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Licensed Beverage Dealers of South Dakota
PO Box 974
Pierre, SD 57501
605.224.1817 voice
605.945.2269 fax
800-721-1789 free
info@sdliquor.com
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Effective Communication-A Key to Guest Service
Training
By Pam Simos of Five Star Training
When dining out, how often have you heard restaurant
employees make statements such as:
- "That can't be re-cooked; you ate most
of it."
- "You arrived at six o'clock, and I told
you the wait was going to be 45 minutes."
- "No, I can't do that."
Training your team to adopt effective communication
skills will add to your guests' overall experience.
While we train our staff how to sell menu items,
set up and maintain equipment, operate the computer
system and practice safety and sanitation procedures,
we often forget to teach them how to communicate
effectively.
Don't assume that your staff knows how to speak
properly to your guests-most people don't know
and must be trained. Your guests will judge your
operation by the degree of "care" that is conveyed
in the words and the messages your team members
send. Choosing the right words and positively
conveying messages can make the difference between
repeat business and a one-time stop at your establishment.
When training your staff to communicate effectively,
teach them these tips:
- Speak with an upbeat, well-modulated voice
that conveys energy
- Use positive, flowing gestures and open body
language
- Maintain effective eye contact
- Use animated facial expressions
- Use team words that build partnerships
such as everyone, we, together, our, let's/let
us. Avoid using the word "you" in a scolding
or blaming fashion, which places the receiver
in a defensive position (see examples below).
To illustrate this point, recently, my sister
and I visited a nearby Italian restaurant that
my neighbor recommended. We were seated promptly
by a friendly, upbeat hostess-a pleasant beginning.
When the server arrived, we ordered a pizza with
extra sauce and light cheese.
When the pizza arrived, it had light sauce
and extra cheese-the complete opposite of
our request. When we realized the mistake, we
mentioned it to the server in a very diplomatic
way. She placed her hands on her hips, rolled
her eyes, and replied in a tense voice, "You
didn't tell me you wanted extra sauce." We were
confident that we had ordered the pizza correctly
but even if we were mistaken, we certainly could
have done without the scolding. We held our composure
and just ate it since we were on a tight time
schedule.
The entire situation could have been handled
more professionally if the server had said: "I'm
sorry for our mistake. Why don't you go ahead
and start nibbling on this one, so you will have
something to munch on...in the meantime, we will
remake the pizza for you."
Rephrasing sentences and rewording thoughts to
convey a positive message may take seconds longer,
but the outcome is well worth it. As a result,
you will stimulate repeat business and add more
money to your bottom line. Here are some re-worded
phrases you can teach your team:
| Don't Say... |
Say... |
| "We ran out of…" |
"We sold out of…"
(Ran out conveys lack of preparation, while
sold out suggests your item was popular) |
| "I don't know." |
"That is a great
question, I will ask my owner/manager/co-worker
and let you know." (The majority of the time,
someone will know the answer) |
| "Your credit card is bad." |
"I am sorry Mr./Mrs. Carrera,
we are having some trouble getting authorization
on your credit card-do you have another form
of payment?" We accept… |
| "No." |
"I'm sorry we don't have___on
the menu, but the___has a very similar taste."
or "I'm sorry we are unable to___, but here
is what we can do…" (Always say "I'm sorry"
when you are unable to accommodate a guest)
|
| "You forgot to sign." |
"Mr./Mrs. Hsu, would you please
provide me with your signature?" |
| "You need to show me
your I.D." |
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience,
would you mind showing me your identification?" |
| "We can't do that." |
"I'm sorry we are unable to
accommodate you, but here is what we can do…" |
| "I don't know, I'm new." |
"I want to help you…l'm pretty
new here, but I will be happy to get you an
answer right away." |
Mike Carcaise, VP of Operations for Dan Marino's,
headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, says:
"We teach our team to take the time to think before
they speak. A little more effort on their part
in choosing the right words creates a "caring"
culture in our restaurant that encourages guest
loyalty".
Pam
Simos is the President of Five Star Training.
Her company specializes in reducing labor and
maximizing profits through training. She has 30
years of experience in the hospitality industry
and a B.S. degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management.
She offers a full line of training services for
managers and staff including seminars, new restaurant
openings, consulting, keynote speaking, and company
manuals. Five Star Training is based in St. Petersburg,
Florida. For questions, information, and/or a
complimentary consultation contact Pam at: Web
address: www.five-startraining.com.
E-mail: contact-us@five-startraining.com.Toll-free:
(800) 385-7827(STAR).
Copyright ©2005. Five Star Service and
Products Inc. All rights reserved.
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Are Your Policies Guest Friendly?
Did you know that it costs about six times more
to market new guests than to keep existing guests
happy and that long-term guests can be worth tens
of thousands of dollars? Based on this isn't it
worth committing to make each guest happy and
instituting guest friendly policies?
To understand the importance of having guest
friendly policies and providing superior service
consistently, it's important to understand the
concept of the short term and long term value
of a guest. Most often operators are preoccupied
with looking at the short term worth of their
guests, or one transaction during a single point
in time, instead of looking at the long term value.
Calculating long term values allow you to place
monetary values on a guest's yearly contributions
so you can see the big picture.
To illustrate this point, consider this example.
Your company establishes 10:00pm as the closing
time for your restaurant and posts it on your
front door, which guests depend on. Your loyal
guests, Mr. And Mrs, Porter, visit yur restaurant
at 9:45pm and your staff curtly tells them the
kitchen is closed. That one-time transaction may
appear as if your operation incurred only a $$50
loss (a single lost sale), the potential dinner
tab from the couple. Your staff may think, "so
what… fifty dollars isn't worth taking one more
table and staying late - no big deal." However,
what your staff fails to consider is Mr. and Mrs.
