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The Front Desk – Overflowing with Hospitality

The front doors of your restaurant should barely be able to contain the hospitality at your front desk. Your welcoming
spirit should be bursting out into the parking lot in the form of hosts opening doors and welcoming guests. Employees
that are walking in and out of the restaurant should smile, make eye contact and greet guests as if it were their own
home. You can teach a host how to coordinate the dining room on a Friday night, but you can’t teach friendly.

Hire Hospitality

Your selection process at the front desk should revolve almost entirely around personality; you must fill your entire
restaurant with smiling, friendly enthusiastic people, and then reinforce their behavior. The host team are agents of the
guest, not gatekeepers. They answer to the guest, not a seating rotation. As a manager, you must set the example
at the front desk, keeping them calm, positive and guest focused at all times.

Our Service Team – “Yes” is the Answer. What’s the Question?
Your servers, bartenders and all employees should get use to the word “yes,” or at least the phrase, “Let me go find
out what I can do about that.” Your employees should be actively seeking opportunities to create service with every
guest. They should be highly creative, passionate and relentless in their commitment to guest experience. You begin
this process with your own words and actions, and then enthusiastically reinforce the behavior in your employees.

The One Percent of Separation
Any restaurant employee can satisfy the easy guests, but exceeding the expectations of challenging guests will create
a thriving, busy restaurant next door to a slow restaurant. Your level of Hospitality will crush your competition. When
your challenging guest requests the Salmon Entrée, no salt, sauce on the side, with extra tomato, plus a list of allergens
to hand to the chef, they are providing you with an opportunity to separate us from other restaurants; don’t miss it. The
server should react as if they were expecting such a request. They should carry that willingness into the server alley
and to the expo line, and then make 100% sure we get it perfect. It is the sincere desire to create the experience that
makes us unique, not the fake smile with barely concealed disdain. Never make fun of difficult guests, and refuse to
tolerate that behavior from your employees.

Way Above and Way Beyond

When our guests are in the restaurant, it’s like they have a personal Concierge addressing their needs; we listen to
our table’s conversations and read their actions for clues regarding the nature of their visit, and then we never miss the
opportunity to tailor our service to their needs. Every restaurant company tells employees to “read their guests;” we
just want them to read more. Think about this: Why do celebrities and high-level executives get tailored, personal
service? It’s because the manager or owner feels that it’s imperative to keep the loyalty of that particular guest. We’re
no different, we just feel that way about every guest.

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