Now, the Dining Room Manager is responsible to continue to build confidence and commitment along the arc of employee's retention, commitment, loyalty to make employees happy and satisfied. Just as, he or she wants the new hire to make the customers feel. In other words, manager's belief system is happy employees make happy customers.
More importantly he or she success depends on employees job performance and is a key metric of a manager evaluation. Paired with a key service team member so you can learn quickly the "playbook" as in any team sport such as football or basketball, is important to transitioning.. In this case the playbook is the process and procedures in preparation for service in the dining room and kitchen. Hopefully your playbook, continuing on sport analogy basics, will have many diagrams, labels, images, checklist to help visualize the process easily. You will have both offense and defensive plays to study when combine with your unique qualities will raise the service experience up a notch or two. On offense you will learn to smile often if not all the time. The words "thank you", "how can I make your experience better" and "I can assist you with that" are said as easily as walking. On defense you will learn recovery steps in slips and falls from team members dropping the ball to be empathic, take action immediately to make it right. Your manager is your default rim protector as in basketball, to defend and upkeep the standards of service.
Continuous training is another service you provide your employees to keep their confidence level high to execute your service style everyday and the empowerment to offer solution to customer service request without always referring back to the manager.
Happy employees are less likely to be late and absent. They understand the commitment they made to the employer, their team members and the customers. And,the impact it have on the team. It is also a great service to give to your fellow employees to be there for them when they need you and be on time.
When they are happy, they smile easily and their unique quality shines thru and is reflected on the customer who feels welcome and relaxed.
We are in the information age driven my customer desire to know as much as is necessary to make a decision where to dine on their next occasion. They no longer depend on word of mouth exclusively but on the availability of information to suit their whim and fancy for the occasion. Without becoming paralyzed with choices, they seek out as much information as is necessary to get the best value and experience their money can buy. They Google search Yelp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to confirm their own curiosity in choosing your restaurant as oppose to your competitors. That being said, how do you share your own story to capture their attention? Easy. The expansion of mobile technology makes it easy to share your story with your potential customers where, when and how they need it to create excitement and expectation for a memorable experience.
Then, you must not disappoint but exceed their expectation and emotionally and socially connect with the customer so your employees become the person and place where an occasion is celebrated and become the go to popular place to dine.
Telling your story help sells the experience you offering and when you add a little surprise to delight them even further like a close friend would to celebrate a special occasion with you. This enables the relationship to gain strength that you feel something of an emotional attachment that is twice as stronger than a business value proposition that sells. To put this differently if you cannot tell your story you cannot sell anything. We are a strong advocate of selling your story.
The social and emotional driven benefits your customers receives from connecting with your employees when combined with the expected service standards of attention, recognition andfriendliness of your team becomes a force multiplier to sustainability and success.
We have to start looking at your vendors as part of your team of advocates you nuture to share your story while delivering the right ingredients at the right price and time for you to do the things you do well. More importantly vendors will keep you abreast of changing market conditions, changes in the supply chain and may even give you tidbits on the competition. Keep then happy and satisfied too. Let them be your external ear when, you are tied to pot, and need an extra pair of eyes and ears.
The community is another steakholder in your business and you should have a plan on how you will develop this relationship. Meet with the community leaders and activist to assist in the plan development so they can become another advocate for your business.
Letting your customers be your salepersons, your employees be your spoke person, your community be your advocate and social media and technology be your marketing,and communication channel for sustainability in this era of change be the new moment of truth.
