Host Hacks: Landing a Job Promotion

Host Hacks: Landing a Job Promotion

by | Jun 22, 2016 | Career

As a host or hostess, you’re the first person to greet customers when they walk through the door of the restaurant, and you’re good at it! While you love your job and the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life, you’re also hoping to move onto something bigger and better. Doing your job to the best of your ability will help catch the attention of managers, owners, and other staff members, but there are several things you can do to make yourself look even better.

Where Are You Going?

First thing’s first; ask yourself what goals do you have for advancement? Your future job will help determine the actions that you need to take in order to move up. Some hosts have their eyes on a job as a server. After all, the tips are better!

Your employment goal will help shape your behavior as you work your way up to the top.

More ambitious hosts, however, are eager to take it even further than that: they have their eye on a restaurant manager job, possibly even with an eye to eventually moving up to regional manager. Your employment goal will help shape your behavior as you work your way up to the top.

Make Yourself Useful

What do you do during a slow period at the restaurant, when no one is coming through the doors? If all of your work is taken care of, do you find ways to pitch in and help others?

Well, you should because this simple action can help showcase your willingness to work with the restaurant like nothing else. Don’t just seat customers and take them their silverware. Within the restrictions offered by the rules that go along with your restaurant, you can:

  • Bus tables
  • Help with cleaning tasks
  • Grab drink refills for a table whose server is busy
  • Bring out food when you can
  • Take drink orders

While you should always take care of your own tasks first, the more helpful you are, the more obvious it to your employers that you’re the ideal choice for future management or server positions. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll get the promotion you’re hoping for, but it’s certainly a great way to start pushing your foot in the door.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

If you’re hoping for a promotion, you need to show it! No, every day at work isn’t going to be your best and brightest. You’re going to have rough days: days when you were in a bad mood coming into work or when your entire shift seems to be going wrong.

How you handle those days, however, will dictate your employers’ willingness to move you into a better position. If you can handle your bad days while still being friendly and helpful to customers and going out of your way to help your co-workers, your managers are going to see it.

Every day at work is a fresh opportunity to dive in and show your stuff.

Every day at work is a fresh opportunity to dive in and show your stuff. Seat each server equally and as fairly as possible. Smile and help all of your coworkers, even the ones that you don’t necessarily like. Be kind and compassionate to customers who have problems, even when you’re struggling to understand their problem or you’re frustrated because of the way they’re treating you.

Speak up

Your managers are not mind readers. They can’t know that you’re hoping for a promotion until you let them know. You don’t want to be a nag or bring it up so frequently that you annoy them, but you do want to let them know that you’re very interested in taking your employment with the company to the next level.

Your managers are not mind readers. They can’t know that you’re hoping for a promotion until you let them know.

Not only will this make the higher-ups aware of your aspirations but it can also lead to them giving you advice on how to make it happen, which is by far your best chance of getting that promotion!

Working as a host in a restaurant is a great starting place for a future career. With time, you can work your way up through the ranks, enhance your skills, and ultimately have that restaurant manager position you’re dreaming of. It all starts, however, with the energy and effort that you put into your job every day.

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How to Hire Great Staff for the Summer Season

How to Hire Great Staff for the Summer Season

by | Jun 20, 2016 | Business Toolkit, Management

Summer is often a busy season for the restaurant industry, but it’s also a great time to add temporary workers like college students to your staff. However, you don’t want to hire just anybody. Your summer workers should be as talented and skilled as your full-time employees. With the right preparation, you can hire the best staff for summertime. 

What to look for in a summer employee

Because they aren’t hiring summer employees for the long-term, many restaurants make the mistake of hiring the first few people who walk in with an application. However, to have a summertime staff that boosts your business, you want to look for certain characteristics during the interview, even if it means passing over the first few candidates until you find the right match.

Here are the top qualities you should be looking for in both front and back-of-house summertime restaurant employees:

  • Sociability
  • Ability to accommodate others
  • Frustration tolerance
  • Drive and energy
  • Integrity
  • Successful multi-tasking skills
  • Persuasiveness
  • Pride in work
  • Teamwork
  • Safety

How to measure a candidate’s skills

Knowing what to look for is one thing, but being able to determine how well a candidate meets the above requirements is another. Fortunately, technology is here to help. Sirvo, for example, allows employers to include a custom question in the job listing to be answered by candidates when applying, which gets the vetting process underway immediately.

In addition to using a tech service to test candidates, your interviews should be situational and specific to the job so you can gauge how well the candidate will work in your environment. Here are a few suggestions of questions to ask during the interview:

  • What would you do if you spilled beer all over a customer?
  • What would you do if one table complained about another table being too loud?

