by Yvonne Donlon

Created on: September 27, 2009

Quality service is tantamount to a restaurant's success. Although I personally believe you have no business in the restaurant business without having a great product, i.e. your food, quality service can upgrade mediocre food and keep people coming back. In fact, quality service can upgrade lousy, loud, or dull dcor. It can upgrade location, and it can downplay unexpectedly long wait times.

I don't know how many times I have heard people tell me of restaurants (having been in the restaurant business, many people like to tell me of their experiences at other restaurants), "I'm not real fond of the music they play sometimes, but there's a waiter there we really like. He knows what we want, and has it for us even before we ask." Or, "We waited about an hour and a half to be seated, but once we were, the server was so efficient, we didn't have to wait long at all for anything else. Obviously that is why the wait for a table is so long."

I was in the restaurant business for over 20 years. I was a server, a bartender, a manager, and an owner. Other than the awesome food I insist upon - after all, we're selling food not nuts and bolts - the service was more primary focus. However, as manager or owner, after I had hired and trained my perfect service staff, I could easily have move the lot of them to a hardware store and they would have done quite well selling nuts and bolts as well. Why? Quality service, of course.

What is quality service?

- Prompt attention to guests, and follow up: Acknowledge your guest immediately. Even if you are busy, it doesn't take but a few seconds to say, "Hi, I'll be right with you." That tells your guests you are the one helping them.

Too many times, in an atmosphere of mediocre to poor service, I have answered my fellow diners' concerns about why we have yet to be offered a drink (even though it has only been a few moments, really), by asking them, " Who's our server ? I'll get his/her attention."

"I can't tell," is their response.

"That is why it feels like a long time," I explain. "You feel like the first guest at a party, and you haven't been greeted by the host yet."

- Know the menu, and know your audience: You can't sell me a car if you don't have any idea what kind of engine it has, or what accessories come with it. Just so, you can't sell me food if you don't know what it consists of, or what comes with it.

Get to know your guests. Get to know their names, their likes and dislikes, and you will develop a circle of regulars that

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>