Restaurants are complex machines, filled with hundreds of moving parts. To ensure all those parts move smoothly and maximize profits, effective restaurant training is a must.
If you’ve been relying on informal, peer-to-peer training with no real direction, now is the time to change that.
Today, learn more about restaurant training and why a clear training program is essential for success. Lastly, learn which topics to cover in your restaurant training program to guarantee the best restaurant experience for customers.
What Is Restaurant Training?
Restaurant training is the training a new restaurant employee undergoes to learn how to properly serve customers, work on restaurant equipment, and engage with customers.
In many sectors of the restaurant industry, this training is quite informal. Employees who join a restaurant tend to learn from their colleagues or through observation. There is no restaurant training manual but rather a hands-on learning experience.
On the other hand, restaurants with a track record of excellent service quality rely on a restaurant employee training program. These training programs provide continued training and learning to make sure restaurant employees are on par with the best in the industry.
While there is nothing wrong with smaller restaurants relying on less formal training methods, this isn’t a good option for all restaurants – especially those aiming to provide superior service and encourage revenue growth.
Why Is a Restaurant Training Program Beneficial?
A restaurant training program can be majorly beneficial to restaurant staff and restaurant owners. Let’s examine some of the key benefits of restaurant service training.
Prepared Employees
Informal training is stressful. The restaurant industry is an unpredictable place and putting employees to work without even basic training can make them feel stressed and overwhelmed – both of which tend to be bad for business.
However, when you provide new employees with restaurant training materials, you provide guidance  – reducing their stress and making them feel more prepared.
This is especially important if your restaurant uses software like restaurant tip distribution software, modern scheduling software, restaurant delivery software, and the like. Restaurant staff training ensures all new employees know how to manage their workload and do so effectively.
Excellent Customer Service
Besides food quality, customer service is critical in the restaurant industry. No matter how good your food is, if your service is bad, people won’t visit your restaurant.
By providing restaurant employees with a customer service training program, you ensure all employees know how to actively engage with customers and provide excellent service.
Consistent Performance
On-the-job training is subjective. Whether an employee learns from their peers or through observation, it won’t provide consistent performance the way a dedicated training program would. You risk losing your restaurant's credibility if even one employee is doing things the wrong way.
To provide consistent performance, provide new employees with a dedicated training manual. This ensures all employees are on the same page and customers receive only the best service, and from all employees.
Food Safety Compliance
If there is one area that demands everyone be on the same page, it’s the food safety sector. When you rely on informal training, food safety compliance regulations can get lost in translation. This can put a damper on your food quality and customer satisfaction, and put you at legal risk.
Food safety training is a must and it’s easy to incorporate into a restaurant training program. Not only does this guarantee all employees are aware of food safety regulations, but it lowers your risk of legal trouble that can permanently damage your restaurant's reputation.
Save on Training Costs
Restaurant training without a training program is expensive.
Why? Because training one employee usually means taking other employees away from their duties. That puts strain on other employees who have to make up for the lost labor, making space for mistakes and lost revenue. Or, you’ll have to bring in more employees even though they aren’t working.
You’re also still paying these other employees to work. The costs snowball when you consider the long-term expenses.
A restaurant training program, however, is most often a once-off cost. Even if you regularly update the training program, these expenses pale in comparison to informal training. It’s especially cost-effective when you utilize online training materials.
By creating a standardized restaurant training program, letting employees learn beforehand from these materials, and leaving other trained employees free to do their jobs, you increase revenue and save on training costs.
Better Reputation and Increased Revenue
Restaurant goers are more likely to look for reviews about customer service than they are to check food critics' reviews. A one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating also equals a 5 to 9 percent revenue increase.
The stats make it clear: good service and reputation are intimately linked with revenue. Even if your food is good, if the service is bad, your restaurant’s reputation and revenue will suffer for it.
A restaurant training program puts you in control of your customer service i.e. your revenue. When you provide effective restaurant training, you directly improve your brand reputation and recognition. Which, in turn, brings in more profit.
What Should Be Discussed in a Restaurant Training Program?
Restaurant training can have a major positive effect on your restaurant brand and revenue. But to reap the rewards, the restaurant training manual should cover the right topics.
So, what should be discussed during your restaurant staff training?
Customer Service
We’ve already established how important customer service is, so it’s obvious that it should be part of the restaurant training process.
First, define what your restaurant brand deems good customer service and decide how you would like employees to engage with customers.
Key customer service points to cover include:
- How employees should greet customers.
- How employees should sign off with customers.
- How employees should navigate payment processes.
- How employees should answer questions.
- Whether employees should be polite, chatty, or animated – or something completely different.
- How employees should deal with difficult customers.
- How to meet customer needs.
Create an in-depth restaurant training manual that covers exactly the type of customer service you want to provide.
Dress Code
Use the dress code section to clearly state what you expect from restaurant staff regarding appearance.
