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The restaurant industry has suffered in a lot of ways, especially in the loss of its workforce. This poses a problem for restaurant owners. How can you keep up good restaurant experiences for guests when you’re understaffed
Understaffed restaurants can maintain quality customer experiences by installing technology to pick up tasks, train remaining staff to be even better, encourage customer engagement through a happy workforce, and avoid lowering your standards in employee choices.
Are you interested in knowing how these things are connected to customer experiences and how they might make things easier? Keep reading to find out.
Technology Can Give Servers More Time for Customers
High and low-tech solutions don’t just make things easier for your remaining staff, the customers benefit from them too.
A common high-tech solution is to add kiosks to your tables. These handy devices will usually allow your guests to order what they want and then pay for their meals and drinks when they’re done. This has a number of benefits.
Customers won’t have to wait until they’re starving to have their orders written down because a server was swamped and forgot about them. Then, when the meal was over, the guests pay and leave without again having to wait for their server. The Kiosks even come with games so that families can play together and won’t get impatient.
A low-tech example is to replace your drink fountains with pre-packaged drinks. This can save you money from having to buy cups, lids, and straws if your restaurant doesn’t use glasses. Even pre-made alcoholic beverages will free up time for your employees to focus on their other tasks or interact with the guests.
Don’t Hire Those Who Don’t Care About Customers or Coworkers
When you’re hurting for staff it’s very tempting to hire anyone with a pulse, but be careful not to lower your standards.
No matter how tight things are right now, only hire the individuals that you believe will do their job, are trainable, and can present themselves and your brand well. It won’t do any good to hire someone who thinks they know better than you and tries to change things without consulting you, or hiring someone who pushes their responsibilities onto their coworkers.
Not only can these individuals not be trusted to be polite to customers and take care of their needs, but they will cause the degeneration of service from their coworkers who will be annoyed trying to do their own responsibilities as well as the slacker’s.
Don’t be too quick to hire someone unless they understand what’s expected in the job, come to the interview clean and professional, and are willing to learn or re-learn what they need to do.
Can Your Employees Take Better Care of Guests?
Even if you have kiosks and other technology to help ease the workload of your staff, they can never fully replace human interactions. Although you have fewer employees, your guests don’t want to feel ignored or have to wait 30 minutes to ask for a refill on their drinks.
Finding the time to train your staff can be easier if you have already had to adjust your hours of operation to close for certain hours of the day or close for whole days entirely. During these times, supplying paid training would be advantageous. Potential areas of customer service that can be worked on are:
- Timing
- Composure
- Cleanliness
- Attentiveness
- Engagement
Guests shouldn’t have to wait more than a few minutes after being seated to be greeted by their server and put in their drink orders. If timing is an issue because the servers are swamped and have other tasks that have to be done, train them on how to prioritize their responsibilities.
Restaurant staff will inevitably have rude or undesirable customers and may need incentives to help them remain calm, courteous, and professional. It can make all the difference to provide servers with ready responses and the assurance of your support when confronted by difficult people.
Not only should the staff be perfectly presentable, but the dishes, seating, cutlery, tables, table cloth, and napkins should be just as clean. A guest should never be seated at the first available table until it’s clean and ready.
A server can do more than ask for the guest’s order. Train your waiters to be attentive to details like spotting low drinks, spills or messy children, or noticing someone new joining their party. This provides opportunities to create experiences that stick with customers. For example, being brought extra napkins for a toddler without having to ask.
Establish Better Customer Engagement From Staff
Staff engagement with the guests is a vital part of customer service for your restaurant, but it isn’t something that can necessarily be trained.
According to Deloitte, customer engagement is so important to the survival of a restaurant that it should be held accountable at every level, from executive to busboy. Your servers and hosts are the ones who can engage customers in meaningful and cheerful conversation, but these conversations can’t really be “taught,” they have to be natural.
Excellent employee experiences are the key to happy customer experiences, and Deloitte noted 5 ways you can improve the “culture” in your workplace.
- Have opportunities for staff to grow
- Encourage a positive work environment
- Create a supportive management team
- Remind your staff that their work is meaningful.
Encourage Customer Reviews to Improve
The previous sections are good to practice, but there’s one problem. How can you be aware of underwhelming experiences if the clientele can’t tell you what’s wrong? You won’t be able to tell if engagement is lacking or the timing is, and you can’t always be at the restaurant to watch everything. Pay attention to reviews made about your restaurant on Google, Tripadvisor, Yelp, and other review sites.
Final Words
Good restaurant experience doesn’t mean giving the most people possible the same low-quality treatment. If you have to lower the amount of seating available so that your team can effectively and consistently provide dedicated time to your customers, consider it. A few 5-star reviews will be much greater support than a dozen 3-star reviews.
Sources
How to Overcome an Understaffed Restaurant | SynergySuite
Best Strategies For Understaffed Restaurants – Forbes Advisor
Why is There a Restaurant Staffing Shortage? | SynergySuite
6 Simple Ways to Truly Improve Restaurant Guest Experience – On the Line | Toast POS (toasttab.com)
How to be a Good Server: 21 Tips and Tricks (lightspeedhq.com)
3 Major Ways to Improve the Customer Experience at Restaurants – ReviewTrackers
us-cb-power-of-employee-engagement-restaurant-experience.pdf (deloitte.com)
