Transcript Slide 1

Chapter 10
Serving Your Guests
PROSTART LEVEL 1
Definition of Hospitality
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 Hospitality is the feeling that guests take with them from their
experience with the operation.
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Service
Care
Attention
 When the offerings of competitors are similar, the competitive
advantage often comes from the nature and quality of
customer service.
 Working in a service industry means serving people directly.
This is the single most important aspect of the job.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
First Impressions
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 A strong first impression is
one of the least expensive
and most effective forms of
advertising.
 The initial customer
interaction is one of the best
ways in which to make a
strong first impression.
 The appearance of all
restaurant and foodservice
employees also affects a
guest’s first impression.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
 First impressions are
often the strongest
impression we have of a
person, place, or event.
What does a first impression accomplish?
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Makes the customer feel welcome in your
establishment
2. Helps the customer feel confident about their
decision to come to your establishment
3. Sets the stage for a good dining experience
4. Makes customers more likely to forgive minor errors
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The exterior of the building is important to a first
impression because it is often the first thing the
guests’ see.
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Employee Attributes for a First Impression
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1. Dress Appropriately
• Wear clean, wrinkle-free
clothing
• Clothing in good condition
2. Practice Good Hygiene
• Includes hands, nails, face,
and hair
3. Jewelry
• Depends on the policy of
management or health
codes in the area
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Identifying Customers’ Needs
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It is up to all employees to ensure prompt, friendly, and professional
service. They should start by identifying the customer’s needs.
 Older customers may need
 Special occasions usually mean
additional help.
 Families with young children
also may have special needs.
 Customers may have special
dietary needs, so knowledge of
the menu is critical.
 First-time guests might be
unfamiliar with the menu or any
special touches of an operation.
that the customer has specific
needs.
 Foreign-language differences
present challenges to efficient and
responsive service.
 Employees need to accommodate
people with disabilities in every
way possible.
 People dining alone may have
work to do or may simply be trying
to get away from it all.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
Greeters Responsibility
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 The greeter provides the first impression in
appearance, friendliness, and attentiveness.
Asking if customers have
any reservations
2. Noting special dietary
needs, seating
arrangements,
celebrations, etc.
3. Arranging for the
customer to be escorted
to their seats.
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Reservations and Requests
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 It is very important to have an accurate system to record
reservations and special requests and implement them at
the right time.
 Reservations and requests should be saved in one place
and include standard information, including when and
who recorded the information.
 Confirming all reservations and special requests is good
customer service.
 With proper procedures, establishments can avoid
making mistakes when taking reservations and
completing special requests to avoid disappointing
guests.
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Greeting and Taking Orders
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 The greeter evaluates and determines the
customer’s specific needs for the current visit.
 As each guest at the table selects their meal, the
server notes guest orders on pre-printed guest
checks or small note pads.
 Some guests may ask the server whether certain
ingredients can be removed from dishes due to
food allergies or other special needs.
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Servers need to note correctly any special requirements and
ensure that the chef understands the request.
Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
Suggestive Selling
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Suggestive selling involves recommending additional or different
items to a guest.
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Enhance communication skills
Develop the server’s product knowledge
Learning items that work well together
Anticipating the customer’s needs
Suggesting add-on items like drinks and desserts
Suggest items that you enjoy
Selling the restaurants “best” items
Use props
Observe guests behavior
Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
Alcohol Service
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Alcohol service is often an integral part of a dining experience.
 Every state’s liquor board or liquor authority develops and enforces its
own regulations for alcohol service.
 The amount of alcohol absorbed into a person’s bloodstream is called
blood alcohol content (BAC).
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A BAC of 0.10 means that there is about one drop of alcohol present
for every thousand drops of blood. It is against the law to drive with
a BAC of 0.08 or higher in all 50 states.
 You must be 21 years old to purchase alcohol in all 50 states.
 In general, a server must be 21 years old to serve alcohol.
 If you sell or serve alcohol, you are responsible for ensuring that
customers are of legal age by checking their IDs.
 When an alcohol-related incident occurs on an operation’s premises, the
manager often needs to file a report.
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Processing Payment
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Processing payment is as vital a function as greeting the customers
or serving the food.
 Most establishments accept cash or credit.
 The procedure for processing payment as
part of table service is very similar to
processing at a register:
1.
Present the check at the table.
2.
Collect payment from the customers.
3.
Process payment.
4.
Return the change or credit card
receipt and credit card.
 For credit card payments, bring the credit
card and receipt to the table together.