Are you providing employees with uniforms or a stipend for clothing? What are the guidelines they need to follow regarding cleanliness, uniform colors, jewelry, hair, and makeup? Should employees with tattoos and piercings hide them from plain view?
Go into detail and remember to be reasonable.
Place Setting
Place setting refers to how restaurant employees place dishes, utensils, napkins, and decorations on tables.
To keep the place setting consistent, the restaurant training manual should cover the exact place setting specifications. It’s also a good idea to go through a trial run and let your employees familiarize themselves with where all the items in the restaurant are stored.
Sanitation
Restaurant sanitation is critical. Similar to customer service, restaurant goers aren’t forgiving of bad sanitary practices.
Depending on your restaurant employees’ duties and where in the restaurant they work, cover the following material in the restaurant training process:
- What are the basic sanitation guidelines?
- How should employees ensure they remain sanitary?
- What cleaning are they responsible for?
- Create a checklist of items for employees to go back to, to ensure proper sanitation and cleanliness throughout the entire restaurant.
Food Satefy
Food safety takes many forms and accurate food safety training is essential to stay compliant and to keep customers happy and safe.
First, employees need to know what ingredients are in their food. If customers have dietary restrictions and ask questions, your employees must be able to answer.
Next, employees should understand food sanitation to ensure safe food handling and avoid cross-contamination.
Lastly, employees must be able to catch food that is off and no longer safe to eat. They should also receive training on how to discard, report, and deal with these issues.
Restaurant Software
The modern hospitality industry relies heavily on software, from scheduling software to restaurant floor management software. If your restaurant uses any type of software, the restaurant training materials should cover how to use this software.
Opening and Closing
Employees opening and closing procedures differ from restaurant to restaurant. So, consider your unique opening and closing procedures and list them in your training.
Items to cover include:
- Who is responsible for opening and closing the restaurant?
- Are there opening and closing rotations?
- What do employees need to check, turn off, and double-check before leaving?
- What do employees need to do when opening the restaurant?
- How early/ late does the restaurant need to be opened or closed?
Restaurant Safety
Next on the training agenda, cover restaurant safety procedures. Again, restaurant safety is essential for keeping employees and customers safe, and ensuring your restaurant is up to regulation.
Restaurant safety topics to cover include:
- Basic kitchen safety measures to ensure employee health and well-being.
- How to handle cuts and other injuries in the restaurant.
- How to handle any customer injuries or emergencies.
- Where to find and how to use all restaurant first aid kits.
You can also improve customer and employee safety by including a basic CPR and choking course, especially if you are a fine dining establishment.
Sector Training
Different restaurant sectors have different duties. For example, a front-of-house staff member will have duties that differ from back-of-house staff members. So, remember to add sections based on different restaurant sectors and make sure employees get the correct restaurant training.
Food and Menu
Restaurant employees, especially kitchen and wait staff, need to know the ingredients list and menu like the back of their hand. It’s a lot of learning work, so provide some time for them to get to know the menu.
Ultimately, employees need to know what all the menu items are, what ingredients are used, where there could be cross-contamination for people with allergies, and what specials are available.
Upselling
Lastly, to increase restaurant sales, the restaurant training should cover upselling. Upselling is the process whereby restaurant staff get customers to spend more.
This includes guiding customers toward promotions, more expensive items that match their preferences, buying multiples, etc. Create an in-depth guide for employees that teaches them how to ethically upsell without disregarding customer preferences or being overbearing.
Types of Restaurant Training
Before you start your employee training, consider the different types of training and which ones would be most effective for your needs.
- Online Training: Online training is the easiest and most cost-effective. You can create an online training manual, update it as you see fit, and send it to an employee to study before they come in for their first day of work. The only downside is the lack of practical application. However, online training works wonders when combined with one of the below options.
- One-on-One Training: One-on-one training is the most common type of restaurant training, where a new employee is assigned a mentor to walk them through the steps. But, unlike informal training, one-on-one training with a training program provides consistent and fast results.
- Group Training: Large chains training multiple new hires at once would benefit from group training. This is when the restaurants train groups of new employees together, saving time and resources.
- Sector-Specific Training: Beyond basic training, which all restaurant staff should have, there is also sector-specific training. This is when a restaurant employee receives training specific to their duties, whether it be handling specific software or learning how to greet customers at the host stand.
You don’t need to strictly adhere to one type of training. Instead, customize the training program to fit your unique needs. Don’t hesitate to mix and match as you see fit.
Conclusion
Restaurant training refers to the training program new employees undergo to ensure they provide high-quality restaurant service. Unlike informal restaurant training, which often teaches new employees inaccurate restaurant procedures, a well-thought-out training program provides consistent results, better service, and higher revenue.
Create your restaurant training program and include the above training program items. That way you cover everything from customer service to product upselling.
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