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ServSafe Alcohol training adds to great customer service
The National Restaurant Association’s State of the Restaurant Industry report states that one of the most important attributes customers list for choosing a tableservice restaurant is good customer service. And good service is one of the most important factors in customers’ decisions to return.
While the primary goal of ServSafe Alcohol is to empower and equip servers with the necessary skills and confidence to serve alcohol safely and exercise effective control within their environment, the training also brings out a higher level of attentiveness and professionalism on the part of staff, essential elements of providing good customer service.
Providing good service can be difficult in a fast-paced environment. Finding a program that will help train your staff on providing good service can be even more difficult. As more and more customers base their choice of restaurant on online reviews from opinion sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, the difference between good service and bad service gets amplified.
Reviews such as the following can ruin your bottom line:
“Drunk Patrons Ruin It All”
Our family visited the XXXXX in March for a 7pm reservation. The food was phenomenal and we had an attentive waitress who was pleasant and helpful. I really like the renovations they’ve completed to the establishment over the past year.
All this good was overshadowed by a problem that we and other patrons had with another table of guests that the restaurant staff failed to handle correctly. This table had 3 ladies and 2 men at it who consumed a large amount of alcohol prior to, during, and after their dinner and were obviously inebriated early on in the course of their stay at the restaurant. Henceforth we shall refer to them as the “drunk guests.”
Two from our table rose to have our picture taken in front of the sunset (about 100’ feet from the drunk guests) and a drunk man from the table started screaming across the restaurant for us to sit down because we were blocking his view disturbing several other guests in the process. Apparently the sunset was an exclusive performance put on for his enjoyment only. We proceeded with our picture as originally planned and the drunk man rose from his table and began threatening us, telling us to sit down. He then encouraged us to hit him, which we of course did not, and then declared that he was going to stare at us all evening. A bus boy did not think this was a good idea and came over at that time asking the drunk man to sit down. We moved on with our dinner and observed the gentleman engaging in
the same behavior, getting up, getting in people’s faces, and yelling across dozens for other guests to sit down and stop their photos because they were blocking his view.
His next victims were two elderly ladies who were distraught by the experience and came over to us later that evening to say “he was crazy” and to commiserate over their terrible experience. While these elderly ladies were berated by the drunk patron, the restaurant staff did nothing.
And again we observed the same behavior from the drunk patron with a young couple and again the restaurant staff did nothing. After sunset the staff continued to serve alcohol to this table and the even drunker guests continued to become louder and more obnoxious disturbing many patrons. The staff did nothing and in fact were responsible for a great deal of his escalation by continuing to serve alcohol to obviously severely intoxicated guests. I certainly don’t expect everyone at a restaurant to behave like they are in church but this behavior was outrageous and the staff’s failure to intervene was unacceptable. Think twice about the XXXXX . You never know who you’ll be sitting next to.
(From TripAdvisor.com)
“Drunken patron ruined my meal!”
I stopped for dinner because of a recommendation by a resident. The food was better than average (we ate in XXXXX’s because of the availability of ‘lighter’ dinner choices). The waitress was friendly if a little distracted. Not long after being seated for dinner a private dinner party emerged from the bar.
From that point the experience went downhill. One of the dinner party, appearing very drunk, started bellowing (there’s no way else to describe it). His behavior then became worse. I complained to the waitress, then to some employees in the bar.
Their ‘response’ was denial. It then became quite clear that the ‘patron’ was much more important to the staff than the other diners…he ‘owned’ the restaurant. Eventually another staff person appeared and offered to ‘move us to other seats’ as well as ‘a free piece of cheesecake’. I suggested the restaurant ‘comp’ my check. The staff person rolled his eyes, turned, and stomped away. Both offers were late, as I was almost finished with my meal, and to my thinking, insulting. I have eaten in restaurants all over the world, but this was my worst experience. Ever.
(From TripAdvisor.com)
However, a review such as this can only lead to more customers and, in turn, increased sales.
“Great service, great drinks, great food, great atmosphere!”
XXXXX is the place to go, whether you would like to have some drinks with your friends, have a nice dinner, or just want to chill out by the beach with a bottle of wine. Great chill music every night. The service is also very good and the prices are low.
Went there almost every night while staying at XXXX this summer.
(From TripAdvisor.com)
The goal of the ServSafe Alcohol training program is to empower servers to follow acceptable standards of practice for serving alcohol beverages. Those acceptable standards also apply to good customer service. That means understanding the difference between people enjoying
themselves and those who are getting into trouble with alcohol. It also means providing the highest level of attentiveness to your customers and making sure all customers get the service that keeps them coming back time after time.
For more information and resources about responsible alcohol serving practices, sign up for our ServSafe Alcohol training program or connect with our team.