. Not every service hire is going to be a superstar. But you cannot hope for consistent quality service if your employees cannot describe and execute what is expected of them.
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all customer service standard. Instead, there is the standard that is right for your concept: the one that best embodies your unique values, culture, and concept style. “Customer service takes on different flavors, so with fast food, you would see more efficiency and speed,” Kelli Laube, RestaurantOwner.com hospitality trainer, explains, adding, “It still can be personable, but those interactions are limited, whereas if it is a fine dining restaurant, you are spending more time on hospitality than you would spend on the guest going through the drive-thru,”
At their most basic level, service standards focus on desired behaviors, such as politeness or efficiency. For a quick-service concept, desired behaviors include the way each guest is greeted. Service standards also inform employees what not to do, such as removing wares from a table or presenting the check without ascertaining if the guests are finished dining.
The Weakest Link
Without prescribed standards, service staff might decide whatever they can get away with is acceptable. This is the source of a downward spiral. You might believe that hiring personable staff who display a strong work ethic is the solution. Certainly, the selection and retention of “A-players” are critical components of success. The problem is it is almost impossible to ensure that each hire is a superstar. Furthermore, great hires become frustrated if their coworkers are satisfied with subpar performance. While we like to think superstars raise the bar, more often it is marginal staff that drag down the experience. “Culture drives the behaviors and attitudes and what is acceptable standard-wise,” says Laube. There are some employees you cannot save. They lack the ability and motivation to be successful. And they need to go. That said, many staff members can become solid performers if they know what to expect.
Laube shares her experience developing a training manual for a full-service concept. Her first step was working several shifts as a food runner. Laube has a great deal of experience as a restaurant manager and staff member; however, she realized she needed to get a glimpse into the culture of this concept and its service standards.
“Some shifts would be so fun to work. Other shifts you would have people sneaking to the parking lot to play on their phones,” says Laube. “It’s that behavior you have to address because it can impact the employee that has been there for years, as well as the new hire.”
Attendance is a service standard. A single late arrival can undermine the entire shift. Like a theatrical performance, every “player” in a restaurant has a role.
Laube recalls an employee who habitually arrived late to work. Managers were aware of the employee’s chronic tardiness but had yet to address it. Laube was impressed how a single employee showing up late for a shift dragged down the performance and attitude of the entire team, which was manifested in the quality of service and the guest experience. The “weakest link in the chain” metaphor applies to restaurants as much as it does any business.
The Independent Advantage
Carl Orsbourn, co-founder and chief operating officer of JUICER, a dynamic pricing solution for restaurants, and author of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant” believes independent restaurants have an edge over the chains when it comes to customer service. Independent restaurants manage smaller teams. Owner-operators are more involved in running the business. Both owners and managers tend to spend time on the floor and lend a hand by running plates when it is needed. This leads to a level of familiarity that helps guests feel special. It also makes the staff feel more like a team rather than commodities when the captain is on deck with them.
On the other hand, guests often expect a higher level of service at an independent restaurant than at a chain unit. Independent concepts are often perceived as familial and local. Think about the 80s and 90s sitcom Cheers, set in a pub “where everybody knows your name.”
“It’s at independent restaurants where your face is often recognized, your favorite dish remembered, and the head chef comes out and has a chat about what the guest liked (or didn’t) from their experience,” says Orsbourn. While they may seem minor, these touches convey the sense that a guest matters. This extra recognition turns one-time diners into regulars. While your standards should focus on the basics of good service, it is often these extras that make a restaurant stand out in a guest’s mind.
The Customer Service Checklist
You well might wonder if this level of service can be defined and executed as part of an established standard. Let us allay your skepticism.
To start developing your service standards, brainstorm the guidelines and rules that make sense for your concept. Involve not only your managers but also staff members, especially those who exhibit stellar behavior and judgment in service.
“Grab a whiteboard and start brainstorming out loud, talking about what you need to do to make yourself more efficient to meet the needs of what your guests are looking for,” says Mark Moeller, owner of The Recipe of Success, a restaurant consulting service based in Westport, CT. For a full-service restaurant, Moeller recommends writing down every step of service for the typical meal. If your goal is to have a guest leave after an hour or more satisfied with the experience, highlight the touchpoints of the experience that would most contribute to that result.
Moeller recommends that you put yourself in the guest’s proverbial shoes. What are your expectations of a stellar experience? “Operators, managers, and owners have to be in the restaurant during peak hours,” Moeller adds. Otherwise, they will not know what is going on in the restaurant. Nor will they be able to come up with an effective customer service standard to guide employees. You can learn a great deal when dining at other concepts. What was impressive? In what ways did the service fall flat? This can be valuable research for you and your team.
If your goal is to have a guest leave after an hour or more satisfied with the experience, highlight the touchpoints of the experience that would most contribute to that result.
It cannot be overstated how important it is to gain insights from your service staff in developing service standards. For one, they are on the front lines of the business. They know what guests like and dislike. They can tell you about experiences that went well and those that did not and why.
As a bonus, taking an interest in the opinions and suggestions of your staff can boost morale. Younger staff in particular want to influence their workplace rather than feel like cogs in a machine. A collaborative approach to developing the standard satisfies their curiosity and helps them feel included. This is the “stone soup” approach to management. People who contribute to the process develop a vested interest in the outcome.
A busser wants to clear a table quickly, while a host wants to seat guests promptly. While most desired behaviors differ from role to role, each member of the team can provide examples of an optimal guest experience. Each piece of the puzzle contributes to the larger picture.
