First impressions count, right? That’s why hiring good waiters, waitresses, servers and hosts is as important as the food you serve… if not, a little bit more! That’s right, people buy from people. You can have the best food in town, but if it’s served by a grumpy and uninterested staff. That just leaves a bad taste in the mouth (pun intended. Sorry).
So, what key skills do you need to look for when hiring front of house staff? Here are three skills that all your customer-facing staff should have …
Approachability
Staff should be approachable, so customers and colleagues feel comfortable with asking questions and making requests. Do they demonstrate openness and willingness to help and engage with others.
Working under pressure
The catering and hospitality industry has flows of quiet times and really crazy busy times. Your staff must be able to remain calm, professional and manage issues calmly and with initiative. Working in a highly pressurised environment and with various personalities is essential for a good functioning team.
Reliability and flexibility
Managing a beautiful boutique restaurant serving gourmet dishes, a boutique bakery with a quirky cafe offering tasty treats, an eclectic bar with some distinctive brews or managing a gastro pub… whatever your unique selling point is, a successful business is busy. Therefore, you require staff that are reliable – turning up on time, consistently and adjust to seasonal shifts.
Having a supportive team behind you is important to succeed in such a competitive market. However, holidays, sickness and movement between jobs is inevitable and can leave you short staffed. This is where having a catering staff agency on board can be highly beneficial to you and your business for maintaining a good service and happy customers.