Top Trends in Restaurant Customer Service Training
The restaurant industry is constantly evolving to accommodate the latest trends in training with a heavy focus on reducing employee turnover rates. Traditional training trends are quickly being pushed aside for stronger, more valuable restaurant customer service training trends, several of which directly relate to the use of video in restaurant customer service training programs. Instead of providing your newly hired restaurant employees with customer service training that leaves them wanting a little something more, consider these top trends and the use of video to improve your restaurant customer service training programs.
As innovation continues to grow, trends in training across the restaurant industry are likely to continue to improve resulting in stronger overall customer satisfaction and retention. Restaurant customer service training is a rapidly growing industry. Training budgets have increased by as much as 24% in recent years and are expected to continue to grow. As employers invest more into training their staff to provide stronger customer service, the expectation is that customers will have a stronger overall impression of the restaurant, be more satisfied, and more committed to the restaurant.
Management Have Cross-Functional Roles & Video Frees Up Resources
Management, particularly training managers, have long been spread thin when it comes to providing restaurant customer service training, but a recent CHART report found that they’re reporting to more operations than ever before. While management may have cross-functional roles that are busier than ever before, restaurants that use video in their customer service training free up resources for managers allowing them to focus more on business operations, client satisfaction, and a broad range of other important areas of the business.
Investing in training videos to build a strong infrastructure for restaurant employees to provide excellent customer service can have profound benefits on the business. Not only will customers be happier and more likely to come back resulting in positive benefits for the restaurant’s bottom line, but employees will be more likely to stick around longer resulting in a lower overall employee turnover rate. In an industry with an average turnover of 150%, any opportunity to reduce turnover is incredibly important.
Video Training is Provided to Reduce Complaints on Customer Wait Times
One of the key factors in customer dissatisfaction at a restaurant is inaccurate wait times. Customers that are provided inaccurate wait times associated with the time they’ll wait to be seated, the amount of time they’ll wait to have their order taken, or the amount of time between their order and their meal being delivered to the table can create great dissatisfaction among otherwise happy customers.
Restaurant customer service training that focuses on providing unique strategies to ensuring restaurant wait times are not misinterpreted or presented in a misleading manner can have incredible benefits for the restaurant. Simulated video training can help employees to understand:
- What to do when a restaurant is struggling with longer than usual wait times.
- How to inform customers about the wait time without risking their disapproval. Remember, it’s always better to under-promise and over-deliver than it is to over-promise and under-deliver. Provide customers with a longer wait time than is expected, that way when the actual time is shorter, they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
- How to keep customers occupied while they wait to limit their frustration. Consider offering complimentary appetizers or snacks, provide games, or offer television or other entertainment to keep customers busy while they wait.
Video Training is Increasingly Accessible
Restaurant customer service training is expected to become increasingly easier to access, particular when restaurants use video in their training programs. Videos are short, easy to digest, and fun for employees to watch. With the average training video just 3-6 minutes long, restaurants can easily assign video training to employees to engage with from a mobile device. The expectation is that the trend will continue to shift toward the use of phones and tablets for training more than computers or laptops will be used simply for the improved access, and easy of accessibility that comes as a result.
The days of an office with shared computers or networks are losing popularity, particularly in restaurants where there’s never really been a ton of room for this kind of setup anyway. Employees almost always have their own cell phones that they can use to access the internet and any training that is provided to them. In fact, video training is more accessible than ever.
As more employees gain the restaurant customer service training that is necessary for their success without the requirement of any major equipment besides a smartphone, the expectation is that video training via a smartphone will continue to grow in popularity ultimately becoming the primary means of engaging in training videos. Managers will demand that their employees engage in steady restaurant customer service training, and employees will continue to demand a training process that’s easily accessed from anywhere, at anytime.
These top trends in restaurant customer service training are likely to continue to gain popularity into 2022. As a restaurant owner, looking for ways that you can incorporate videos into your restaurant customer service training program is a smart concept that certainly has its place in the industry and into the future. Want help producing restaurant customer service training videos? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call!
