Business
Fresh Choice Food Service Staff Training
Introduction
Fresh Choice offers the best and healthy alternatives to all-time favorites such as burgers and sandwiches. In order to ensure that customer satisfaction is met, food servers are required to undergo training to optimize overall customer experience and establish a service workflow that will improvement the restaurant’s business and service processes. The training will cover three types of learning namely, knowledge, attitude, and hands-on skills. The knowledge segment will cover service policies, health and safety, and product knowledge. On the other hand, the attitude segment of the training will cover customer relations, customer service, and customer handling. Lastly, the hands-on skills knowledge will cover the technical aspects of food preparation, portioning, packaging, selling, conducting transactions, and other procedures in both dining and kitchen.
Knowledge
Product – (Duration 1-2 hours, objective: know the products by heart)
- The employees will be handed out with copies of the product menu with descriptions and components.
- Each items in the menu will be introduced to the staff and discuss the components included in each item. For example, the burger items are to be discussed according to type, whether beef, turkey, or fish. The staff will also be informed of the health value of the ingredients such as tuna and that the product contains all organic ingredients.
- The staff will need to memorize the products and its components, which can be reinforced by doing group activities. The trainees will be divided into two groups, each group will be given a cut out print of the ingredients used in food items on the menu. The instructor will give the name of item (i.e. grass fed beef burger), and the trainees will construct the burger on the corkboard by pinning the ingredients that goes to the item. Additional points will be given to a team that would be able to match the item to the right price and meal combinations.
Health and Safety Policies - (Duration 1-2 hours)
- Each staff will be given a copy of State Food Health and Safety policies to be discussed by the instructor.
- Each policy will be thoroughly discussed and ensure trainee understanding by citing scenarios and ask the trainees to come up with appropriate resolution that confers with the prevailing policies.
- The staff will be asked to sign a policy agreement stating their commitment to adhere and uphold the policies during their tenure with the company.
Service Do’s and Don’ts - (Duration 1 hour)
- The staff will participate in a lecture discussing the recommended best practices in handling customer orders, order taking, and payment processing and placing the order in the bar and in the kitchen.
- Handouts will also be provided to the trainees for self-study about industry standards on food serving and handling.
Attitude
Customer Relations – (Duration 1-2 hours)
- The trainees will participate in a discussion presentation about handling customer behavior, attitude and how deal with difficult customers effectively.
- Apart from the lecture the trainees will have a group simulation where the instructor will play as the customer demonstrating different kinds of customer attitude.
- The trainees on the other hand will have to resolve the issues demonstrated by the customer in the most courteous and appropriate way.
- The trainees will also learn to speak pleasantly and articulately
- Active listening will also be part of the discussion as it is important for the service staff to always be attentive in taking orders particularly in situations where three or more customers are speaking out their orders all at the same time.
- Up selling and suggestive selling will also be part of the module to address scenarios where the customer ordered a particular item that for some reason is not available at the moment. The staff will be taught how to make relevant product suggestions to keep the customer from leaving the restaurant.
Hands-on Skills Module
Dining Area Etiquettes – (Duration 1 hour)
- The staff will be treated to a tour around the different sections of the restaurant such as the kitchen, the office, and the dining area.
- Dining skills will include teaching the waiting staff about the proper sitting arrangements, traffic to and from the kitchen, bussing, and serving techniques.
- The staff will participate in the series of actual practice activities on order taking and timing each phase from preparing the orders to finishing the transaction.
- It is recommended that each transaction wrap up in under five minutes. The staff will complete an order taking and serving cycle and should be able to finish everything within the given time frame.
- The staffs will also practice handling the trays properly where the items being carried do not spill or the entire tray flipping over. The staff will have to practice all the processes until they meet the restaurant standards.
- Kitchen staff will have a separate hands-on module with a trainer that will discuss processing the orders. This includes, food preparation, portioning, serving size, cooking time and taking food temperatures. The training module will also include discussion on equipment handling and operation (operating the equipment will require discussing the manuals that came with the equipment).
(nfsmi.org, 2008)
References
Foodservicewarehouse.com (n.d.). Staff Training: Restaurant Server Guidelines. Retrieved February 23, 2014, from http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/restaurant-management-and-operations/staff-training-restaurant-server-guidelines/c28036.aspx
Nfsmi.org (2008). Staff Training. Retrieved from http://www.nfsmi.org/documentlibraryfiles/PDF/20080228032400.pdf
