Convey True Hospitality in Restaurant Operations

With the recent economic turmoil, it’s imperative that restaurants get back to basics in all aspects of restaurant operations.  One key aspect to the restaurant business is hospitality and making every restaurant guest feel welcome.  In this blog we’ll explore some simple methods to make sure your delivering palpable hospitality to all restaurant guests.

Hospitality begins before you open

This is the part of restaurant operations you have the most control over, but it is often the most overlooked.  Make sure the very first guest feels welcome by finishing your opening tasks before they arrive.  We’ve all been the first guest in a restaurant and had that awkward feeling of being too early.  The host doesn’t know where to seat you yet, the server isn’t ready to get your drinks, or the Iced Tea isn’t done brewing.  The dining room music isn’t turned on yet and you can hear the kitchen radio, half the staff is still putting away their bags or getting on their aprons.  As a restaurant guest, the message is clear: you’re too early and we’re not ready.  Now the guest has this uncomfortable delay stuck in their mind the next time they are deciding where to eat an early lunch.

If your restaurant “opens” at 11 am, be ready at 10:50.  This way the first guest of the day feels welcome, and you can seamlessly deliver genuine hospitality from the first minute of the day.

The last guest matters as much as the first guest

This restaurant operations topic gets discussed a lot, but unfortunately it’s still something restaurant guests experience too often.  A guest walks in close to the posted closing time, and it’s clear the service staff is half-way done with their closing checklist.  The lights are turned up, multiple tables aren’t set for the next guests, servers are cleaning with aprons off and shirts untucked.  The staff communicates among themselves by yelling across the dining room, you can can hear the stories of the difficult tables from earlier in the night, and the service timing is just not crisp — waiting a long time for one course, then being rushed through another.  This message is clear, and the impact is long-lasting if not permanent:  You are too late and you missed the party, even though we told everyone we’re still open.

At best, you’ve lost sales from this table because they’ll skip the second round, or appetizers or desserts.  At worst, you’ve lost the guests too; next time they’re deciding where to eat a late dinner, they’ll remember feeling like a burden and will dine at another restaurant.  If your restaurant closes at 10 pm, make sure your entire staff is mentally expecting the last guests to be seated at 10:15.

Master non-verbal communication to be hospitable

Make eye contact with guests, smile, and let guests walking through your restaurant have the right of way.  Your eye contact with guests will send guests the signal that your focus is on them and their experience.  A simple smile will convey true hospitality by making guests feel that every member of staff is happy they are there.  And a server stopping to let a guest pass — regardless of how busy she is — sends the message that the priority is the guests’ experience, and shows respect for the guest’s time and money they’re spending in your restaurant.

Avoid the canned “table touch”

Honest, sincere, conversation is always more hospitable than a rehearsed table touch that feels like you’re checking a box on a checklist.  Visit every table like you would visit with every guest when you’re hosting a party at home.  When hosting friends or neighbors, we don’t walk the room and recite the same canned line, “How’s everything?  Thanks so much for coming.”

Instead, compliment a shirt, ask a specific question about something on the table, revisit a conversation you had with the guest during their last visit.  Introduce yourself, address the guest by name if you know it, ask for their name if they’re new, or admit you need a reminder if you recognize them but don’t know their name.   Communication with guests should stay firmly and comfortably on the hospitality side, and help guests forget about the business side of “hospitality business.”

Details Matter in Hospitality.

If your training process outlines 25 steps of service, make sure every table gets 25, not 24 or 23 steps of service.  If your price point requires servers to re-mark between courses, make sure every server knows how and when to re-mark every guest — and that they are doing it.  Refills need to be consistent, if you see a drink at 2/3 finished, make sure the refill is on the way.  Pre-bus, Pre-bus, Pre-bus.  Nothing interrupts hospitality like dirty dishes.

Yes, every Detail.

Are the windows and mirrors clean?  Sidewalk and floors swept?  Is the host greeting the guests when they walk in? How long would you expect a guest in your home to stand in the empty foyer before he or she started feeling like they had the wrong day or time for the party?  Are you and your staff opening doors for guests?  Pulling out chairs?  Taking coats?  Hospitality is rooted in manners and respect, and showing these to guests every day costs nothing and can be done at any restaurant at any price-point.

As competition for guests gets more intense, all of these practices become more important.  If you aren’t sure if your restaurant is consistently delivering this level of hospitality, Contact Salt & Cayenne and ask about our service assessment.  Or, if you know you need some guidance in your restaurant operations, we can help with your dining room operations to make sure you’ve got the staffing, training, and tools to effectively prepare for every guest.