2020 HAPPY CNY!!!

Chinese Zodiac 2020 Year of the Rat

Showing Your Appreciation for Waiters

When we look for restaurants to visit on those nights where we just don’t fancy cooking, there are a few factors that we consider. However, did you know that most people place a greater emphasis on customer service than they do on the food? At first, this is a little surprising but when you really think about it, we do crave that personal touch in every service we require in life. If you regularly frequent a restaurant just because of the customer service, there are a few things you can do to show your appreciation.

Remain Polite – Starting with the most basic tip and something that is ingrained in most of us from a very early age, always be polite to your server. Whether it is a please, thank you, or even just a smile as they bring your food, your server will appreciate it and you will both enjoy your evening that little bit more.

Learn Their Name – If you don’t know the name of the server, it can get a little awkward when trying to call them over – do you wave at them, make a random noise, or what are you supposed to do? With most restaurants these days, they tell the waiters to give their names so you just need to remember it and use it when needed. When you get to thank your server by their name, it shows that you have taken the effort to enjoy the experience and it will put a smile on their face. If you were to say ‘excuse me, Jonathan’, doesn’t that sound much better than ‘excuse me, waiter’ or whistling at them in some way?

Let Them Do Their Job – Often, waiters will have their own system for clearing as many plates in one go as possible. When you intervene and hand the plate over, you potentially disrupt their flow and make it a little tricky. Therefore, you are best just letting them get to work to prevent several plates ending up on the floor!

Do Not Substitute – Remember, a menu is a carefully designed piece of art for the chef. If you ask for numerous substitutions, it can sometimes come across as being rude for both the waiter and the chef. Not only are you making the waiter’s job more difficult, you are essentially saying that you can’t find anything on the menu that you will enjoy as is so you have to create your own meal.

Leave on Time – As much as the waiters might be enjoying your custom, you should also appreciate that they also want to go home, have their own dinner, or just go to bed after a long day. After you have gone, there are probably still a number of jobs to be completed before they can go home so be appreciative if they are about to close.

Even if it is still early in the night, staying with empty cups of coffee for a couple of hours can be really damaging for waiters because they could have served another group of people in this time and increased the tips they earn in a single night. Seeing as though most waiters rely on tips for extra income, this is important to keep in mind. Of course, they don’t want your fun to end so why not invite your guests back to yours for a coffee or even move your conversation up to the bar so that another table can sit down for food?

Don’t Shoot the Messenger – Despite the chefs being the ones cooking their food, sadly some people think it is perfectly fine to shout at waiters but this is completely unfair – it would be like shouting at a delivery driver for the contents of the package being wrong. If your steak isn’t cooked right, this is the responsibility of the chef and potentially the person in control of the line if they gave it the go-ahead. There is no reason why you can’t be disappointed with your food, but please don’t misdirect this at the people who are trying to make your evening the best it can be!

Be Efficient with Space – With most restaurants, space is fairly limited so our next suggestion is to keep your party tucked in nicely without blocking the walkways. As well as preventing a risk when evacuating due to a fire, this may also cause a waiter to spill drinks or food so keep all coats and bags under the table and out of the way.

Tip Generously – As you have seen so far, there are plenty of things you can do to show your appreciation of the waiter that doesn’t involve money. However, money is what waiters work for so a generous tips will always go down well. Across the US, around 15-20% is considered average so try going a little above this to make their day and show them that you liked the service. When you visit again, the service will be just as good if not a little bit better.

Write a Note – If you don’t have any extra money, why not tell them that you thought they were great in a note? Recently, there has been many examples of this type of kindness going viral and it is something the server can keep for motivation. Although it takes just moments to write, the good feeling it provides will last for a lot longer so consider this if you want to go above and beyond.