You can also do a menu quiz: ask the candidate to memorize the list, then have them take an online quiz. Accept 80 percent or higher as a passing grade.

Where to find candidates

Seeking candidates for summertime openings can be tricky. Here are some things you can do year-round to make sure you have a pool of quality candidates to choose from when it’s time to amp up your staff:

  • Recruit year-round: Post seasonal jobs on your social media pages, website and other networking sites, like Sirvo. Reach out to seasonal employees from last year or who worked during the holiday season to see if they are available again during the summer.
  • Contact previous candidates: If you were on the fence about a candidate and ended up not hiring them, this can be a good time to check in and bring them in for another interview. They may have gained more experience and/or skills that will be useful this year.
  • Start a referral program: Chances are, your current employees have friends, neighbors, and/or family members who would make great employees. Offer some incentive, like an extra $25 if a referred candidate gets hired and then an additional $50 if they stay on for longer than three months.
  • Seek out non-traditional sources: If you’re looking for more mature employees, look in non-traditional places such as senior centers or VAs for job seekers. These employees can be great additions to your workforce and might only want to work a few months out of the year.

Streamline your summertime training

If you’re frequently hiring seasonal employees, here are some things you should do to simplify the hiring and training process:

  • Set up an orientation: Have all your summertime employees go through a new-hire orientation at the same time. This saves a ton of time since you only need to go through all the required information once instead of individually with each new hire.
  • Stay on top of paperwork: Don’t let the summertime rush get in the way of filing the proper paperwork. Make sure every employee completes their I-9 and W-4 forms before they begin working. Make it part of your orientation to make sure it doesn’t get overlooked.
  • Review the rules for hiring minors: Many high school students work in restaurants over summer break, and the laws are different for them. Make sure to review the most current laws so you know how many hours they can work, when they can work until and any other relevant information.

One final thing to remember is that you generally can’t classify summertime workers as independent contract workers, even though they are only working temporarily. Review the federal guidelines so you understand who qualifies as a contract worker and who should be classified as an employee.

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Open Call Departure Restaurant Denver

Open Call Departure Restaurant Denver

by | Jun 20, 2016 | Sirvo Stories

Departure Restaurant, the newest concept from the Sage Restaurant Group, is now hiring for all positions and will be holding an open call this Friday, June 24th. Don’t miss your chance to join this thriving team!

Must come prepared with a copy of your resume.

Or apply ahead of time at www.sagerestaurantgroup.jobs

When & Where

Friday, June 24th 2016

11:00 am – 2:00pm

2817 E. 3rd Avenue

Denver, CO 80206

Now hiring for:

  • Restaurant Servers
  • Bussers
  • Runners
  • Bartenders
  • Hosts
  • Cooks
  • Dishwashers
  • Banquet Servers
  • Banquet Housemen

Host Hacks: How to Deal with Angry Customers

Host Hacks: How to Deal with Angry Customers

by | Jun 15, 2016 | Career

Unfortunately, there are many situations at a restaurant where a visitor may expect more than they’re given, and as a host, you’ll need to rise to the occasion and act as the face of the restaurant. Use the following tips to keep your cool and handle angry customers like the pros in the meantime!

Remain calm

The number one thing you can do is take a deep breath and bite back any indignant responses or angry feelings. Remember that you are at work, and the customer’s concerns aren’t personal to you: you’re there to keep as many people happy as possible.

In addition, your anger will likely make the situation worse, by fueling your customer’s negative feelings even further, rather than bringing them down to a manageable level.

Show them you care

Go a step beyond nodding and calmly responding to your customers. Truly reach out to them by finding their real concerns from what they say. When you can respond by letting the angry customer know that you hear and understand exactly what upsets them, they’ll feel much more taken care of, acknowledged, and thus, helped in their situation.

You may not be able to solve every issue, but do answer all complaints by saying, “I understand, Mr. Smith.”

You may not be able to solve every issue, but do answer all complaints by saying, “I understand, Mr. Smith. You had hoped to be seated sooner and want to know what we can do about it. I will speak to a manager/see what I can do/follow up with you in a moment.”

What you do here is twofold: you both make the angry customer feel heard, and you help stem further explanation of the issue from them by making it clear it’s been taken seriously.

Show empathy and apologize if appropriate

The next step is to show that you, as a representative of the restaurant, care for the customer’s concerns. Whether or not you personally feel for that person, you need to be professional in your ability to take care of the situation, and part of that is to show empathy for frustrations.