Porter's long term value.
To calculate the long term value, you need to
evaluate the couple's monthly spending. Let's
say the Porters spend an average of $200 a month
which becomes $2,400 per year and $12,000 over
five years. And what if Mr. And Ms. Porter both
tell five friends about your restaurant and a
total of 10 people become long term guests. Then
Mr. and Mr Porter's 10 year value of $24,000 soon
becomes and estimated total value of $144,000.
Now that you know this, would you insist that
your staff keeps your kitchen open?
Do you graciously…
- Allow substitutions?
- Permit guests to modify an entrée and/or make
special requests (knowing you have all the ingredients
in house)?
- Give extra toppings or bread at on charge?
- Offer free soft drink refills?
- Graciously handle separate checks?
- Omit plate charges?
- Dismiss automatic gratuities at your guest's
request?
- Let a guest use an expired coupon/promotion?
- Take several forms of payment?
- Allow guests to be seated in a closed station?
- Place late-arriving guests at the top of the
list instead of penalizing them?
If you answered "yes" to a large percentage of
the list above, that's great and you're probably
enjoying repeat business. If you answered "no"
you may be losing guests - and since all polices
are meant to be broken you can easily change them
to win over your guests.
Pam
Simos is the President of Five Star Training.
Her company specializes in reducing labor and
maximizing profits. She has 30 years of experience
in the hospitality industry and a B.S. degree
in Hotel/Restaurant Management. She offers a full
line of training services including employee and
management training workshops, train-the-trainer
programs, training for restaurant openings, consulting,
keynote speaking, and the development of management,
employee, operational, franchise, and H.R. manuals.
Five Star Training is based in St. Petersburg,
Florida. For questions, information, and/or a
complimentary consultation contact Pam at: Web
address: www.five-startraining.com.
E-mail: contact-us@five-startraining.com.Toll-free:
(800) 385-7827(STAR) Direct: (727) 743-4041.
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Hidden Losses in Your Bar
By Marc Weinberg
The statistics tell us that most establishments
are losing 15% to 35% of their alcohol (including
beer) to bartender theft, authorized comps and
over-pouring. At first glance that doesn't seem
possible. After all, the retail industry (Wal-Mart,
Sears, etc.) only loses 1% - 2% to theft and other
"shrinkage".
But, even possibility of 15% losses begs the
question: can your bar actually have a large hidden
loss of this magnitude? And if so, how can such
a large loss go undetected? Almost every single
bar and restaurant owner that I have worked with
has been astonished to find that they did, indeed,
have 15% or more of their alcohol missing. In
most case, this was an enormous, unpleasant surprise
to the owner, although many others suspected the
losses, but believed that they couldn't prevent
them.
Why are a bar's shortages so high? There
are three reasons why our industry is plagued
with much higher shrinkage that other retail businesses.
The first reason is simple: alcohol and cash
are a dangerous combination. Your bartenders
are in a unique position whereby the person who
prepares and portions the product is the same
person who collects the cash for it. That doesn't
happen in your kitchen. When the person making
the product also collects the cash, there exists
a dangerous opportunity/temptation for theft.
And then consider that your bartenders assume
that an overly generous pour will result in an
equally generous tip. Since they are directly
responsible for portion size, the danger is obvious.
The second reason for high shrinkage is that
these losses are almost impossible to discover
by looking at your pour cost. Of course, pour
cost is an important measure of a bar's profitability.
Unfortunately, however, pour cost only tells you
how much money you are making but not how much
money you should be making. Pour costs often hide
losses because all your drinks have a different
profit margin and you don't sell exactly the same
number of each drink every month. If you sell
more vodka/soda this month (with a low PC) and
less coffee drinks (with a high PC), then your
PC will go down, but that doesn't mean that your
bartenders did a better job.
The third reason for the large, hidden losses
is that bar owners do not have an effective way
to eliminate routine over-pouring, unauthorized
comps and theft. Most operators are limited
to chastising their bartenders about high pour
costs-which most bartenders can pretty much ignore.
Bartenders don't really see a clear connection
between your pour cost and their behavior. They
can easily convince themselves that a little extra
liquor in a drink cannot possibly have a big impact
on your pour cost. And, they tell themselves,
giving away half a dozen drinks to their buddies
is not going to make a big dent either. Other
popular "control procedures" such as counting
empties, measured pour spouts, spotters and even
cameras, by themselves are little or no obstacle
to a shrewd bartender.
A Dramatic Boost to Profits
Most bars find that a reduction in over-pouring
results in a direct increase in sals (ie: the
loss is at retail). Although this seems counter-intuitive,
it actually makes sense. The reason is that most
of your customers are going to consume drinks
until they reach a "comfort level." For example,
if I have to drive home, I know that when I first
feel the alcohol, I should stop ordering - that
usually means I can order about 3 drinks. But,
if my first two drinks are over-poured, I will
feel the alcohol a little earlier (my comfort
level) and I may forego the third drink. The cost
to you is not just the 36 cents but the $5.00
I would have spent on a third Crown Royal.
The good news is that these losses can be dramatically
reduced with the right tools. If your pour cost
is reduced by two or three points, the boost to
profits will range from $1500 - $4000 every month
for a bar with alcohol sales of $25,000 per month.
The exact amount you will make will depend upon
the cause of the shrinkage in the first place.
If most of your losses were at retail (the bartenders
were pocketing money instead of ringing it up,
or over-pouring or comping excessively), then
the increase in your profit will be on the high
end. If the losses were mostly at cost (spillage
and waste), then the increase in profit will be
at the low end. But the "low end" will probably
still mean an extra $18,000 in clear profit in
your pocket at the end of the year. The bottom
line is that hidden losses are probably costing
you a great deal of money.
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(Last Update: 6-6-05)
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