Request a Particular Server – Finally, this is a great one that you can do if you are a regular visitor to a particular restaurant. When you walk in, ask whether your favorite waiter is working and use their name. Even if you have to ask a different waiter, they won’t be offended because they will probably have guests that ask for them on different days. If they are working, you can have them serve you again. If not, it can be a great way to meet someone new and judge whether your favorite is a one-off or whether the restaurant just has a very good training program in place.

Over time, you can build trust and respect with one waiter and it can actually turn into a friendship. In truth, most restaurants will have certain customers that only come in just to see the waiter and some rare stories we see on the internet these days even see them keep touch after the waiter leaves the restaurant. When you get to know a waiter, anything can happen. At the very least, they will be more willing to adhere to any requests you have and help to make your dining experience an enjoyable one.

Summary – There we have it, some fantastic tips you can use to show your appreciation for your waiter. Although some involve money, there are also plenty that don’t and these make for great ways to show your appreciation. When somebody goes above and beyond their call of duty, they deserve to be rewarded and you can utilize one of these tips to do exactly this. Since customers expect to be treated with respect, it can feel good to reciprocate this just out of pure kindness and admiration for superb workers!

Improve Customer Service with 8 Simple Habits

Sadly, too many restaurant owners believe that their success relies upon their menu alone and this only leads to failure. Why? Because they forget one of the main reasons customers return – the great service. Since this factor is so important, we have 8 simple habits for customer service that will have your diners coming back time and time again.

Provide the Tools – Firstly, you need to provide the right tools, as the owner, for the team to go out there and succeed. If you throw inexperienced workers out into the dining room, you cannot expect them to be good with customer service because most people need to be trained. Once your staff have been trained effectively, you will immediately see a return on your investment so we even recommend closing for the day if needed just to get it right.

In addition to this, there are some other factors that will harm your chances of good customer service including dirty facilities, poor cooking tools, poor equipment, and lack of ingredients. If the staff aren’t given the tools to succeed, they will struggle so it is up to you to be in control and help them step up.

Be an Example – As a leader, you should always be the perfect example for how you want your team to treat customers. If you walk around ignoring customers and not really being willing to help them in any way, your employees are only going to do the same because it looks as though you don’t really care.

As well as yourself as the owner, all managers should have the right attitude and this means being willing to talk to customers rather than thinking themselves ‘above’ this. If you have hired a manager to work in the kitchen, they should still have customer service training because what happens when they are the only manager working on a certain day? You can’t have your reputation tarnished just because a manager doesn’t have experience in talking to people because this will lose you valuable customers.

As soon as your managers know how to treat customers in the right way, the rest of the staff will follow suit and this can be something your restaurant will be remembered by for all the right reasons. Remember, customer service doesn’t just end after the training so keep up-to-date with all staff and answer any questions they may have.

Hire Carefully – Next, the easiest way to have a great customer service team is to hire people that either have experience in the hospitality industry or naturally know how to talk to people. As a restaurant, you will undoubtedly receive applications from young people and students looking to pay their way through college. Now, there is nothing wrong with this but they need to have the right worth ethic and the hospitality mindset because it isn’t all about experience. As long as you hire well, you will save on training and it will make you more efficient.

Respect Complaints – Not all reviews from customers will be good so knowing how to deal with negativity is an important step all staff members should know – again, this comes from the very top. If you have an unhappy customer, staff should be respectful, understanding, and seek a solution right away if the customer is to have their experience turned around.

Sometimes, the complaints will come after the customer has left the restaurant in the shape of an internet review. If this is the case, use your reply to show everybody watching that you care about their comments and explain that you take whatever it was that they have complained about seriously.

Teach Service – Although you can train and prepare your staff well, nothing beats direct experience so let your staff get out there. Just like a sportsman needs time on the field, staff need time with customers and you will soon see whether or not they have the tools to succeed. Every week, talk with them and highlight areas for improvement and essentially hone their skill set to your liking.

