Archive for January, 2012

 
by Richard Saporito
 
Often times, I am contacted by people who are opening a new food service establishment interested about restaurant training services for their staff. They are eager
to get their new operation off to a fantastic start with superb restaurant customer service.
 
Yet, when it comes down to the wire with opening time around the corner, they will settle and pay for a manager only to set up the much needed restaurant service systems and perform the staff training.
 
Nowadays, of course, budget restrictions may detour an owner away from hiring a
restaurant consultant. But, the honest truth is that most managers do not have the expertise or past experience compared to what a restaurant service consultant can do.
 
Even though, when interviewed for the position, a manager can convince the owner that they are experienced in opening and running a restaurant. So, what often happens from day one is that there are very few systems, strategies or tools set into place for the dining room service staff to utilize. Plus, there is a lack of proper restaurant staff training— especially for the rookies.
 
The results are costly mistakes in the dining room, slowed down service resulting in underselling instead of upselling because the waitstaff has so little time. This dining room  disorganization translates into a poor restaurant customer service reputation and unnecessary lost revenue—possibly putting a new operation out of business quickly.
 
I have seen this time and again where hundreds and thousands of dollars are spent on a new restaurant design, décor, kitchen set up etc. Then, when it comes to the crucial part of running the dining room service operations, there is complete breakdown because a lack of attention to front of the house details.
 
The reasons for hiring established restaurant service consultants are that they have the past start-up experience and knowledge to set up the most proper and productive dining room systems while conducting efficient restaurant service staff training.
 
An established restaurant service consultant will have all of the general template materials such as employee manuals, job descriptions ready to go plus a general restaurant training curriculum performed many times over from the many previous start-ups. These materials and curriculum need only to be tweaked according to each individual operation as each one is different in nature.
 
The consultant will need to work with the restaurant for brief time before opening and after opening to make sure all systems are in their proper place and that all staff are performing their job functions efficiently. The restaurant service consultant will need to work with the restaurant owner and/or manager to make sure that they understand and absorb everything that is being implemented so they can run operations effectively in the future. 
 
In summary, if you are going into this highly competitive business where only one out of ten restaurants are successful, don’t be pennywise and dollar foolish by relying on a manager who does not have the past know how or start-up experience.
 
Remember, the customer is the point of sale for all of the restaurant’s revenue, and it is the utmost attention to detail in the front of the house that will make a restaurant highly successful.   

About the Author:

Photo of Richard Saporito

Richard Saporito is the Founder of Topserve Restaurant Consulting, author of “How To Improve Dining Room Service.” If you’d like to improve your restaurants’ reputation and increase sales, contact Richard today for a Free Initial Restaurant Consultation by calling (888) 276-4808 or visiting his Contact Page.

                                                        WAITER TRAINING DVD!!
                                Culinary Institute of America, Cornell University, NY
                       Highest Quality  Waiter Training DVD (Exceeding Expectations)
                                               $97 -  Order Now -  (888) 276-4808
 

 

Jan
04

Ways to Measure Hotel Kitchen Performance

Posted by: Guest | Comments (0)

 What do hotel visitors value most of all? Of course they want to live in good looking rooms, be able to use phone and the Internet, receive additional services as well as be able to enjoy exquisite cuisine. Yes, many people choose hotels just by the cuisine and reputation of hotel restaurants. This especially concerns five star hotels that attract wealthy people who love spending money eating excellent food.

The world famous chefs often work in hotel restaurants. They create excellent reputation and in a certain way become the most effective advertising and promotion tool for hotel owners. If hotel managers want to improve performance and achieve positive financial results they have to pay a proper attention to hotel restaurants or kitchen. This may be as separate evaluation or a part of the huge process to measure efficiency of hotel administration.

Balanced scorecard is being actively used in various industries, including hotel industry. This fantastic performance evaluation and strategic management tool helps put strategy into action. Of course, balanced scorecard will not solve all business problems at once. However, it will help visualize strategy and locate problems and the discrepancies from strategic goals. The principle behind balanced scorecard is quite simple – it uses key performance indicators to measure progress or regress of the company on its way to implement strategic goals.

In terms of hotel industry, these key performance indicators are related to everything happening inside and outside of a hotel. Evaluation of hotel kitchen performance is a very important process. Much money is spent to maintain kitchen and offer visitors breakfasts and dinners. This money may be spent in efficiently or hotel visitors do not like what they are served. Balanced scorecard can certainly help find out problematic areas in a hotel kitchen as well as solve problems in order to achieve strategic goals. Every hotel owner is dreaming of having an excellent reputation due to its world famous cuisine.

Key performance indicators for hotel kitchen evaluation fall into four categories: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth. In fact, these are universal balanced scorecard categories used in various industries. Thus, let’s analyze each category in the context of hotel kitchen performance evaluation.

Financial category covers all key performance indicators related to expenses and revenues of the hotel kitchen. The hotel spends some money to buy food, maintain restaurant and kitchen, pay waiters and chefs. In return, customers either by dinners or dinner costs are included to the room fee. Evaluation of financial indicators will help examine profitability of kitchen.

Customer key performance indicators cover satisfaction of customers with existing cuisine, their preferences and demands. Customer satisfaction is all important since everything done by the hotel staff is done for customers. Such indicators as new dishes and drinks per 100 customers or time spent by one customer in a hotel restaurant can help learn additional knowledge on hotel customers and their preferences in cuisine.

Internal processes and learning and growth categories refer to personnel of the hotel kitchen. Here one can use such indicators as number of training sessions per employee, average amount spent to educate one waiter etc.

If you are interested in hotel kitchen performance, check this web-site to learn more about hotel kitchen performance.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Miller

                                                         WAITER TRAINING DVD!!
                                Culinary Institute of America, Cornell University, NY
                       Highest Quality  Waiter Training DVD (Exceeding Expectations)
                                                  Spanish Sub-titled DVD Available
                                                $97 -  Order Now -  (888) 276-4808