There are no decent staff out there!
This is the catchphrase for a lot of hospitality businesses we talk to throughout Australia. Of course there are not many readymade, proficient and competent staff that will step into your organisation and start making money for you immediately.
You have to invest some time and effort in getting these people armed with the basic skills to do their jobs effectively. It is a travesty that many operators spend a fortune on fit outs, renovations, new equipment and marketing exercises, yet completely disregard the most important asset in their business ......... their STAFF!
It is not enough to let them "learn on the job". Someone has to show them the correct service methods, practical skills and impart some product knowledge to allow them to run your business effectively and profitably. There is a basic tool kit of skills and product knowledge that ALL staff in a venue MUST have to do their jobs properly.
They need to know how the service cycle works, set tables, how to carry and clear plates, make coffees, pour and serve alcoholic beverages, serve wines, carry trays and sell products to your guests. They need these basic skills and to use them instinctively.....without thinking or wondering what to do next or am I holding the tray properly!
These skills are not difficult to impart. But they need to be known by ALL staff in a venue and ideally, BEFORE they commence working your floor.
We understand that employers may not have the time or the necessary training experience to impart these skills to staff. That is why we provide training solutions that are delivered in your venues.......quickly, cost effectively and focused on immediate returns for your business.
2 hours and not one set of teeth!
I was sitting with a few friends recently having some coffees and small meals. The venue was very comfortable, half full and had plenty of staff running around. We ordered 3 coffees and drank them within 10 minutes. They were exceptional, and we told the young lady when she cleared them.
Sadly, after the coffees were cleared, we sat for over 100 minutes without being asked if we wanted any further food or drinks. Our empty plates remained uncleared for almost the entire duration we were there. We spent a total of 2 hours in the venue and as we left my friend noted that she did not see one set of teeth from a staff member!
Meaning.....not one staff member smiled at us or other customers during those 2 hours! No one bothered to acknowledge our presence nor make any attempts to increase sales by selling more drinks or food items.
This was in a 5 star hotel and part of an international chain! It cost us almost $50 for the 3 coffees, cake and cheese. We were prepared to spend a lot more but wanted the service to be prompted by the staff and not us. Unfortunately this is becoming a frustrating occurrence in hospitality venues across all styles and ratings in Australia, where the concept of meeting a customers' needs, acknowledgement of their presence and ability to spend money through selling to them is being overlooked as a vital part of the service cycle.
We have a number of training solutions that focus on upkilling your
staff quickly and cost
effectively. Our training delivery is specifically
targeted at increasing the performance of your staff, selling
your products and contributing to the
bottom line...........Immediately!
"Are youse guys right for drinks?"
This is becoming the current mantra and benchmark for staff in hospitality outlets when it comes to selling products in a venue. It doesn't matter what style or quality of venue, staff seem to think that this and other similar phrasing is an acceptable way to talk to customers and a sure fire way to increase sales through suggestive selling.
IT ISN'T!
The selling process in a venue relies on a good understanding of product knowledge, the ability to converse intelligently and respectfully across a diverse customer base, an understanding of what the customer is after and timing. The latter is continuously underestimated.
There is no point in asking a table of 4 diners if they would like another bottle of wine as they are digesting the final forkful of their main course. They should have been asked at least halfway through the meal as you were pouring the remaining wine into their glasses!
A lot of venues are oblivious as to how much potential revenue they are missing out on because their staff lack the knowledge of products and the basic personal skills required to sell.
It is not about making the staff super salesmen. It is about giving them the confidence to provide the offer in the first place and developing the skill with continuous use.
The lament of many operators who ponder..............I don't understand how I've got this magnificent wine list, yet most bottles gather dust on the shelves!!!
Coffee and wine reps do not necessarily make good trainers!
It is not a surprising revelation that a lot of hospitality venues rely on their wine and coffee reps to deliver a training solution. Although it is better than having no training at all, it cannot be seen as a viable solution to updating and improving the skills base of staff in two very important areas of a hospitality business - coffee and wine sales.
This is not meant as an indictment of these reps and suppliers. They are first and foremost in the business of selling you more coffee beans and wines. Training staff is not their CORE business nor do they all have the necessary expertise and credentials.
Many do not have the time, the training skills, the inclination, personality or the ability to watch EACH and every staff member perform the actual skill sets and therefore cannot do justice to deliver a solution that meets operational standards and contribute to bottom line.
We hear many examples of up to 8 staff gathered around an espresso machine and the coffee rep delivering a 30 minute presentation on grind quality and demonstrating how to make a latte and cappuccino! And then they are off to the next client destination to drop off their bean order!
Very rarely do the staff get their hands dirty and actually make a FULL range of espresso styles. It is impossible to deliver an effective training solution in 30 minutes with a large group of staff watching a quick demonstration.
