My Upper Room

Are Service and Excellence Important to Your Business?

Conveying the need for service excellence to your staff is one of the most difficult parts of running any business, especially so in the hospitality industry, where your service staff are a direct reflection of you and your business. This is where we come in. We will convey not only the basic fundamentals to your staff but the ethics behind great service. It's not enough to know how, you have to to understand why service is so important. We can tailor make specific programs of service improvement for your establishment, no matter what area your service related business is in.

The most important lesson that I remember learning when I first became a waiter was that I was not just a waiter. I was a Service Provider. I carried this through becoming a manager and an owner.  I realised early on that anticipating a client’s needs and meeting those needs with speed, efficiency and confidence was the key to success; not only in the hospitality industry, but in any business that I was to be involved in. The importance of not being an “order taker” but rather an “order maker” was proven time and time again as I saw tips getting bigger and customers becoming regulars and enjoying the “experience”. There are many aspects to service and the hospitality industry, but the one constant has to be a Positive Attitude. 

If you are willing to learn, and have a ready smile and an open mind, everything else becomes practice, practice, practice.

Our courses can be tailor-made to fit your establishment and your needs, and to accommodate different levels of trainee. We offer basic, intermediate and advanced courses that can vary from one-day to four-day courses, including the option of wine training and basic food preparation and presentation. The following course outline features all of the segments and contents involved in our front of house programme.
 

Segment 1: How to offer great customer service

Who will benefit?
Every member of the organization. Front of house, back of the house and behind the scenes.
In Segment 1, everyone in the team will learn the importance of exceeding customer expectations and the personal benefits to be received from offering great customer service.

• What is great service?
• Why is great service important?
• The benefits of great service
• What’s in it for you?
• The Impact of positive word of mouth advertising
• The Impact of negative word of mouth advertising
• Why customers don’t return
• How to deal with an unhappy customer
• 3 ways to positively affect the dining experience

Segment 2: Preparing for the shift

Who will benefit?
Wait staff, Bar Staff, Front of house.
In Segment 2, your employees will learn the true nature of their role, along with the importance of the other roles in the business. Presence, body language and personal hygiene are other key elements of this module.

• Personal hygiene-Hair, Face, Hands
• First impressions- Appearance, Posture, Eye contact, Uniform
• What you need to know about your role
• The place you work
• Products and services
• The roles of people you work with
• Teamwork – There is no “I” in “TEAM”
• Telephone skills

Segment 3: Table service

Who will benefit?
Wait staff, Bar Staff.
Segment 3 focuses on the basics of table service. From greeting and seating, to food order and delivery, to clearing and bill processing, this module is a great introduction for newcomers and a perfect refresher for those wishing to retain good service habits.

Service basics

• Table setup
• Handling glassware and tableware
• Greeting and seating- 15 second rule

Offering assistance

• The Food order-Check back rule (accuracy & attention to detail)
• Delivering and clearing food and drinks
• Presenting the bill- How and when
• Processing various forms of payment
• Lasting impressions- Helping hand, Courtesies
• Exercise- Apply the service basics to your restaurant (Role play)

Segment 4: Mastering Product Knowledge

Who will benefit?
Wait staff, Bar Staff, Front of House
Bottles of wine, blackboards, and table cards are several examples of tools of the trade that are essential parts of service. This module teaches the critical elements of product knowledge and how to help customers with the menu.

• Examples of restaurant “performance props”
• How to use “props” and the tools at your disposal
• Exercise- examples of “props” in your restaurant
• What is product knowledge?
• Why is it important?
• Earn more with product knowledge
• Menu product knowledge essentials
• Restaurant product knowledge
• Exercise using product knowledge to sell
• What are descriptive words and how can you use them?
• What is menu guidance?
• Exercise- Using product knowledge effectively

Segment 5: Selling Skills

Who will benefit?
Wait staff, Bar Staff, Front of house.
Anticipating customer needs, “reading” customers, providing guidance, suggestions and making recommendations are part of a great service providers set of tools for exceeding expectations and increasing sales. Segment 5 provides the direction for utilizing these elements, along with the individual showmanship and observation skills required to ensure every “performance” receives rave reviews.

• Basic customer expectations
• How to exceed customer expectations
• Your role in the “show”- performer and sales consultant
• Restaurant showmanship
• Examples of showmanship
• What makes your restaurant special?
• Anticipating guest needs
• Customer cue cards- Examples of Non-verbal messages
• Body language and actions to watch for
• Rehearsal exercises

Everyone wins when you help your wait staff learn how to sell and serve more effectively, earn more tips and exceed your customers' expectations.