 Always remember to thank customers for
their patronage.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
Getting Feedback on
Customer Satisfaction
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To determine how well the restaurant or foodservice operation meets
guests’ expectations, it is useful to measure their satisfaction.
 Routinely ask whether the food, drink, service, and
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accommodations are satisfactory during a guest’s visit.
Comment cards are quick surveys that customers complete
noting their satisfaction with the food and service.
Surveys are similar to comment cards but sometimes include
more open-ended questions.
Focus groups consist of customers that meet as a group to talk
with managers about possible improvements in service or other
areas.
Mystery shoppers are hired by an operation to visit and report
on their experiences and impressions of an operation.
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Resolving Customer Complaints
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An unhappy customer is bad for business, so every operation needs an
organized system for handling and resolving all guest complaints.
 Management must train every staff member on how to
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handle customer complaints.
It is important to recognize when a guest is upset so that the
problem can quickly be resolved.
Actively look to see if the guest is showing signs of being
unhappy with the service or meal, and then encourage the
guest to explain the problem.
Never ignore or avoid a dissatisfied guest.
Proactively addressing such concerns with customers can
turn a dissatisfied customer into a repeat guest.
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Contemporary and Traditional Service
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 Quick service is an easy and fast way to dine and typically involves no
servers. Guests help themselves to food set up in food bars or order at a
counter.
 Drive-through
 Buffets
 Carry Outs
 Vending Machines
 Cafeterias
 Traditional service style reflects four main influences: American,
French, English, and Russian. Each service style varies depending on
the menu, theme, and décor:
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Traditional Service
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• American service:
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Food is arranged on plates in
the kitchen by cooks and
brought directly to the
guests’ table by the server.
The meal is complete on one
plate.
 French service:
 This style is typically
considered the most elegant,
 It is very expensive.
 Servers present the food to
guests from a tableside cart,
called a guéridon.
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Contemporary and Traditional Service
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English service:
 Family-style
dining
 English service is the
simplest and least
expensive.
 In English service, bowls
and platters of food are
placed on the table, and a
seated host or hostess
places the food onto
plates.
 The host of the table then
serves the meal
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Russian service:
 This
style is the most
formal service style.
 All food preparation is
done in the kitchen.
 The bowls and platters of
food are then brought on
a cart to guests at the
table.
 Servers hold the bowls
and platters as they serve
the food to each guest.
Additional Service Items
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 Charger:
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Service plates that don’t
directly touch the food
 Tureen:
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Large covered bowl to
serve soup for up to eight
people
 Finger Bowl:
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A small bowl filled with
water and often citrus
fruits to clean fingers after
eating
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Traditional Service Set-ups
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 Understanding the many types of
silverware that an operation uses is very
important. The basic knives used most
often when dining include the following:
 Dinner knife: Used for all entrées
and main courses.
 Butter knife: Smaller than a dinner
knife and used to butter bread or cut
breakfast foods, fruit, and other softer
foods.
 Fish knife: Used only to filet and cut
fish.
 Steak knife: Used to cut beef.
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Traditional Service Set-ups
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Forks
Spoons
Single-Purpose
China
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Drinking Glasses
Traditional Service Staff Responsibilities
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 Large, traditional, full-service
restaurants have a formal service
organization.
 The maître d’hotel is responsible
for the overall management of
service.
 The headwaiter is responsible for
service in a particular area.
 The captain is responsible for a
server area, and is assisted by the
front waiter or an apprentice.
 The front waiter has only 1 to
2 years of experience.
 An apprentice is a server in
training.
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Traditional Service Staff Responsibilities
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In less formal service structures, a floor
manager might run the dining room.
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The floor manager is in charge of the
operation during a particular shift and
supervises a team of servers.
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Each individual server is responsible
for a specific section of the dining
room.
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Food runners are sometimes
employed to assist with bringing food
from the kitchen to the tables.
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Busers assist with the cleaning up and
resetting of tables.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests
Service Tools and Stations
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 In full-service restaurants, servers
usually carry many different
service tools with them.
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Service tools may include a hand
towel, a lighter, a corkscrew, change, a
pen, an order pad, and sometimes a
crumber, which is used to neatly
gather and clear crumbs and debris
from a table cloth.
 The service station is the area in
which an operation keeps
additional items such as napkins,
silverware, cups and saucers,
condiments, menus, and water
glasses.
 Servers use different serving
utensils when they serve food to
guests.
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Chapter 10 | Serving Your Guests