I come back to the concept of CORE BUSINESS and what type of person a venue believes will deliver the most efficient and cost effective training and operational solution.
Hardly anyone uses a drinks tray anymore!
During our training needs analyses, we observe a large number of
staff that don't know the correct way of carrying a drinks
tray, or worse, do not use a tray at all to deliver or remove
glasses.
Many times we witness the overloading of trays, incorrect placement of glasses on the tray and many near misses with spills on the floor and customers.
This creates all sorts of problems such as: restricting the number of items that can be carried at one time, promoting spillage of drinks, inefficient service practices as they need to make multiple trips to serve more than 2 glasses at a time, can be dangerous if staff are tripped up or bumped into, has hygiene implications and finally, looks unprofessional.
It is even scarier when fingers and hands are used to carry stacked, empty glasses across busy floor areas to the bar. Once again the removal issues are the same as those of delivery. If anything the problems are accentuated as fingers are put inside glasses and are stacked on top of each other and more unnecessary trips are made to the same table.
The proper way of carrying and serving from a drinks tray is an important skill item for any staff in a venue. It requires a minute or two to show the correct procedure and then a bit of practice to perfect.
It is a skill that increases the efficiency of service
and reduces hygiene and OH&S implications in a
venue.
Qualifications may not always be the answer!
It is surely a contradiction how some hospitality
operators seem to think that getting their staff to
complete an accredited qualification will magically improve
their business performance.
This is particularly ironic in an industry where training is
traditionally seen as an additional and unwarranted expense,
relies on eligibility based Traineeship funding which
EXCLUDES most staff and when delivered, takes so
long to complete and is usually of dubious quality to make the
ensuing qualification redundant. Also, the industry employs a
mainly casual workforce that has minimal
interest in pursuing hospitality qualifications. Most are
students or second job employees. Restaurant and Catering Australia
claim that only "16.5% of its workforce has any
type of vocational qualification".
Many staff lack the most basic skill sets to allow your
business to run efficiently and maximise profits. We are talking
about: food service skills, understanding of customer
needs, product knowledge in wines, beverages and
food, selling skills, how to work effectively and
efficiently in an hospitality environment. These
organisational deficiencies will not be eliminated
by a small percentage of staff undertaking an overly extended
traineeship or receiving a 30 minute training
session from a supplier!
Unfortunately we need to include some management and supervisors in
this group of unskilled workers! Most managers are well trained in
operational and administrative tasks but fail to recognize the lack
of skills required on the floor. When we deliver our various
training programs, we commence with a basic True / False test
based on Certificate II level questions, as a foundation to what we
need to focus on. The average score is well below
50% and a lot of the the worst performers tend to be those
with some type of hospitality qualification! And it doesn't matter
whether we deliver to a small suburban cafe or a 5 star Hotel
Group.
This presents a lot of questions regarding how these qualifications
were obtained in the first place..........who delivered
them, what was delivered and how they were
delivered. These staff members seem to have a false sense
of accomplishment regarding their training needs and are often
extremely surprised when our training, which is totally
geared towards providing superior customer service and product
knowledge, exposes quite a few of their shortcomings.
We believe that businesses need to focus on getting ALL
their staff up to an acceptable level of service
skills......QUICKLY ...... and not be worried
about whether a qualification awaits them or how it is going to
affect their employee classification and consequent hourly
rate.
ALL staff should be on the SAME page.
It is pleasing that nearly every single person working in a food and beverage outlet in Australia can pour a perfect tap beer. The glass is handled perfectly, the tap is flicked on perfectly, the beer is poured along the inside edge of the glass, the glass is tilted upright ¾ of the way through the pour and the finished product sits with a perfect head of froth.
Unfortunately...... that is where the standardizing of service and product ceases.
From a management perspective, it astounds me that such a focus is put on this one practical skill and yet the remaining skills required to work in a food and beverage venue are left to their own devices.
This is reflected in the different and usually incorrect methods
used by staff in the SAME venue to: carry drinks
trays, carry plates to a table, clear plates, pour a cordial based
soft drink, make a variety of espresso coffees, make a
cocktail, greet you at the door, offer to sell you a product
and the list goes on.
The hospitality industry is about presenting a consistent, quality and standardized offer to customers so they know what to expect when they enter a venue. The chefs in a kitchen need to produce their meals according to standard recipes with quality outcomes at ALL times and not when they feel like it or according to their way of doing it! So why isn't there a similar focus on front of house staff?
ALL the staff in a venue should be preparing and delivering the full range of products and services in the SAME way. This is not rocket science! The practical skill sets are generic across all types of hospitality businesses GLOBALLY.
It makes no business sense at all for a venue to focus on only one part of many skills required by staff to work effectively in this industry.
Finally and possibly most ironic of all, most staff that can
pour the tap beers have no idea when I ask them. What is a
draught beer?!!!