Everybody loves going to the restaurant. There’s a sense of satisfaction that you can’t quite achieve at home. Indeed, what’s more enjoyable than being able to sit and relax while someone else prepares your food?
Unfortunately for the restaurant sector, while more and more people are eating out, not all customers are happy with their experience. In fact, many customers are quick to complain about the food or the service. While some customers might try to use it as an excuse to pay less for the night out, it would be foolish to ignore complaints. Indeed, your patrons are your most valuable assets. When they’re not happy about your services, you need to pay close attention to what they’re saying. It comes as no surprise that restaurants experience an increase in complaints during holiday periods, such as the summer break or the Christmas holidays. However, it’s important to note that it’s not only a period of high stress. It’s also a time where many restaurants choose to hire temporary staff. Seasonal jobs and temps can dramatically affect your reputation. Here’s why restaurants need to seek out other options:
Your Customers Expect Trained Staff
You can’t become a waiter overnight. Ultimately, welcoming clients in your restaurant requires dedicated training. While you can find students to do the job on the cheap, you need to make sure to provide sufficient training to everyone who joins your business. Keeping your customers happy is part of the job, but it’s not a natural skill set. A waiter is someone who can take not only orders but also provide advice, pays attention to the behaviors and, more importantly, serves on time. When a table has to wait a long time before someone comes to take their order, you can be sure that it’s a mistake that would have been avoided with proper training. However, what is more damaging to your reputation is the fact that you are likely to lose those customers, as they will assume your business is slow – rather than the waiter lacked training.
It’s Easier To Schedule Known Staff
Scheduling your staff appropriately is a delicate art to master. When you work with people you know, it’s easy for you to accommodate for special requests or find a replacement for a day. However, working with a team you don’t know can make it tricky to organise each waiter. You need a scheduling tool that not only lets you communicate clearly and effectively with the team, such as https://getsling.com/blog/employee-scheduling/, but that also enables you to make a note of each employee’s strengths. For instance, you’re likely to need more waiters to cover a busy evening if they are inexperienced. Trained professionals tend to be able to cover more tables and orders.
Seasonal Employees Come During The Most Stressful Periods
As mentioned earlier, restaurants tend to hire temporary staff during the most hectic periods of the year, from Christmas holidays to busy weekends. Even for experienced teams, it’s a hectic period during which they need to assist a large number of tables. It seems unfair to expect inexperienced waiters to provide the same level of service. How can a newcomer get things rights when the pressure is already on? Accidents are more prone to happen when everybody is stressed out. And, ultimately, a new waiter is statistically more likely to drop a dish during those busy times!
New Staff Lacks The Knowledge To Bring Customers Back
You need to think of your waiter as your brand ambassadors. They represent the restaurant. If they don’t meet your customers’ expectations, you are losing the possibility of returning customers. Your waiters’ attitude can help to create returning customers, as explained in this article, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-simple-ways-waiters-can-create-returning-customers-pavlos-sarlas/. Indeed, your waiter needs to know the dishes – tasting each dish should be part of their training – so that they can help people choose. They need to be able to describe the flavours adequately and guide the customers to the most suitable dish.
They Are More Likely To Make Mistakes
It takes time to train a waiter. As they gain experience, they develop an instinct for what they should or shouldn’t do. Unfortunately, temporary staff lacks the knowledge to avoid costly mistakes. The kitchen staff might have lost track of time or accidentally prepared dishes in the wrong order – customers who ordered first are served last. It’s the role of a waiter to check and avoid issues and bring the order on time. Additionally, while it’s essential to interact with your customers, nobody likes a waiter who monitors the guests a little too closely.
No restaurants should operate with untrained staff at the best of times. While it can be challenging to make up for hectic periods of the year, hiring temporary staff can prove damaging for your reputation if you push them in a busy customer-facing environment without the necessary knowledge. Your team is your best marketing campaign; so look after your people the best you can.
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