• Effective Communication-A Key to Guest Service Training
• Are Your Policies Guest Friendly?
• Hidden Losses in Your Bar

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:

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.

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.

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.