Management
All Included?
Are your systems all-inclusive? Employees trained to handle guests with special needs? Is the restaurant designed to make it easy for these guests to visit and be comfortable? How many sales are you losing because these guests know it is difficult for them in your restaurant, and never even come in the door?
First, ensure your staff understands how to provide great service to everyone. These basics include:
- Offering to carry food to the table for expectant mothers, parents with children in their
arms, guests on crutches, using walkers, etc. Common sense, but not commonly practiced.
- Keeping aisles clear and clutter-free so people can easily move through them.
- Having a bench or area to sit in during peak times for customers who need to rest their
feet. Get out from behind the counter and take an order for a guest who can?t stand in line.
- Pre-bussing or filling drinks for guests so they don?t have to.
- Keeping floors clean and dry.
- Allowing guests to order online.
Next, help make your restaurant more inclusive:
- Have menus available in Braille and in multiple languages.
- Build counters (especially if you have a self-service beverage or condiment station) at
heights not only required by the ADA, but where the items can easily be reached by
smaller guests or those in wheelchairs. (For example, are the drink lids on the side of the
soda machine and too high to reach?)
Sales are tough enough to attract, so don?t exclude potential guests by not being inclusive!
T.J. Schier is service professional, consultant and speaker with over 20 years experience in operations and training. Founder and president of Incentivize Solutions and podTraining, T.J. has helped numerous clients enhance their service and training programs and spoken to tens of thousands of managers, franchisees and operators in various fields. Visit http://IncentivizeSolutions.com/ for more info motivating today's employees, training today's generation and delivering outstanding guest service; or http://podTraining.us/, a unique new system and the foundation of 'i-learning' - using the device of today's generation, the iPod - to train your workforce. |
T.J. Schier
Tags: restaurant management, running a restaurant, managing a restaurant, meeting special needsSimilar articles
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