The end goal and underlying aim of all hospitality ventures is to provide customer satisfaction to all guests, and to do so with full success, employee training and development is necessary. This aspect of staff progression cannot be overstated, as it covers every facet of the industry, ranging from dishwashers, managers to servers, who all contribute in affecting the guests experience. If your staff have not been provided with appropriate training, employee-guest interactions may go off track, affecting overall service in the long run. To remain on a steady path, with an increase in customer satisfaction and numbers, make training a priority- it may seem costly, but the benefits outweigh all other factors involved.

 

Through proper training, your staff will increase their knowledge and skill set in each appropriate area of hospitality, whilst also embodying a more confident, engaged and productive persona. All areas of staff within your venue must stay productive throughout service, especially if they are dealing with customers face to face. For your floor staff, they must keep up to date with all daily information from the kitchen, allowing them to respond promptly and efficiently to customer inquiries as well knowing how to handle situations accordingly whether they happen to be positive or negative. To do this with ease, a good deal of training is required so that each of your employees can improve their skills and feel comfortable in a variety of customer related situations.

 Consistency Matters

Have you ever ventured into a newly set up café and ordered the same coffee you usually do, except the outcome was sloppy and didn’t taste exactly as it should? Well, that’s because consistency is critical within this realm of work, and as a customer, you can’t help but have expectations regarding the way things are done. Customers repeatedly expect the same service, same menu and same product regardless of the location- and as we know this is a difficult ideology to maintain, especially with multiple employees working in a fast paced environment.

For this reason, employee training can help significantly, with integrated procedures put in place to make sure each system stays on track. There’s a lot to cover, as front of house, floor and kitchen must be run coherently and steadily regardless of the shift- so making sure each operational procedure within that area is compressed into steps will aid employees on the go. By integrating the needed information, employees can quickly reference to ensure that they are taking the right steps- especially with drink recipes, food ingredients, cleaning steps and the processing of orders that fits within the company’s approach on the system.

Smooth Access to Information

At times, employees need immediate access to information- to fulfil a customer request or fix a problem that may have come up.

It can be difficult to get staff to take training courses, so setting up a system that allows them to be in a comfortable space when learning can be a massive boost. A good starting point is to find a one on one instructor program online to ensure that basic information techniques have been met. By getting your staff to sit down and listen to the programs a few hours a week, a difference can be made, as their knowledge towards their job increases and allows them to proceed to a more hands on training approach. Also, by watching video tutorials that provide short and useful information, staff can easily click and watch whenever they need- a helpful tool that should be provided and used regularly.

To further this outcome, consider offering your staff incentives or rewards that will keep them eager to continue training. It may be in the form of points for completing training videos, that could lead to a voucher or a deal within the venue. Whilst this is occurring, put together a few test questions related to the training videos, if answered correctly another reward or just recognition should be provided to the eager staff member. To make this process smooth and integrated into your venue’s system at a relaxed pace, repeat it regularly and make sure your staff are praised and looked after during their training program.