Serviceable would like to offer some management tips to help you understand the importance of training in the service industry.

Training is one of the most overlooked aspects of every hospitality business. Perhaps it's because we're inherently expected to know what hospitality and good service is so we assume everyone can provide the two.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. Employees have to be taught the proper way to act and react when engaging with guests. They have to be given an arsenal of proper words to use. They need to know the services you offer backwards and forwards in order to give the best customer service. They have to be shown how to create the best guest experience possible.

None of this happens without proper training.

As you review your customer feedback take note of how many complaints or guest concerns come from situations which could have been handled at the employee level.

Did your staff member have the right information? Was it something the employee was empowered to fix? Does your employee know how to use all of the tools available to them to satisfy your guests?

The Importance of Training: Introduction

Let's take a look at training from an operator's standpoint. A lot of us may be hiring new staff members on a reactionary basis instead of planning ahead for times where we have scheduling holes.

So, when we're desperate, we'll find a potential candidate, call them, go through a 15-20 minute interview (if that), and then hire them on the spot in the hopes that they can start, "this weekend," or, "as soon as possible."

We do this for two reasons: laziness on our part, and to plug a hole where we think service will suffer.

How many times have you thrown your new employee into training on a busy night when their trainer had too much going on to provide proper service while monitoring the new employee?

The new employee is then frustrated and unlikely to come back, and if they do, they've seen or have already begun to develop bad habits and shortcuts to make their lives easier during a busy period.

If you've done any of this in the past, you can see that it's worth your while to spend the extra time, money, and effort on employee training.

Effects of Training

Being a business operator or owner, you probably make decisions based on how something will impact your business. Will it have consequences and if so, what will they be? And how will those decisions impact your business overall? (By overall, we mean: will this decision make money or cause you to lose money?

Over the course of the next few weeks, Serviceable is going to go in depth on some training tips to help you hire and train the right employees properly. To get you thinking about why it will be important to keep up with our management tips on the importance of training in the service industry here is a list of how proper training will affect your business:

  • You will have better customer service, so fewer complaints.
  • You will have employees who can competently handle problems or potential problems before you have to get involved.
  • You will have a better workflow/teamwork.
  • You will have better relationships between employees.
  • You will have happier employees who stay with the company longer.
  • You will show an increase in profitability.

Stay tuned for Part Two of Serviceable's series on the importance of training in the service industry where we'll go in depth on how to train your staff.

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