Restaurant Owners ? How Important are People Skills?

You are serving great food. Your establishment is new, spotless and inviting and yet you are not getting the repeat visits that you expect. What's up? What's going wrong?

The answer may lie with your people skills?

Why do people come to your restaurant? By now you should know why people frequent your restaurant?or at least you should know why they don't.

They do not come for cheap food. It's cheaper at home and there is certain to be cheaper restaurants than yours.

They certainly come to eat different foods that they cannot make at home but there are plenty of similar restaurants to yours.

So you will have worked out your "unique selling benefit" and you will have marketed that. They don't come back and you have to discover what it is that is not providing the benefit that they were expecting.

Often the answer is with your people. Customers come for the total experience. It will not matter whether the food is excellent and the coffee outstanding if the waiting staff is unfriendly and distant. Their evening will have been ruined and they will not come back again.

When you employ front-of-house employees their technical skills are not as important as their attitude.

You can teach a person the technical skills but it is almost impossible to teach them to change their attitudes. If your applicant finds it difficult to smile during her interview then she is certain to be an unsmiling distant waitress. She is not for you.

A warm and friendly applicant with little experience is by far the better prospect.

What about your own people skills? In our consulting we quite often see managers whose dealing with patrons is excellent but with staff and others atrocious.

Never give your staff a 'dressing down' in front of customers. It makes customers uncomfortable at best and downright angry if they have established a rapport with the staff member.

Your attitude toward staff should be one that leads them to better service and higher morale.

Will they ever need strong criticism? They sure will?but keep it between yourselves.

http://ww.profitstrategies4business.com

About the Author

Kelvyn Peters CPA is one of the longest serving Australian Tax Agents. He registered as tax agent in 1962 and was accepted as a CPA in 1964.

He has become much sought after as an educator and speaker on small business. One organisation says that the highlight of the annual meeting is Kelvyn's ability to present the audited statements in a humorous way.

Kelvyn is famous for his ability to rescue ailing small businesses.

http://profitstrategies4business.com

---

Better Links Directory

11 Ways to Get What You Want - Be a Clever Customer!

We all want great service, whether we are buying our... Read More

Customer Service A Chickens Way

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite fast food restaurant... Read More

Customers - Hold Onto the Ones Youve Got

You probably spend a great deal of your time looking... Read More

What Every Employee Should Know About Putting Positive Phrases Into Customer Service

If you were a customer on the telephone with a... Read More

The Marvelous World of Metaphors

Recognize metaphors from every angle and round up more insight... Read More

A White Paper: Profiting with Kindness

In 2002, there wasn't much interest for Kindness in business,... Read More

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Win the Loyalty of Customers

Dr. Michael LeBoeuf, in his cassette album entitled, Win Customers... Read More

4 Easy Steps to Better Online Customer Support

Customer support is very important when you're running a business,... Read More

Write a Business Thank-You Note

Have you seen that thing on TV where the gal... Read More

A New Way To Handle Complaints, Or Is It?

What a lot of money we have been wasting on... Read More

10 Customer Service Quality Statements to Measure up Against

It might sound quick and simple, to say how well... Read More

E-Business?s Best Friend: eCRM

From Ebay to the smallest home-operated start-up, e-businesses of all... Read More

The Number 1 Rule for Businesses - Be Professional

Have you ever walked into a store and things looked... Read More

From Disgruntled to Champion - How to Turn an Unhappy Client Into Your Best Customer

It's a salesperson's worst nightmare- the phone call that comes... Read More

When the Customer Demands: Give a Discount or Lose the Order

Periodically every sales person encounters the customer who refuses to... Read More

Got A Consumer Problem?

Millions of people, just like you, end up with a... Read More

Why You Should Always Honour Your Guarantees - Even When The Customer Is In The Wrong

The Reason Why Direct Internet Marketers Have To Work So... Read More

Cultivating the Trust Factor

In today's highly competitive economy, it is difficult to maintain... Read More

5 Golden Online/Offline Business Rules To LIVE Or DIE By

Whether online or off, if you plan on running or... Read More

Restaurant Scheduling for Success

- Excerpt from Richard Saporito's latest e-book "How to Improve... Read More

Customer Service Tips for Mail Order Businesses

Can we be too good to our customers?... Read More

Customer Service Is Dying - and Im Not Feeling So Good Myself

Have you ever called a company and been greeted with... Read More

The Importance of Good Customer Service

Do you have good customer service? Even for your free... Read More

Putting The Serve Back Into Customer Service

Good service is easy to spot and hard-to-find. Mediocre service... Read More

Transforming Disgruntled Customers into Your Biggest Advocates

"I am writing to complain about the widget I bought... Read More