Do They Actually Know The Drill?

Training team members for problem scenarios can eliminate bad experiences when the worst does happen

At some point in your job, the worst is going to happen. Period. There is no getting around the small things that build into a larger problem and, ultimately, impacts your customer service. While bars may be prone to fights, they can happen in your restaurant too. Enjoy putting problematic team members together? The drama will escalate into something worse. We’ve seen and experienced how these small instances accumulate into larger issues later, so let’s break them apart to understand methods of prevention and how this can help you in the short and long-term.

Employees – Yes, while they are the backbone of your business, they can be your greatest liability. We’ve seen managers schedule problem employees to work the same shift to sit back and enjoy the fireworks. While this can surely lead to some memorable moments you talk about for years, these moments can take place in front of or near your customers, giving them a not so memorable moment as well. When your employees create a scene, whether it be shouting or a more physical altercation, you are ultimately responsible for both, not de-escalating the situation and the aftermath. If you have disgruntled employees, work with them to immediately address the problem(s) and create an action plan for your team to follow. If the situation is escalating, take action and remove one or both from the premises. Your customer’s experience is your highest priority every day, so don’t let a silly squabble impact your business in the long run.

Emergencies – While you never want to end up with a fire on your hands or a medical emergency, you still need to prepare. Similar to flight attendants on planes, your team will need to be ready to take action in the event that people need to evacuate the area or a customer is having a medical issue. How do you move that many people quickly? How do you make a space in a crowded restaurant? These are things to practice with to not only discuss with your team but also practice and run drills to make sure everyone understands the steps, roles, and goals in these circumstances and what the priorities are. Once in DC a restaurant caught fire and everyone needed to leave quickly and, unfortunately, with workers leaving to go home and guests left on the sidewalk, some with their plates.

Theft – You will experience this many times in many different fashions. These range in difficulty to spot from bottles of alcohol disappearing to employees scamming cash from customers. In the industry risk is an unsavory friend, but one that we not only need to recognize but control. It’s important to have a risk plan in place and understand the different ways your business is at risk. Don’t serve alcohol? Great, that’s a significant drop in risk. Is your bar open 24 hours? Guess what, you’re at higher risk for theft. In a bar, theft can be defined from stealing bottles of unopened liquor, pouring free drinks for friends, heavy pours, etc. These all amount to risky behaviors that decrease revenues and impact financial decisions. Work with your team to explain the upsides of being compliant to minimize risk and capture more of that earned revenue.

Glimpse specializes in identifying at-risk behaviors and understands the long-term implications of unchecked theft. We’ve studied how small training errors lead to large revenue problems so we can help our clients understand that it’s not always the big things that matter most. We work with clients individually to explain their risk level of consult with them to help develop a plan to lower it. Unsure of what to do? Give us a call and let’s begin the conversation.