This can vary depending on the situation. For a customer intent on causing a scene, no matter what the case, you may decide to apologize for the difficulty they’re having and suggest they return when the restaurant is less busy and their needs can be tended to more thoroughly.

For a customer with valid frustrations that you can’t personally fix, apologize for their situation and show your sympathy. Then, move on to the following step.

Resolve the issue, as best as you can

Show that you’re working to fix the problem, and take what steps you can to address any customer issues, within reason. When you’re faced with a conflict that can’t fully be resolved, but requires action, offer what you can: a free meal, a drink, etc.

Be sure to check with management to know ahead of time exactly how you are authorized to assist in these types of situations.

Be sure to check with management to know ahead of time exactly how you are authorized to assist in these types of situations. If you do find yourself in a conflict that you can’t resolve alone, too, do be sure to bring in a manager, server, or some type of assistance–both to show you’re doing what you can to resolve the problem and to have a support system yourself.

From time to time, customers will show their frustration with you, as the face of the restaurant. By remaining calm, empathetic, and reactive, you can keep the situation light and diffuse tension, often ending the issue. Use your support system when you need it, and remember to remain unflustered and authoritative; you’ll control the situation like a professional every time.

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Electronic Ordering in the Restaurant Industry

Electronic Ordering in the Restaurant Industry

by | Jun 10, 2016 | Management

By now, everyone’s familiar with online ordering. Pizza Hut claims to have made the first sale over the Internet. Some fast-food businesses take almost half their orders that way. The next wave in restaurant technology is just getting started, though: Electronic ordering at the table.

In 2014, Applebee’s deployed ordering tablets at all its restaurants. The Presto tablet, produced by E la Carte, lets customers order and pay electronically. They can even play games on the device for a small surcharge. Chili’s has also automated ordering, using Ziosk tablets.

At Panera, people pre-order rather than sitting down first, but it’s also found tablet-based ordering useful to reduce lines. It chose an iPad-based system because many people are familiar with Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Each company approaches the market a bit differently. E la Carte stresses efficiency and the opportunity for impulse orders, Buzztime promises a “mix of fun and functionality,” and Ziosk offers the ability to enroll customers in loyalty programs and let them buy branded merchandise.

With some devices, users can even take pictures of themselves and upload them to social media, giving the restaurant a little free publicity.

The point isn’t to put humans out of work. Speeding up the process electronically lets people order more quickly and lets the server concentrate on bringing food out and handling personal requests. Reducing the wait to order can mean more customer satisfaction and the ability to serve more people, increasing revenue and tips. It can also reduce customers’ anxiety about paying by credit card since no one takes their cards away to process them.

Customers will need time to familiarize themselves with the new style of ordering. Even if they constantly use their phones for purchases, this style of ordering at the table is something new for them, and not everyone is up on the latest tech.

Initially, deploying the devices will result in some confusion, and employees will have to assist customers. It may actually seem slower than in-person ordering for a while.

The software on the device needs to be as simple and straightforward as possible. It’s supposed to make the ordering experience easier, and a bad design could just scare people away. Customers need to be able to undo their mistakes and review their order before submitting it.

However, a mildly skeptical take from The Motley Fool points out some shortcomings in Applebee’s approach. Customers still need to order drinks in person. This is understandable for legal reasons, but since people usually order drinks first, it leaves a delay at the start of the process it’s supposed to speed up. The author also noted the lack of any way to leave feedback through the tablet. The latter point could easily be fixed, but it’s hard to see how restaurants could fully automate drink ordering. An “I am over 21” checkbox just won’t satisfy liquor licensing boards.

Data security is also an important issue. These tablets are Point of Sale devices, and retailers and restaurants often overlook how vulnerable they are. Wendy’s recently suffered a breach that affected PoS devices at 5% of its restaurants. The affected restaurants were franchises that used a different PoS device from the company-owned locations. Security is a particularly difficult issue for franchisees that don’t have the information technology resources of large chains. Franchisers can help the situation by making uniform technology available to franchisees and issuing recommended security procedures.

Keeping the devices behind a firewall and not directly visible to the Internet greatly reduces their vulnerability.

Accessibility is bound to become an issue. The tablets’ software should be flexible enough to let visually impaired users operate them, and servers will need to continue taking orders from anyone who just isn’t comfortable using a machine.

It’s inevitable that electronic ordering will continue to grow in restaurants. The businesses need to look at what their competitors are doing and decide when and how to make the transition. Employees will win if they brush up on their computer skills and plan on adjusting their people skills to the new situation.

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Experience Sirvo for yourself

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