Standards need to be job-specific. While some elements of customer service transcend employee roles, such as politeness, it is smart to tailor customer service standards to roles. Service standards for bartenders, bussers, and hosts vary because of their specific interactions with guests and how they support other staff in carrying out their roles. Identifying and defining the standards of your concept provides another opportunity for working with every member of the team.
Organizing and Documenting Your Service Standards
Moeller advises clients to align their standards according to the requirements for a quality guest experience at each touchpoint of service, beginning before the first guest arrives until they leave the premises.
Moeller illustrates this with the example of silverware rollups. If a concept does not have enough rollups created before a shift starts, service will inevitably be slower than desired. Taking this holistic point of view will help you identify other habits and behaviors that contribute to customer service, such as having the appropriate number of silverware rollups prepared in advance.
“Teams don’t naturally default to excellence, we default to what’s easy,” says Laube. Clear and defined standards for service distill desired behaviors into easy steps employees can follow, which increases the likelihood that employees will be able to deliver excellent service on busy shifts.
Here are some examples of items to include in a customer service checklist. While not every item on this list may be appropriate for your concept, it may help kick-start your brainstorming:
Host
- Greet guests with a smile and an upbeat attitude.
- Walk guests to a table right away.
- If there is a wait time, walk guests to your bar or waiting area.
- Thank departing guests for their business with a smile and friendly gesture.
Server
- Be up to date on menu item ingredients and potential allergens, including current specials.
- Explain menu items if asked.
- Repeat orders back to the guest to double-check accuracy.
- Check whether customers want more drinks or food at periodic intervals.
- Ask if the customer wants dessert when they finish their entrees.
- Present the check promptly by placing it in the center of the table.
- Effectively Communicating Your Standards to Staff
Laube recalls working at a restaurant where their customer service standards were communicated clearly from day one and working at another restaurant that did not have standards documented in any fashion. “There wasn’t even a manual and you had to figure it out,” Laube says.
She does not mean to judge. Owners and managers are busy. There are so many moving parts to running a restaurant. “A lot of managers can get very involved in the numbers and the back-of-house stuff,” says Laube. Sometimes, this can lead managers and owners to overlook the guest-facing aspects of running a restaurant.
But the food alone is not going to carry your business. Particularly in the current market, with the increasing cost of dining out, guests want to be treated exceptionally well. They can enjoy a steak and a bottle of wine at home for a fraction of the cost.
Documentation and training of service standards is where the rubber meets the role. Identifying your standards without executing and monitoring them is simply no more than an exercise.
Laube and Moeller prefer a multi-pronged approach to executing standards, starting with referencing them in the employee handbook so that employees can easily review them if needed. Among the first steps in onboarding and training should be to explain and demonstrate these standards. Every employee wants to know what is expected of them from the beginning. The quickest way to lose an employee is a trial-by-fire orientation to the job.
“People learn in different ways,” says Moeller. “Hands-on versus reading a manual or watching a video.” This is important to keep in mind when it comes to instilling your service standard in new employees. Turnover continues to be high at restaurants. New people are coming on all the time. Even if they have hospitality experience, you will need to train them in your standards. The multi-pronged approach accommodates differing learning styles and reinforces consistent behaviors.
Continuing Education
Professional development is a continuous process, whether you are an accountant, lawyer, surgeon, or hospitality staff. The most successful restaurants discuss their standards, including how to improve their execution during meetings, employee reviews, and continued training.
Laube recommends owners and managers refer to customer service standards at pre-shift meetings. If a standard is included in the handbook but rarely mentioned again, employees will decide that it is window dressing. Referencing standards daily, such as during pre-shift meetings, emphasizes their importance and serves as a reminder before staff is back on the front line. Repetition turns concepts into behavior.
It does not mean you have to open the service standard floodgates every meeting. For example, says Moeller, managers can pick one standard to focus on for a week. They can remind employees of the standard during pre-shift settings. They might ask employees to share an example of a time they observed someone performing the standard at a high level, such as demonstrating courtesy by helping a mobility-impaired patron reach their table. Over time, these turn into teachable moments that inspire employees to perform at a high level.
Quick-service restaurants might not have a pre-shift meeting with the entire team. Managers and owners at these establishments should find opportunities to bring the team together for learning and communication, suggests Moeller. Whether holding a brief meeting or using messaging capabilities built into scheduling software, reviewing touchpoint standards helps everyone work together as a team. It also sets an expectation of accountability and oversight. When employees know someone is watching, they will take the time to do it the right way.
Customer service standards evolve as the restaurant changes. You discover best practices in the execution of your standards. It is important to revisit the standards regularly. Moeller recommends new operators do this every quarter, reassessing and documenting any changes. As you modify standards based on other operational changes, communicate the new standards to your team.
Recognize Excellence
Service staff look to the size of their tips to gauge their service performance. Certainly, the money is important. That said, owners and managers need to reinforce service excellence with recognition and rewards.
Look for ways to reward staff who demonstrate excellence in their execution of service standards, such as a gift certificate or small bonus. But an occasional attaboy or attagirl can be equally meaningful. “I remember starting my first server job and not getting any feedback for two months,” says Laube. “The Christmas party comes and I get Rookie of the Year, and I didn’t even think the owner knew my name. I got no positive feedback.”
She recalls the day a manager praised a colleague who was routinely mentioned by name in online reviews. The employee had been on the job for eight months and had no idea he was doing such an amazing job because nobody had told him. “He had the biggest smile on his face all night long,” Laube says.
For Laube, these experiences underscore the importance of regular recognition. Not only does positive attention boost morale, but it also reminds employees that somebody is paying attention to their performance. “Take every opportunity you can to give someone a thumbs up because that means the world to people.”