The Art of Great Service

Investing in Hospitality Training and Staff Well-being at Work
As the world opens-up again after months of continuous lockdown – pubs, cafes, restaurants and even nightclubs welcome back patrons. As I travel the country again working in various cities and visiting a wide range of food service venues, it is more obvious than ever before, that there is a shortage of adequately trained food and beverage service professionals. This is due to a number of factors including the absence of overseas students, visa holders and some peoples’ desire not to return to the food service sectors for a number of reasons. This article is one in a series of industry-focused blogs called the ‘Hospitality Mindset’. I’m providing a customer’s insight into the importance and benefits of good service and delivering a positive experience, whether buying a coffee, ordering a cocktail or dining in a chef-hatted restaurant. 

 Good and consistent service is the end-product of effective and relevant training. In this blog I want to remind all food service businesses about the benefits of taking the time to train their staff. Yes, it is a daunting task for small businesses, however a couple of one hour training sessions in the initial days of employment can make all the difference. We acknowledge that training new staff can often be an overwhelming task; not only do you need to allocate time from your busy schedule, but you need to ensure that the time you dedicate to training is worthwhile. I’ve just finished a consultancy with a new, small neighbour café called Mia Zoi, located in Port Melbourne. It is obvious, the most basic customer service training yields many benefits, not only from a sales perspective but also from repeat, customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the tangible benefits of training food and beverage staff?
 1.     It sets a base standard for service and encourages teamwork
2.     It reduces slips-up and also reduces customer dissatisfaction
3.     It adds to positive and memorable eating and dining experiences
4.     It provides confidence and emotional stability for staff to approach and successfully serve customers
5.     It increases safety at work and overall productivity
6.     Sales are increased through suggestive selling of food and beverage products
7.     It reduces staff turnover – a costly and time-consuming exercise for small businesses
8.     It instils a service culture, and this is crucial for any food service business
9.     More training equates to greater staff development
10.  It adds to employee well-being at work – happy staff contributes to happy customers

Hospitality training allows your staff to learn and grow within their position and even your business. Without appropriate training it’s common for new staff to feel overwhelmed, struggle and get stressed during busy services. By providing training they can learn new ways to handle their daily tasks, ease stress and feel confident in their role. You may even see them grow so much you offer them a more senior position within your business.