Watch Carefully – Just because you are the owner, it doesn’t mean that you have to be locked away in an office somewhere worrying about bills. Instead, take some time to walk around the restaurant and see your team in action. Even if you pull on an apron and get serving yourself, you can be an admirable presence whilst give tips to your waiters at the same time.

Love Your Employees – Ultimately, your staff will always be the face of your brand because they are what the customers see most during their experience. With this in mind, you should be looking to treat all staff members well. When staff are happy, they pass this on to the customer who gets a feel-good feeling from the atmosphere and will already be thinking about coming back before they even leave.

Create a Rewards System – At times, tips just aren’t enough when staff put their all into their work so you need something to show how much you appreciate their help. Whether it is a monetary rewards system, group days out, or some paid time off, this is a great way to keep morale high and show all staff you care. Furthermore, compliments are completely free so give them out whenever they are deserved.

Summary – Once you have customer service perfected, your diners are more likely to enjoy their experience, your staff are more likely to stay, and you are more likely to have an efficient business. At all times, it should be one of the great focuses of your restaurant and we have provided a few key tips today!

Generating traffic during off-peak hours.

The typical picture of a mid-week afternoon, at times between the late evening hours of 4-6 pm the coffee shop is the busiest. Alas, empty tables, mornings faded with no patrons coming in and the team restless and anxious. But its okay, not all business work right from the start, hard work and patience needs to be put in. It’s wise to study and examine what will work for the type of business you have jumped in and what will work for the customers attracting this industry. As the values progress and change with time from industry to industry. Any type of business takes its own time to set-up and establish. Multiple opportunities emerge, crafting and designing new and exceptional tactics and policies to boom the business. Three meals a day was a routine followed by people in the past, today its five or six smaller meals due to the busy lifestyle and rising industry of the “off peak hours” of work.

Nowadays, the greatest “off-peak” opportunity is to construct and formulate new ideas during the Happy Hour. This framework offers the punter a chance to dine out while keeping the budget in hand. Happy Hour menus include traditional menus to attract the customer with good deals and offers. These are put forward as discount deals having a good meal in fewer prices like 2 for 1 drink, free refills for the clients who arrived in the morning and had a long day at the place.

Start from the beginning, set a base foundation to find out what more can be done to make these off-peak hours more pleasing, pleasant and suitable for regular clients. The client has a different way to see things across the counter that could change the way you work. It’s very important and very essential to keep in mind to cater your customers well and to spot and classify them especially when they are the regular ones. Evaluate and review what all can be done to develop new marketing plans and line of attacks. Views of the customers should be taken care of “customer feedback” which needs to be worked on for high clientage.

Not to forget the importance of technology. More people think that coffee shop is their second home. This gives the entrepreneur a big and good opportunity to magnetize new and repetitive business. Check your customer’s feedback, talk to them and find out what their needs are. Stable internet connections are an essential now-a-days .The passwords should be displayed accurately and the websites and social media pages working properly. Mostly customers require high speeds internet connections and wifi speeds. This is a must and there is no compromise for delays or any misconduct in the performance of the internet and wifi speeds.

Have you heard of a new café across the town with an exceptional lunch package or deal? If you are not attracting such customers, you need to find out how to attract such visitors by keep a track of their behavior. Just imagine what sort of an audience you will like to attract? Where are they already? And how will you bring them in your list of new guests? They must be sitting in offices, universities or are they busy commuters? Different and ground-breaking ideas will serve you better and on a wider scale than just giving deals and discounts.

Market strategies should be clear and easy to understand. The potential customers need to know and understand what is that we are offering. What is that we can serve better than the others in town. Highlighting the off-peak activities via social media, web sites, emails newsletters, table tents, buying advertising or sponsored space, banners, pamphlets and leaflets will all help in the course.

Be Patient. Creating a list of off-peak customers takes some time, patience and hard work. Accommodating the customers with their choices of food is also very important. Providing them with ease to set their budgets, timetables, programs, lifestyles and preferences will ultimately increase the revenues.