Training Your Host’s for Your Restaurants Success
Your host is going to be every guests’ first point of contact when they enter your restaurant, so it stands to reason that they should be adequately trained to assist your guests. However, because a host is an entry level restaurant position, a host’s training is often minimal and they are quickly thrown into the fire to work things out by themselves. Not only does this poorly represent your restaurant but the host’s job of controlling the follow of tables in your restaurant, is crucial to a shift’s success when you’re running at capacity. Here’re some key points to consider when you’re training your next new host that will help your restaurant and everyone in it.
Greeting
Hosts are the first person every guest sees so, from the beginning, it is on them to create the right impression for your restaurant. Ingrain this fact into them and teach them how you’d like them to greet your guests; is there any vocabulary you would like them to use? or to use or avoid using?; how do you want them to represent your location.
Seating
It’s very often that, when busy, a host will show the guests to their table and do nothing more than that; show them the table and leave the menus there for them. This is appalling service and one you should not allow in your location. Ensure that your hosts are seating your guests and handing them their individual menus. Then, before they leave the table, your host should tell the guests that someone will be with them momentarily. This officially passes the guests off to the waiter or waitress, and keeps the guests safe in the knowledge that someone will be along soon.
Timing
When you’re running a waitlist for tables in your venue quoting arriving customers a correct wait time is essential to ensuring everyones happiness. Quote too short a time and guests may get irate when they end up waiting longer than they were told. Quote wait times that are too long and you may defer prospective guests from waiting to eat.
This skill takes time to learn but some elements of it can be taught. Teach your hosts how your restaurant works i.e. if you’re fine dining people will probably eat dessert and have after dinner drinks. If you’re more casual, people will most often leave quickly after they’ve eaten. Teach your hosts to walk your restaurant when it’s busy, and to notice signs on tables that they are finishing up or going to be taking their time.
Understanding the Kitchen
Not the ins and outs if it, but definitely your ticket times. If your kitchen runs later ticket times when you’re functioning at capacity your hosts need to know this to calculate it into their wait time for the new guests they’re greeting. This will also allow them to be well informed when guests come in to eat on a time crunch; your hosts can knowledgeably inform them of how your restaurant can best accommodate them.
One of the biggest part of training hosts is ensuring that they’re comfortable under the pressures of a busy shift and don’t get flustered and shy away. Give them the tools to succeed by keeping them as informed as possible and training into them to ability to inform themselves of what is going on around them; just by paying attention to detail. All of this will enhance your guests’ experience because the host will also be the last person a guest sees, and they’ll connect their leaving experience with the easy and harmonious experience they had upon arrival, rounding everything off perfectly for your guests.
